Working With Special-Needs Kids Refocused Former Viper Bigos:

Here is an article/story on former Vernon Vipers defenceman Kyle Bigos.

Bigos is in his first season with the East Coast Hockey League Quad City Mallards, spent last season with the East Coast Hockey League Idaho Steelheads. Bigos played in just two games with the Steelheads went pointless. In 34 games this season with the Mallards Bigos has (1-goal-6-assists-7-points).

After four years at Merrimack College Bigos has spent the past four seasons in three different leagues with four teams. Bigos played from 2013-2017 with the American Hockey League San Francisco Bulls, Worcester Sharks, the East Coast Hockey League Ontario Reign, Idaho Steelheads & the Elite Ice Hockey League Edinburgh Capitals. The Capitals are a Scottish ice hockey club, playing in the UK-wide Elite Ice Hockey League based in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh Scotland.

Bigos played two seasons in Vernon (2007-2009) collecting (10-goals-40-assists-50-points) in 166 regular season games with the Vipers. Bigos an assistant captain in his second and final season with the Vipers was drafted 99th overall by the NHL Edmonton Oilers in the 4th round of the 2009 NHL Draft. Bigos attended the Oilers Developement Camp two out of three years before being traded to the San Jose Sharks for Lee Moffie on July 7th 2013.  Bigos never played a game in the NHL with the Oilers or Sharks.

Kyle Bigos's Player Profile:

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=38020

This was in the Quad City Times Newspaper:

Working with special-needs kids refocused Mallards' Bigos

Bobby Metcalf bmetcalf@qctimes.com

Dec 21, 2017

Kyle Bigos is one of those players other teams don't like playing against.

The Quad-City Mallards defenseman is big, filling out every bit of his 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame. He's physical, with 20 fights in his professional career, and despite his minus-4 rating, Bigos is sound in his own end. He plays with a nastiness that is readily apparent and deeply ingrained.

"It’s just the willingness to compete, you want to do anything you can to win," Bigos said. "You see other guys on other teams playing the same role I do, and that makes me mad. I want to do it better for my team. I want to give my team the best chance to win. I’m a big guy. It would be kind of a waste to not use that side of my game, and I think that’s how I help my team, playing pretty hard defense."

Off the ice, the 28-year-old Bigos is completely different, a smile seemingly always on his face and sporting an easy-going, readily approachable demeanor. But once he steps on the ice, watch out.

"It’s really the professional side of it," Bigos said. "I want to get paid; I want to eat; I want a job. It’s just so much fun to shut them down and say ‘I was better than you tonight. You didn’t score on me.’ That’s where it really comes from, that fire, that desire to win. I just want to be better."

Bigos scored his first goal of the season Wednesday night and has two assists for three points in 13 games after missing a stretch with a lower body injury. He's in his fifth year as a pro after graduating from Merrimack College in Massachusetts. He was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and has played eight games in the AHL over his career.

But that career was in jeopardy last season when he was suspended by the Idaho Steelheads after playing in just two games.

"The playing opportunity that was presented to me wasn’t what I was looking for so that ended my season early, being suspended by the team rather than traded," Bigos said. "I don’t know what the thought process was behind it, but it kind of forced my hand."

Unable to play for another ECHL team, Bigos weighed his options. He decided it was too late to try and land a European contract after playing for the Edinburgh Capitals the year before. He contemplated retirement but decided to wait and see what options came about.

While he was debating whether or not to end his hockey career, Bigos turned his sights to his other passion. The Upland, California, native returned home and began helping children and adults with autism, working with Autism Behavior Services Inc. in Santa Ana.

That path began when Bigos was in college. Originally a business major, Bigos eventually realized his future lay elsewhere.

"Through college, one of my professors opened my eyes that I was very good with kids and connecting with children and it’d be a waste not to use that," he said. "So I changed my major to human development, started doing more community outreach work and felt the special-needs kids is where my heart is. I was really good at connecting with them."

Bigos became a registered behavioral therapist and provides one-on-one support to those who need it. His role changes from case to case, sometimes helping with academic needs, in other cases helping with motor and cognitive skills.

"I made so many friends that way and had so many great connections. It really opened up my eyes to that side of life that I don’t think I would have got if I didn’t go to college," he said. "Growing up, it was unknown to me. I didn’t have any special-needs friends or family around. Now that I do, I just feel like I was missing out. I have a very good connection with them, and I love to be around them."

All that work over the spring and summer helped him realize how lucky he was to have the option of playing hockey for another year, and he decided to return, signing with the Mallards in the offseason.

He's been a welcome addition to the team, one of its more reliable defensemen at a position where the Mallards have certainly had issues, allowing 3.64 goals per game.

"Not playing last year is hard enough for anyone," head coach Phil Axtell said. "You go from mentoring and helping special-needs kids to having to push your body to the limits for 60 minutes and not doing that last year, it’s going to be hard, but his role … he’s been a great guy off the ice and tough to play against on the ice."

Bigos' offseason work has also kept him motivated this year, throughout an injury that caused him to miss 12 games and a slow start to the season that has the Mallards in last place in the Central Division heading into tonight's matchup with the Cincinnati Cyclones.

He's still optimistic there's time to turn this thing around.

"Once you’re missing something in your life, you have second thoughts about what you could have done better. So I’m definitely trying to give it all I have this year to make it the best year possible," he said. "There’s a lot of hard work, commitment and I would say love in that locker room. We’re going through some losses right now, but that doesn’t change the atmosphere or the attitude of the team.

"I think we’ve got something special. We’re just waiting to break out."