Shaun was one of the many Whitley Players who started off their hockey careers at the now defunct Durham Wasps. It was while playing for one of the many junior teams at the Riverside Rink that he first got the nickname 'Skippy'. With his next door neighbour being former Wasps captain Paul Smith, his younger brother Damian spotted that a letter was missing from the back of his shirt, so instead of reading S.KIPPIN it actaully read S.KIPPI, the name stuck before he re-located to Whitley Bay. Shaun made his debut for the Warriors at 16 during the 2003-04 season. Sadly for Shaun this coincided with one of the worst seasons in the clubs history as they failed to make the play-offs. Over the next 3 season's Shaun seemed to want to improve the teams fortunes all by himself, playing with a determination that he also demanded of his team mates, which heaped added pressure onto the shoulders of someone so young. If his team faced difficulties on the ice, he certainly proved to be popular off it, especial amongst the female fans who loved his cheeky persona. He was also a bit of a joker in the dressing room with his teammates so it was a shock that he left over the summer of 2006.
Wanting a fresh challenge he moved to the Solway Sharks, based in Dumfries. Considering his job was still based on Tyneside his 4 hour round trip each weekend just for a home game or travelling the length of Scotland before returning home showed great levels of commitment and determination for his love of the game. As Solway and Whitley continued to face each other in the Northern League it meant Skippy would always receive a warm reception on his return to the Hillheads Ice. Shaun wore the maroon & gold of Whitley once again in 2008, proving he had grown even more as a player and proved to be an excellent addition to a side that had won the Championship playoffs just a few weeks earlier. He formed a very successful line with his best friend Mark Good and pacy winger Nathan Taylor. Even though Taylor might have grabbed the headlines with his goalscoring prowess, people should never forget just what a part Shaun played in supplying the bullets from center for Nathan to fire home.
For the next 4 years Shaun had many roles for the team starting as a great line mate for Nathan Taylor before becoming an enforcer, protecting some of the younger players and then into a goalscorer. Many things stand out for me watching Shaun over the years, but probably the fact that he would run through a brick wall for the good of the team is the most special part of his game. During the 2009 play-offs in Nottingham a bench clearance occurred (due to the poor officialling of the game) Shaun despite playing with a very badly injured shoulder was one of the first players onto the scene to help out his team mates and ended up doing further damage to his shoulder while roughing up his opponent.
This is not to say he was ever a goon, he was anything but. A really nice lad off the ice, but a bit of a bad-ass on it. I would say he was a lot like Darren McCarty in that he could fight and protect his team mates but also score some really important goals. His skating style is much like Scott Hartnell of the Philadelphia Flyers. In his final season as a Warrior in 2011-12, he celebrated the fact he was made alternate captain by having a career-year and being the leading goal scorer for the team. He might even have added to his tally had it not been for an injury.
It says a lot about the man that Shaun is, that after signing for his new team, the Deesside Dragons (due to work commitments), he has taken a lot of the training sessions at Whitley as an acting coach while, the real coach has been unavailable. Deesside (formerly the Flinthsire Freeze) are getting a really gifted hockey player, who is in the form of his life and I for one fully expect him to lead them to promotion at the end of this season.
PS: On a personal note, over the last few years I have got to know Shaun quite well. Firstly as a friend through the Ice Hockey, then as a work colleague and finally as my line manager. He shares such excitement and knowledge about the game as I do, that even though we follow rival NHL sides can still have some good-natured banter about it. He will be missed on the Whitley team, both from a friend's and supporter's perspective.
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