I bring to you reader, the tale Ryan Shepard leading up to his entry into the SMJHL. Ryan was born in S32 to Ben and Nancy Shepard. As a lot of hockey players, Ryan’s parents made a decent living with his father being an accountant, and his mother a manager at one of the local hotels in Slave Lake. Ben played pond hockey from time to time during the long winter months but it wasn’t something he took seriously. Nancy on the other hand was never into sports and would prefer to read in her spare time, or go hiking and camping in the summer months. They resided in four bedroom home, which they had purchased a few years ago in preparation for having a child. Ryan was the only child they would end up having, so he grew up an only child.

Being their first and only, Ben and Nancy took extra thought and care with Ryan. Nancy would read to him every night for the first several years and Ben would look up ideal parenting techniques in the few spare moments he had at work. Half the time Ryan would be dressed in an Oilers jumper due to his father’s interest in the NHL. At the age of three, after being able to fully walk and talk somewhat, Ben bought his son his first pair of skates. He took Ryan to the local arena and helped him along, attempting his best to teach his three year old  boy to move on the ice. After many sessions of falling down, Ryan was finally able to balance and move by himself making his father very proud.

In the coming months after learning how to skate, Ryan would watch very intently each evening that his dad came home and put a hockey game on the tv. He found the game very exciting and wished to play one day. Ben could tell how into the sport Ryan appeared, and smiled when his son verbally expressed interest in playing. For Ryan’s fourth birthday he got his first hockey stick. Whenever Ben had the chance he would take Ryan down to the rink to skate around with his new stick and take some shots at a real net. For many hours of the day at home, Ryan would be out in the garage shooting foam pucks at the wall. Eventually he would get gifted a net and goalie target to practice on.

At the age of five, Ryan began two of the biggest things in his short life. He started Kindergarten and Initiation Hockey Camp for kids ages five and six. As an only child Ryan hadn’t interacted with too many people close to his age. It was mostly just his parents and adults at the rink. He was more kept to himself at school but still got on with most kids. At the Initiation Camp, it seemed that at least from this early age, Ryan was a step ahead of most kids when it came to hockey. He was among the best of skaters, even including the kids a year older. He had trouble shooting real pucks, but that was something he could grow into (or not if you know Ryan Shepard).

When the coaches asked each kid which position they wanted to play, center was the majority of the answer. Ryan was a little sad the position he wanted to play was so popular and really hoped he would be able to stick with it. The coaches made everyone rotate through each position to see if they would enjoy something else more. After two weeks had gone by and everyone had a turn everywhere, including goalie, the coaches asked the kids again where they would like to play. This time the answers were more diverse, some kids liked playing back on defense more and some already realized the big responsibility a center has and decided to play wing instead.

Jumping ahead to age twelve, Ryan now had more years playing hockey than without. He had his foundation set for the player he would become as he entered the SMJHL. At a height of five feet four inches before puberty, he was one of the biggest kids in his grade at school, and on the taller side of kids on the ice. With all the time he had spent in local hockey he had become by far the best player in his age group. His parents didn’t want to waste their son’s talents so they enrolled him into a Northern Alberta Pee Wee rep team. Ryan didn’t understand fully at the time but his parents would be making a huge sacrifice to get him to the out of town games. Nancy would drive her son most weekends to wherever the game might be, anywhere up to three hours away. Although not one for sports a few years ago, she had started to find some love for hockey with the passion her son and husband showed towards it. She cheer anytime Ryan made a big play, or get upset when the refs would call a light penalty on him.

This step up in competition level would help accelerate Ryan’s growth and greatly improve his hockey IQ. He couldn’t believe that even playing other kids in different cities he was still one of the best skaters on the ice at all times. He could tell the teams from out of town were better than what he used to play against, but there was no issue going out there and playing his usual game. He was still able to pass to his linemates and find them from anywhere, no matter if there were sticks or skates in the way. The goalies were starting to get better however, in this age group the one timer was still a great tool, but it was no longer a guaranteed goal. Sometimes Ryan would opt to fake pass into a shot, and although it worked sometimes his aim wasn’t good enough to pull it off with consistency.

After playing rep Pee Wee and seeing how great their son was doing, Ben and Nancy came to one of the hardest decisions they had to make. They chose to entrust their son to a billet house to further develop his skills, in hope of going pro one day. Although they didn’t need to send him too far, as he would be playing for a team in Edmonton. This was only a few hours from Slave Lake so his parents came for a visit once in a while. It was a bit hard on Ryan, moving out of the only home he had ever known and into a new city. He only had a few close friends through his time in school, so he didn’t know if he’d make friends with many people in Edmonton. He hit puberty during this off season and had a growth spurt so he was now standing at five feet ten inches. He would be thirteen heading into grade eight as he started his biggest hockey season to date.

At his new team’s practice Ryan was no longer the best skater on the ice. With the growth spurt, he wasn’t quite used to his taller body and would take some time to readjust. Through his years he had been a defensive type player by default, but this was the first time it had been drilled into him. His new coach could tell Ryan was the type of player he wanted, but needed to be taught positioning for higher level play. He was also taught a better technique for faceoffs, which he would use going forward. A month into the season, after a grueling preseason he became more accustomed to his frame and able to skate as he used to. This allowed him to properly show off the better positioning he had been learning with the new club. A key injury to the team’s top center midway through the season got Shepard promoted to the top line. From this point on, he would be their top guy for his remaining tenure.

