Luc Prevost has loved hockey all of his life.
“I’m Canadian, so I obviously grew up loving hockey,” he said. “I grew up a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I watched hockey every day like it was Sunday football.”
Prevost, a junior sports management major, said without the opportunity to play in high school he just played hockey wherever he could.
“I just ended up playing hockey, like pond hockey on frozen ponds and street hockey,” Prevost said. “I followed (hockey). I just love it. It’s my sport I want to take my career to.”
The first step he is taking toward making his career aspiration a reality is an internship with the Evansville Thunderbolts.
The Thunderbolts are a newly instituted junior hockey league brought to Evansville this year by Total Package Hockey.
The Thunderbolts belong to the North American Tier III Hockey League (NA3HL). This is one of the 11 junior leagues that is USA Hockey-sanctioned.
In this type of league players develop their skills further in hopes of being able to play in the North American Hockey League and eventually have the chance to be NCAA athletes.
Prevost is the gameday operations intern, meaning he manages all game entertainment. He is in charge of entertainment during pre-game, halftime and all timeouts.
“I take care of everything off the ice,” he said. “I have to make a checklist for every game just to make sure we have the personnel there for the game and I set up the press conferences.”
Prevost took it into his own hands to discover and apply for this internship.
He said he had a connection to the NA3HL because a friend he played hockey with during high school received an offer to play in the league.
Prevost began to follow them on twitter and kept up with information about the league.
“I saw them release an article about (the Thunderbolts) coming to Evansville pretty much the first day,” he said. “I found out who the head coach was and all of that. I emailed him and got in contact with him pretty much the first day he was in Evansville.”
Prevost said the head coach, Scott Fankhouser, set him up with all of the right guys to talk to and it continued from there.
The Thunderbolts connect to the college atmosphere because they have players ages 16 to 20, Prevost said.
“It definitely opens up a new sports market (in Evansville),” he said.
Prevost has been working with the men’s soccer team for two years, but said adding the Thunderbolts to his résumé will help him open more doors in hockey.
With the Thunderbolts he is gaining connections that can lead him into the professional field of hockey.
“I feel like this internship is opening up a door for me that could take me to that next level,” Prevost said. “My dream job would be to work in hockey as a game-day director or with the general manager.”
