Off the ice: Ethan Callahan

Ethan “Cally” Callahan decided to come to Clemson from Horseheads, New York, with just one thought in mind: he did not want to play hockey anymore. However, in a true testament to his love of the game, he found he just couldn’t stay away.

“I just remembered that when I played hockey [in high school], I just didn’t want to be around it anymore,” Callahan said in an interview with The Tiger. “So, I decided that I wanted to look at schools down South. The people I’d met, from touring and talking to alumni, all seemed to love it. I liked the area, liked the golf course, so I decided to come down here.”

After playing for a travel team throughout high school and taking a year off post-grad to play junior, the New York native felt burnt out and decided to step away from the game.

“I quit junior, and then I didn’t want hockey to be the focus of where I went,” Callahan explained.

However, after his freshman year at Clemson, the forward began questioning his decision to step away from hockey. Callahan tried out for Clemson’s club hockey team in a last-ditch effort to return to the sport he loved his whole life.

“I thought it was gonna be fun [to join the club team],” he said. “I just wanted to have fun with hockey because I missed it… I ended up getting cut my first semester.”

For someone who was already on the fence about playing hockey in college, getting cut from the team after his first tryout was heartbreaking. However, Callahan received a life-changing call from Thomas Samuelsen, an alternate captain at the time, the following semester.

“After I got cut, I really didn’t think I was gonna play hockey again,” he said. “But Sammers texted me the semester after and asked me to come out.

“I was upset about [being cut],” Callahan added. “But when I joined, everyone was cool. It all worked out. The people who made it over me deserved to be there, and I definitely felt like I needed that break from hockey. So, when I came back, it was just more fun.”

Not only did joining the team reignite his passion for hockey, but it also improved his daily life at Clemson.

“My first semester was really boring,” he said. “So, when I joined, it was just a lot more fun. I had stuff to do, and I had friends I could hang out with. We always had hockey, so I was always seeing the guys two or three times a week for practice and games. And with the tailgates and football and everything, it just made Saturdays a lot more fun.”

As he moves on from Clemson, the senior hopes his friends remember him as someone who “helped out the team, and who is always around having a good time.”

Following his graduation from Clemson, Callahan plans to enroll at the University of Louisiana to get his master’s degree, hoping to one day become a psychometrist.

“I wanted to be a psychologist, which requires a doctorate, so I’m just getting my master’s right now. We’ll see what happens after that,” Callahan told The Tiger. “One step at a time.”