A Brief Chat With The Aeros Man Of The Year

Houston Aeros defenseman Brandon Rogers was named last Thursday as the Houston Aeros Man of the Year by the AHL. This makes Rogers one of the 29 finalists in competition for the AHL’s Man of the Year Award, known as the Yanick Durpee Memorial Award.

Rogers was nominated for the award by the Aeros PR staff. I asked them what it was that set Rogers apart from the rest of the guys on the team, and their response was that all of the guys on the team are great when it comes to going to the schools and hospitals and visiting with people, but Rogers was always that one guy who willingly did more than was expected.

Rogers himself was pleased to have received the honor, but a bit surprised. “It’s a nice honor,” he said after Friday’s game. “I didn’t even know that I was getting it, to be honest with you. One of the guys, coming to the rink today, congratulated me on it, and I said for what? I didn’t even know.”

Rogers doesn’t see the team’s humanitarian outreach as a duty. It’s something that he enjoys. Not only because of the people that he gets to meet, but because of the perspective on life that it provides.

“I get a lot of enjoyment out of it,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for us to meet some people, some kids, people of all ages, really, that are in some unfortunate situations. It really puts things in perspective. For us to take some time out of our day to put a smile on a face or to help out any way we can is the least that we can do in the position that we’re in.”

And he doesn’t really see himself as putting out extra effort to make himself available. “It’s really not too much to ask for anyone to do it,” he says.

Now I see myself as a bit of a neutral observer here as I’m not around these guys all of the time like the staff is, but to me, all of the Aeros seem to be a great bunch of guys who are always great with the fans and always appear to be willing to go out and make appearances. And to me, they all seem to want to do everything possible to be a part of the Houston community.

So though Rogers might not think he’s doing anything out of the ordinary to set himself apart from his teammates, with the efforts the rest of the team put into their off-ice activities, he must really be doing a little extra something.