Staff

Business Operations

Scott Brand

Team President

Scott Brand’s duties will include creating corporate partnerships, ticket sales, promotions, and business operations. Brand, a Michigan native, recently served as the President of Ignite Sports and Entertainment where he oversaw the expansion of the following professional sports organizations: Columbus River Dragons (hockey), Columbus Chatt-a-Hoots & Chattahoochee Monsters (baseball). Scott also oversaw the renovation of historic Golden Park in Columbus, GA.

Prior to his time in Columbus, GA, he led a group that created the highly successful expansion pro hockey team in Winston-Salem, NC with the Carolina Thunderbirds. Under his direction, all those teams enjoyed record corporate partnership revenues, record crowds and growth in traditional broadcast outlets, as well as winning and championship seasons. Brand spent several years in the United States Hockey league as the league’s director of hockey operations, referee-in-chief, a general manager for teams in Waterloo, Dubuque and Youngstown, as well as an on-ice official.

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Clay Jankowski

Corporate Partnership Specialist

Emailclay.jankowski@mcrockershockey.com

Clay is responsible for corporate partnerships along with group ticket sales.

Hockey Operations

Nick Field

General Manager

Emailnick.field@mcrockershockey.com

As General Manager Field will oversee all hockey operations and will work closely in partnership with the Team President. Field will be an integral part of identifying player talent along with scheduling and day-to-day hockey operations.

Prior to joining the Rockers, Field has extensive experience as both a player and coach. Field playing career started at the Junior A level playing for the Cleveland Barons of the NAHL and the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. Field then attended Ferris State University, joining their NCAA Division I hockey program. After college, he also played professional games in the ECHL for the Texas Wildcatters and the Huntsville Havoc of the SPHL.

Post-playing career, Field began a coaching, a career that lasted over a decade. He ran and oversaw both the varsity and junior varsity programs at Lake Orion High School then took over the head coaching role for Oakland University’s ACHA Division I program for two seasons.

Nick is a graduate of Ferris State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

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Gordie Brown

Head Coach

Emailgordie.brown@mcrockershockey.com

A native of Brighton, Michigan, Gordie Brown has spent the last fifteen years coaching, scouting, and assisting hundreds of players in their development for Junior, College, and Professional Hockey Programs. Gordie has been blessed to work with many talented players including Colin Belik (Manitoba Moose - AHL), Kevin Fitzgerald (South Carolina Stingrays - ECHL), Kurt Gosselin (Toledo Walleye - ECHL), Peter Thome (Idaho Steelheads -ECHL), Jack Berry (Peoria Rivermen - SPHL), Brett Miller (Rensselaer Polytech Institute - NCAA), and many other prominent figures in the hockey community.

During his fifteen years of coaching, Gordie has amassed a record of 423-265-41-6. His coaching resume includes Head Coach of Compuware AAA Midget Major, Northville Men’s Varsity Hockey, Michigan Hockey Advancement, and Michigan Elite. Gordie has also been an Assistant Coach with the Aberdeen Wings (NAHL), Lansing Wolves (NA3HL), HoneyBaked AAA Midget Major, Team Michigan, West Michigan Warriors, and Team Metro West. Gordie has directed hockey clinics including the Mid-West Junior Training Program, Huron Hockey School, Michigan High School Excellence Camp, and Total Package Hockey Summer Camp as well.

Gordie is a USA Hockey Level 5 Certified Coach and has been a presenter at USA Hockey Level 1, 2, & 3 coaching clinics. In addition to coaching, Gordie has spent time scouting for USHL and NAHL programs and has worked with the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association Selects Program to assist in the selection of the State’s best 15u and 16u hockey players to represent Michigan.

Always looking to improve as a person and being passionate about the game, Gordie has attended numerous hockey clinics including the NHL Coaches Association Global Coaches Clinic, The Coaches Site Live Conference, Minnesota Hockey Coaches Clinic, Barry Smith (NHL – Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Buffalo) Coaches Clinic, and the USA Hockey Symposium where he has attained his Master Level Coach certification with USA Hockey. Gordie also has experience with elite-athlete training and nutrition, attending events in Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan. With his strong communication skills, Gordie has been privileged to work with players from North America, as well as from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, England & France.

