How hectic are the last few days leading up to the end of the semester? Well... I started writing this post on Monday.... and the plan was to publish it on Wednesday. Unfortunately I didn't finish writing it until Thursday evening and wrapped up the editing, revising, and formatting today. Better late than never.
Midweek posts on this blog have become rarer than affordable crack-free Kellogg's cards from the 70's. But today I wanted to share a congratulatory post to my former student who designed this card for me two years ago:
Sarah was part of a very special class. I taught 5th and 6th grade for ten years before making the transition to middle school. She happened to be in that last elementary school class... and as she graduated and headed off to middle school... I followed her and her classmates.
There were ten to fifteen kids who ended up having me three years in a row. She was one of them. You'd think she would have gotten sick of me, but she actually ended up TA'ing for me in summer school when she was in high school. And even when she went off to college, we kept in touch.
Over the weekend, her mom announced on Facebook that the San Jose Sharks would wear special Lunar New Year jerseys designed by Sarah on January 18th during warm ups. That night her artwork was featured around SAP including the new video scoreboard:
Based on what I've heard, the color red symbolizes "good fortune" and "joy" which is what the Sharks and their fans experienced Wednesday evening in Sarah's presence. It was the first game I followed live all season and it was fantastic.
The Sharks faced off against the Dallas Stars and fell behind 3-0 before scoring five unanswered goals to win the game.
2022-23 Upper Deck Canvas #C66
Erik Karlsson broke the tie halfway through the 3rd Period and Logan Couture added insurance with empty net goal.
2022-23 Upper Deck Dazzlers #DZ-27
Both of these cards were donated to my San Jose Sharks PC by Reader X who sent me another care package last week.
I haven't bought a box of hockey cards in years, so Xavier is my primary source of Sharks cards. Here's a thick card with a scratch-off on the back of Couture:
2021-22 Upper Deck Artifacts Bounty #A-17
I looked it up and discovered this is part of an interactive challenge where collectors complete challenges by redeeming certain bounties. Since this is the only "Bounty" card I own, I won't be participating... which means it'll go into the collection unscratched.
2022-23 Upper Deck Canvas #C65
2022-23 Upper Deck Centre of Attention
Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl didn't score any goals on Wednesday, but he did assist on the game-tying power play goal in the 2nd period.
Here are a few other cool Sharks cards that Xavier hooked me up with:
2021-22 Upper Deck Artifacts Threads of Time #TT-JT
Look at Jumbo's beard! The San Jose Sharks will be hosting a legends game the night before they retire Patrick Marleau's jersey number. Marleau will be playing in the game. Hopefully Joe will too.
Here's another great hockey beard:
2022-23 Upper Deck Defense Mechanism #DM-22
The past few seasons, Burns was my favorite Shark. It was a bummer to hear that he was shipped off to Carolina during the off-season. At least he's with a Stanley Cup contender now.
I wanted to show off two cards of Jonathan Dahlen...
2022-23 Upper Deck Debut Dates #DD-10
2022-23 Upper Deck Rookie Retrospective #RR-2
This guy is no longer with the Sharks, but he's half of the answer to an interesting Sharks trivia question. His father played for the Sharks too back in the mid 90's and they make up the first father-son duo in franchise history.
That wraps up the Sharks portion of this post. Figured since I started things off with Sarah's custom of Gwynn's Topps rookie card, I end it with two new additions to my Tony Gwynn PC:
2022 Topps Archives #22
2022 Topps Archives #376
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
15 comments:
That is awesome, Sarah is a talented your lady.
Congratulations to Sarah, that's fantastic!
For anyone who's interested, there are some decent shots of the warm-up jerseys over on Getty Images (you have to scroll a bit, and there are more on the second page):
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/san-jose-sharks-january-18-2023?assettype=image&family=editorial&phrase=san%20jose%20sharks%20january%2018%202023&sort=best&page=2
Wow very cool for Sarah, what an honor.
When I saw that first Tony Gwynn card, my first thought was that it was one of the better Topps Project 2020 cards that I'd seen. Those Sharks jerseys look great too. Would be great if Topps hired more artists like her, with real talent.
That's got to be so satisfying when a former student of yours goes on to find success. The Gwynn card that Sarah designed is really cool as is her artwork on the Sharks warmups and scoreboard. That arena photo is especially awesome. Great post and thanks for sharing!
Very nice!
That’s very cool!
The Sharks have always had one of the coolest logos.
That is so cool! Sarah is talented for sure. Great post and congrats on the additions.
Your Legacy lives on through your students Proffersor Fuji. God bless your efforts to educate future generations. I have a team bag of cards set aside for what will be another care package 📦 with an ETA of St. Paddy's Day 🍀
Hopefully this'll just be the start of good things to come for her :)
Very cool!!
-Matt
That's an awesome story! I always love hearing what my former students are up to and the cool stuff they do, I'm sure you feel the same way (I can hear the pride in your post)! Congrats to Sarah for the great work! Thanks for sharing a true feel good story, just what we need right now I think!
johnnys trading spot - she sure is. i still use one of her projects as an example each year
shlabotnik report - thanks for sharing that link. one of my co-workers went to the game and shared a photo, but i couldn't figure out the player ;D
the angels in order - i'm sure this will help her get a few tattoo jobs
bo - topps should totally hire her for their art cards. maybe someone over there will see this post and reach out to her :D
bbcardz - it's pretty cool. i love it when i hear from students and they tell me that they're doing something they've dreamed of.
jeff b - i agree
the lost collector - yeah, i love the sharks logo too.
sumomenkoman - thanks buddy.
xavier higgins - thanks in advance. no rush. still have a box of cards you sent that i haven't written about.
jon - yeah... i feel like she has a very bright future in the tattoo business.
matt - it is!
nachos grande - one of the perks of our job is getting to see them grow up and find success in life... whether that's starting a family, working their dream job, or designing a specialized logo for a hockey team.
That is an awesome success story for your former student! Congrats to her!
Very cool, Sarah's obviously extremely talented! I can't imagine how rewarding it feels seeing a former student you taught succeed like that.
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