The Edmonton Bantam team was already a force, but even losing their previous top center, the new players acquired this season were able to push them to a second overall finish in the regular season. Although being a great individual player when younger, Ryan’s teams had never been too great so he had never won any team trophies, only the obligatory participation awards for children and a couple for being a hard worker. He was very thrilled to have the chance at his first serious post season. The coach fully relied on him and played him close to twenty three minutes on average, the highest for the forwards by a fair margin. For a championship they needed to win one best of five, and two best of sevens. The first two series were won easily with the opponents squeaking out one game each. Then came the heartbreaking finals.

The Bantam finals were played against the team that finished first overall, and reigning champions, Calgary. It was a hard fought, back and forth series with Edmonton coming back in game six overtime to stay alive. The last game would be played in Calgary. Edmonton came out flying and made it 2-0 by the end of the first. The Calgary fans that had come to watch looked a little worried, but not their coach or the players. They tightened up and made it 2-1 off a defensive zone penalty from Edmonton midway through the second period. Not much happened the rest of the second, but the momentum was in Calgary’s favour by the end of it. The second intermission was tense in Edmonton’s locker room. Shepard felt a weight of pressure on him, but did his best to get his team in the mindset to kill the last twenty minutes after the coach laid out the gameplan. But really, how often does sitting back for a full period work?

Right out of the gate the Calgary squad came out hard. Most of the initial five minutes were spent in the Edmonton’s zone, with a clear here and there but very little time spent on Calgary’s end. Then came the turning point of the game. Edmonton’s fourth line was out and iced the puck while exhausted. Calgary sent out their top guys, won the draw and scored right away to tie it up. The arena went as crazy as it could for a bantam audience. After this goal Edmonton went back on the offensive to try and get one back, but couldn’t get much going. Time was winding down into the final five minutes of the game with both teams getting sustained pressure. Calgary got it into Edmonton’s zone again with three minutes left and did their best to cycle on their second line. One of the Edmonton wingers made a fatal misqueue and a quick shot came in from the blue line which got tipped. It caught Edmonton’s goalie by surprise and chipped off his glove into the back of the net. Calgary held Edmonton off the final minutes and went wild as the clock hit zero. Shepard was devastated, it was the worst loss of his young career. He’d done everything he possibly could and wasn’t on the ice for any goals against but still lost. Unbeknownst to him there was several scouts at this game and some were interested in his play despite the loss.

He was contacted a couple days later from some scouts, mostly from Alberta but a couple from BC and Ontario. Even one from America. He told them he would think about where he would like to play over his next season. The Edmonton Bantam club’s center that was previously injured had to move up to Midget the next season so Shepard would be the bonafide center. He did his best to bring the team back to the finals in his second and final year but Edmonton finished fifth overall and had a second round exit. This loss was a little easier to swallow and the next day he called the scout of the team he wanted to go to. He would be moving a lot further away this time, as he chose a team out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. This team was always near the middle of the pack in the Ontario Midget League but played a solid defensive game which Shepard wanted to continue working on. In the offseason he said his goodbyes to his mother and father, and classmates he barely talked to. He had next to no life outside of hockey at this point, he was solely focused on being the best player he could be.

Finally moved into Thunder Bay during the summer, Shepard would be fifteen headed into grade ten. He finished growing early and topped out at his six foot even height this year. For his next couple years of schooling, he would do enough to get Cs or Bs in most classes and spend the rest of the time working on his hockey skills in anyway possible. Most evenings were spent at the gym or rink unless there was major homework due. Come the start of September he was introduced to the new team he had chosen. There was something about this team’s locker room he caught onto and made him feel like he fit in from the get to. All the players seemed very laid back, but as soon as they were on the ice it was all business. Everyone was a cog in the defensive machine and no one really stood out. It took Shepard a month or so to learn the new system but it was one he was glad he came to.

The Thunder Bay team was a huge pain for anyone to play against, especially at home. The only reason they were a middle of the pack team was because they focused a little too heavily on defense. They had the most one goal games of any team by far, and a lot of overtime games. The coach really liked how quick Shepard could learn and started him on the second line. The faceoff trick he had learned in Edmonton took his new coach by surprise and would give him a near sixty percent faceoff win over his time in Midget.

Thunder Bay would have an average season by their standards and limp into the playoffs against the first place team. Of the sixty eight game season, forty would be on goal games. This was a very odd phenomenon of any team in any league worldwide, but was a type of game Shepard loved. They would grind out and beat the first place Sudbury team in six games with two overtime wins. Although it was an upset, not that many people were surprised. The whole lineup of Thunder Bay played as a complete unit and shutdown Sudbury like no other team in the league could. In the second round they were matched up against the second place Sault Ste. Marie, this was the most potent offense of the Ontario Midget League. They only lacked in shutting down other teams but this worked more in their favour. Sault Ste. Maurie laid it on hard and defeated Thunder Bay in five games. Only two of the five were one goal games, even with Thunder Bay’s solid defense they were a little too much to handle as they couldn’t score back as effectively.

This plain defensive style would carry on for the next two years of Shepard’s time at Thunder Bay. Although he wouldn’t get very deep into the playoffs in this league he was a finalist for the best two way forward in his second season and won in his third and final season. He would go on to have a very strong showing at the WJC with Canada which may get covered at a later date. This play combined with his locker room attitude would see him get drafted the Kelowna Knights of the SMJHL with their first over pick.                                                              

(2688 Words, First article bonus)