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Bill Ruggiero

Goaltending Coach

Emailbill.ruggiero@mcrockershockey.com

Born in Ventura California, Bill Ruggiero moved to Michigan to play for the Fraser Falcons Midget AAA hockey team. Well versed in the world of hockey, Ruggiero has competed in the Canadian Tier2 Junior League, and played 4 years of Major Juniors for the London Knights, Plymouth Whalers, & Moncton Wildcats. He was invited as a Free Agent to the Nashville Predators camp in 2001 and played in the ECHL-Johnstown Chiefs, UHL-Motor City Mechanics, CHL-Tulsa Oilers, IHL-Flint Generals, AHL-Cleveland Barons, Windsor Saints-MLH and Suomi Sarja-Kiekko Laser Finland. Ruggiero was also on Emergency Backup Goalie Status for the Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings.

Bill was awarded the David Pinkney trophy in 1999-2000 (Lowest OHL Team GAA) and received the All-Star team selection, Team MVP, Tim Hortons Three Stars Award, Defensive Player of the year, and Best Import Goalie playing for the Moncton Wildcats QMJHL. Ruggiero was also Defensive Player of the year in 2005 and 2007 for the Tulsa Oilers CHL, Ironman award Tulsa Oilers in 2007, Second Team All-Star Windsor Saints MLH in 2008 and Team MVP Kiekko Laser Finland in 2009.

Ruggiero is a current owner of CatEye Goaltending, a Metro-Detroit Goalie school that offers camps, clinics and lessons. Current organizations involved include SCS Saints, Metro Jets, OJGAAA, Big Boy, ESH Bulldogs, L'Ance Creuse Unified High School Varsity, Grosse Pointe North Girls High School Varsity.

Ruggiero has been coaching goalies for over 25 years in Michigan, Oklahoma, Canada and Finland.  He currently lives in in Clinton Twp with Fiancé, Kelli, and their daughter, Gigi.

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Media and Broadcasting

Ben Szilagy

Play by Play Broadcaster

Ben Szilagy joined Motor City in 2022 as the Play-by-Play voice of the Rockers in its inaugural season, and will return in 2023.

Szilagy has been in journalism and broadcasting for over 15 years in the Detroit Area. He was a Sports Writer for The Oakland Press, The Ann Arbor Journal, The Macomb Daily, State Champs Sports Network and other renowned publications.

He has called over 300 hockey games at various levels in his 10 year broadcasting career, and has called other sports as well. He started his broadcasting career at 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit as a Reporter and Producer before calling MHSAA contests, NAPHL Showcases for HockeyTV and USPHL Premier games for the Detroit Fighting Irish and the Motor City Gamblers.

Szilagy is a graduate of the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a degree in Communications while obtaining University Honors.

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Brady Beedon

Color Commentator

Brady joined the Motor City broadcast team in 2022 for the inaugural season.

Brady has previous FPHL experience calling games for the Port Huron Prowlers, he also broadcasts NAPHL Showcase games and High School play by play for GetStuckOnSports.com

Brady broadcasts Wayne State Athletics including football, women's basketball, volleyball, and softball. He has also broadcasted for St. Clair Community College, Oakland University and NJCAA Women's Basketball Championship Tournament. He is also covering the USPBL out of Jimmy John's Field in Utica, MI over the summers.

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Medical

Joe Cimino, ATC, LAT

Athletic Trainer

Joe Cimino, ATC, LAT serves as the Motor City Rockers Athletic Trainer.

Joe has served most recently as Clinic Director in an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic in Shelby Township, Michigan. In this setting, Joe and his staff worked closely with ten orthopedic surgeons and worked with a large variety of outside referrals in various specialty areas. Joe’s area of expertise had him working mostly with the athletic and physically active population of patients. This included a large number of overhead athletes and workers with more extreme physical demands.

As an Athletic Trainer, and throughout his career, Joe has worked on a variety of programs addressing coordination of athletic training services, injury prevention as well has return to sport/work training and assessment. Joe has worked on sharing this information with fellow athletic trainers, students, physical therapists, family practice physicians and orthopedic surgeons.

Joe graduated from with University of Missouri – Kansas City with a degree in Health and Physical Education and where he met his requirements to become a Certified Athletic Trainer.

Joe continues to work hard on learning, developing and implementing injury prevention and rehabilitation programs with special emphasis on the athletes, active individuals and workers in a physically demanding setting.

Joe is always utilizing continuing educational opportunities, collaboration with fellow healthcare providers and taking advantage of the newest and most effective techniques to improve performance for athletes and quality of life for active people.

Joe enjoys staying physically active through a variety of avenues including exercise, hunting, fishing, biking, kayaking, camping and most outdoor activities.

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