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A targeted pitch at the 2022 Canadian Hockey League championship brought University of New Brunswick management grad Colton Kammerer onside to start his education at Canada’s oldest English language university.

Legendary UNB REDS coach Gardiner MacDougall, who’d been brought in at the last minute by the Sea Dogs to secure the 2022 Memorial Cup victory, recognized the then-Hamilton Bulldogs captain’s talent and wanted to bring it to Fredericton.

Kammerer recalled that as he shook hands with the Sea Dogs following their 6-3 victory at TD Station, MacDougall “whispered in my ear, ‘If you want to be on the other side of this—come to UNB next year.’”

With an impromptu trip to Kammerer’s hometown of Whitby, Ont. to seal the deal, MacDougall not only solidified his future REDS roster, but also started Kammerer on a journey to the Picture Province that has opened his eyes to the many opportunities that UNB and Fredericton itself, have to offer.

After being accepted into the bachelor of business administration program, MacDougall made sure Kammerer received a warm welcome at UNB. During his campus tour, Kammerer learned a lot about the REDS and their history from MacDougall.

“We used to joke that it took him about two hours to get around the rink,” Kammerer said of his introductory tour of the Aitken University Centre. Lining the walls of the arena concourse are photos of REDS, past and present, and MacDougall had a story to go with every one.

Being a part of that fabled history was a driving force for Kammerer in his first year, but an ACL tear sidelined him for the season. Instead of being a setback, the injury provided inspiration for Kammerer’s business acumen.

The UNB REDS hockey team helps run the Pumpernickel Hockey Camps throughout the summer and skills sessions in the winter, for aspiring youth hockey players. With his injury scratching him off the roster, he had more time to focus on coaching the Pumpernickel groups and saw an opportunity to bring elite hockey training to the region.

That’s how Upfront Sports was created. Kammerer is one of the four founders, and all are UNB hockey alumni: Jason Willms, Kade Landry, and Cole McKay. Upfront is a mentorship group, helping youth hockey players develop their game one-on-one.

The company ties together Kammerer’s two reasons for coming to UNB: a hockey-based business that was in fact kick-started by a first-year entrepreneurship class that they were all in.

Kammerer said the connections he and the other Upfront founders made in the New Brunswick hockey scene via the REDS helped him gain clients in those crucial first years.

“All the coaches have been really good about giving me advice, whether it’s development for kids or development on the business side. They’ve all been through it, and they gave me a lot of advice beyond just being a hockey player.”

Off the ice, Kammerer's entrepreneurial spirit flourishes as well.

This year, Kammerer participated in the Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment (MLSE) Global Partnership Competition, featuring teams of university students from across Canada and the United States. The competition challenged teams to build a pitch pairing everyday items or services with one of MLSE’s brands, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Toronto Raptors.

After falling short in the initial pitch, Kammerer got a second chance on the Redemption Team where he was united with students from Western and Brock universities, and went on to ultimately win.

And as part of his final year in his business degree, Kammerer decided to really step outside his comfort zone by trying his hand at a course designed by a professor from the engineering department.

“To be quite honest the systems thinking course was a bit out of left field for me,” he confessed. The systems thinking course is a part of UNB’s Technology. Management & Entrepreneurship program and was a more technical and process focused course than many in his BBA degree.

“This course was something totally new to me.”

The interdisciplinary course explores the process of identifying and understanding problems, rather than arriving at solutions. Kammerer and his team took on the problem of AI in the classroom and looked at it from the perspective of out-of-date grading systems. This summer he and his team will make their way to Oxford University in the UK to present at the Map the System competition.

“That’s why I’d say—if you’re at university don’t just glide through your degree. Do things that are outside of your degree as well.”

That lesson, to be a doer, and take advantage of as many opportunities as possible, is one of the big takeaways from Kammerer’s years at UNB.

“When you think it’s too much—just do it, you’ll get through it. For me, just doing more was the answer.”

Doing more and trying different things is how stories are made.

Now that photos of his time as a REDS hockey player grace the walls of the Aitken concourse, Kammerer is proud to reflect on his contribution to UNB’s story.

“I was part of the 43-0 season, and that probably will go down as the best season UNB has ever had,” Kammerer said of the 2023-24 season, where the REDS went undefeated under the leadership of MacDougall.

“When I think about hockey, that season comes to mind and how special a group we had that year.

“The staff to the trainers to the equipment guys, everyone at UNB is very, very close and tight-knit … and those are the kinds of stories that we share.”