The Insider Interview – Scott Sheppard

The Texas Brahmas' leading scorer talks about his season and the road to the playoffs

Scott Sheppard is focused and his sights are set on helping the Texas Brahmas win a championship.

There was some doubt at the beginning of the season as to whether or not he would wear a Brahmas sweater this year. But Dan Wildfong knew he needed his sniper on board and as Fonger has said, "If we need it, I'll get it." Indeed the Brahmas have had the best in-season recruiting of any team in the league and at this point, it's hard to imagine the Texas Brahmas without Scott Sheppard.

Sheppard is leading the Brahmas in scoring this season with 52 points (26 G, 26 A). He has a +16 rating and six game-winning goals including Saturday night's overtime win against the Tulsa Oilers. He is only two points away from matching his tally of 54 points (28 G, 26 A) in 48 regular season games played last season.

With the Colorado Eagles coming to town on Friday, I am reminded of Sheppard's performance in game five of the Northern Conference finals at NYTEX last April, getting the hat trick against Sebastien LaPlante, including the overtime goal that kept the series alive for two more games.

I spoke with Scott on Saturday night after the Oilers game. Here is our conversation.

Q: How do feel about how your season has come together?

A: Personally, it’s going well. Every night you try and contribute as much as you can. That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to come out and lead by example, which I’ve been trying to do. Our line’s been playing well. Obviously, getting Deitsch back and bringing Banga in on the trade has helped out a lot. We’re still just trying to find each other out yet, it’s still early. We’ve been playing together, you know, Banga’s been here nine games, Deitsch’s been here 15 maybe. They help me out too, a lot. Other than that, I’ve been working hard and getting some bounces.

Q: Last time we spoke, you were on a tractor at the family farm before coming down to join the team. Are there times during the season that you wake up at 5:30 a.m. or so and want to jump on the tractor or in the truck and just take a long ride?

A: Yeah, I did a lot of truck driving back home, hauling all of our commodities which are soybeans and wheat, so that was usually the time that I would leave, about 4:30 or 5:00. I’d get in and drive for an hour-and-a-half and do that three times a day; three-hour round trips. You can ask the guys, every time we’re on the bus, every time a big tractor goes by, I tell them basically what it is and what I try and guess it has under the hood (laughing). They tell me to shut-up, but that part of it, I miss. I call home as much as I can, you know, stay in touch with what’s going on.

Definitely, I miss it. Being born and raised on the farm and always being around it, basically until I was 16 – you know, I haven’t been around, I guess what, the last eight years now? Nine years? I’m only around in the summertime, which is the busy time and it’s so fun, I enjoy it. At the same time, I love playing hockey. You know, scoring goals in overtime and winning games.

Q: I was talking to Dan a couple of weeks ago about you and a couple of the others and he paid you a very nice compliment which was, in a nutshell, that you don’t even belong in this league. I know that there’s so much competition and so few spots in the other leagues. I want to ask you about the CHL. You’ve been in the league for a while, do you like being here?

A: Yeah, I do. It’s like any guy at any level, you just get, I shouldn’t say comfortable, but you get to know a lot of, like the refs and everything, and I really just like the area and the coach. I played with him and stuff. You know, that’s what keeps bringing me back, is you know what to expect from him. He’s not going to have a losing team. Last year, we had 40 wins and right now we’re at 30. He brings a good core of guys back every year and we bring in a few different guys in year in and year out. You know, guys either adapt or they don’t stay here very long. You know what to expect from coach and that’s just to win hockey games and right now, we’re doing that.

Tulsa had it tough defending against Sheppard who had two goals on the night

Q: I wanted to ask you about a couple of the teams that you guys have faced recently. Amarillo – you ended up winning three of four games there but, it seems that it’s been rough playing that team. Do you find that, season in and season out, that you’ll have particular teams that might not even be, man for man as good as your team, yet you still find them a challenge?

A: Yeah, and we found out with these guys (Tulsa Oilers) too, we seemed to be kind of struggling with them. You know, they always say it’s easier to get up for the bigger games but right now, every game is a big game because we’re trying to get ahead of Odessa and we’ve got Laredo; they’re not really quitting either. They’re right on our tail so we’ll keep chipping away like we are and just keep winning.

Q: The Arizona series was pretty wild. The defending champions are fighting just to get into the playoffs. How did you enjoy playing them for the first time?

A: It was definitely nice to get down there. I always like to see what the different arenas are like. I’m kind of disappointed that we couldn’t go to Rapid City this year. It was tough going down there for three games against a team that’s pretty decent. We really try to base our game with good road hockey.

Q: You’ve got Colorado coming in on Friday for the first time since the seven game series in the playoffs last year. How do you feel about facing them again?

A: Oh, they’re the best team in the league right now. No better test I guess, for us. You know, we played Mississippi and so far they’ve been the best team that we’ve seen. It’ll be a good test to see what they bring.

Q: The playoffs are coming up and you guys will be there and looking for another run towards a championship. Are you really excited about getting the opportunity again?

A: Yeah, that’s why I play. Like I said, coming back with Fonger, you’re on a team that’s going to make the playoffs every year. You talk to guys on other teams that are already out of it and they’re just playing out the rest of the season. We’re just trying to get better, to get that push. It’s a good feeling. That’s why we play. It’s not too far off either.

Photo Credits: Robert Keith