Rookie Komets forward Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock knows he can't do anything but embrace his new nickname. It's so good, he's stuck with it.

When the Snider High School product started training camp this season, he was a long shot, who played for an NCAA Division III team and didn't score. Fortunately for Schrock, Komets coach Al Sims quickly recognized his hustle, intelligence and willingness to do anything to make the team.

Then in his first exhibition game, Schrock got into two fights in the first period, and Fort Wayne fans immediately loved him. One of them even tagged him Schrocky Balboa on The News-Sentinel blog, tailingthekomets.com.

“I'm not going to lie - my dad likes to read the blogs, and I was sitting around the house one day and my mom came out and said, ‘They are calling you Schrocky Balboa,'” Schrock said. “I said, ‘Oh, no, that's probably going to stick.'”

Komets fan Jason Ott (aka Jungle Monkey) came up with the nickname, and it became an immediate hit on the blog, the type of thing everyone else wishes they had come up with.

“The nickname kind of developed over time,” Ott said. “He went from Schrock to Schrocky pretty naturally. Then after watching him fight several guys that had him outsized, the ‘Balboa' part came along. It seemed he was always outmatched in fights, but heart, speed and determination helped him overcome the size differential.

“I wasn't really sure about him coming into the season but he has definitely won me over.”

News-Sentinel copy editor and Komets fan Katie Stine went one further and designed a “Schrocky” poster to mimic the “Rocky” movie poster. The tagline for “Rocky” was “His whole life was a million-to-one shot,” and for Schrocky it's “His whole life he wanted to be a Komet.” Someone posted a copy in Schrock's locker stall before a recent game, giving his teammates a good laugh.

The crazy thing is Schrock went to Neumann College in Philadelphia, site of the “Rocky” movies. After the Knights won the Division III national title last spring, they ran the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art just like Sylvester Stallone. Now there's a statue of Rocky Balboa standing near the bottom of the steps.

Then Komets public address announcer Larry Schmitt played the “Rocky” theme during Schrock's fight with Muskegon's Matt Cody on Friday.

“Hopefully, the fans like it and the guys like it,” Schrock said, laughing. “It could be worse, right?”

Definitely.

“They called me Crazy Legs in juniors because I wasn't the best skater, I just moved my legs real quick,” Schrock said. “In baseball they called me Mud Man because I would never wash my jersey but I always came off the field covered in mud.” Bet Mom likes this nickname much better.

Most of his current teammates just call him Schrocker, which at times can lead to confusion.

“Sometimes on the bench it gets confusing because he'll say ‘Chaulker's line' or ‘Schrocker's line,' and sometimes we're looking back wondering which of us is going,” Schrock said. “Normally, if it's a power play, I know who he's talking about.”

Still the underdog.