Ready for grading, double media payout, work count: 756

Keep in mind that this was written from the point of view of a 15 year old

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I’m an average kid from an average family in an average town. Kids with that resume don’t leave town let alone leave it to be come pro hockey players.

And yet, here I am, at the train station with the family, heading to the SMJHL combine and draft. I guess I’m not an average hockey player.

Leaving the team was the hardest. This was by far the closest team I’ve ever been part of. The team felt like my baby this year. I don’t know if it was the captaincy or the fact that I knew that it was my final year but I felt responsible for them all. The goal was to win it all and that’s what we did. Anything else would have been devastating for us as a group. We worked harder than any other team and we expect to get what we give.

Coach gave me the C because he said the team looks up to me. I guess that’s true but I look up to them just as much. I asked him why we even needed a captain. He laughed and said it was because the team needs someone to gravitate towards. I suggested giving it to one of the better players but he was adamant. I had been team captain before, in the younger leagues, but this felt different, this felt like I was, well, my dad.

After we won the title we celebrated in the room like teams do. After a while things quieted down and got really silent really quickly. We all realized this was the last time we’d be in this room together.

It was a surreal moment.

This is a surreal moment.

Dad is the most excited. He bought one of every SMJHL jersey so that can put it on the second I get drafted.

“the second I get drafted.” I still can’t believe this is happening.

Mom is a bit weepy. She gets it but is worried about me being away from home. I ask myself “am I worried?” I’m starting this new journey and and going from the old vet to the young rookie. It’s exciting. I’m entering a world in which everyone else shares the same passion as I do…a group of players who all want the same thing: the play hockey.

We board the train together, the siblings talking at a cheetah’s pace, debating where I’ll go. I’m quietly thinking about walking into my new locker room for the first time.

It’s never an easy thing to do. You’re coming in to a family that has been together for years before you show up. All I do is work hard, play my game and earn their respect.

I can’t sit here and say that I don’t think I’m a good hockey player. I love hockey, hockey is life, it’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at. I never excelled at anything but being on the ice. It is where I feel the most at home, it is where I am at my happiest. There is nothing like making that first carve on a freshly flooded sheet or grabbing your teammate after they score a goal. Hockey is the reason for it all, to be able to do it for a living is a dream come true.

Talking with the scouts over the past few days have been some of the cooler experiences in my life. I’m just honored that they see me as a viable use for their draft picks. The questions are different but the message is the same. They know me as a player and they want to know me as a person. Will I fit into the locker room? Will I fit in on the ice? Will I fizzle out? Will I make them look good?

To be fully honest; at this moment I don’t care which which team picks me or when that pick takes place. The teams that have reached out know that should they pick me I will be a Falcon, a Firebird, a Knight, a Mammoth, a Militia, a Raider, a Scarecrow or a Whaler through and through.

The team becomes life. The team becomes who I am. My teammates become my family. Ice is thicker than blood.

We find seats, I joke and jab with the siblings, Mom and Dad are reading. I look out the window, I see the rink in the distance. It slowly gets smaller as the train pulls away from the station.

I smirk.

Oh the places you’ll go.

write more if you can, you can really make a lot of money off double media payout

other than that, great article.

Ben Waters Jr. || LW || Edmonton Blizzard || 312 TPE
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 225 lbs
Birthplace: Montreal, Canada

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S64: Drafted by Kelowna Knights with the 24th overall pick in S64 SMJHL Entry Draft

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Originally posted by Waters@Apr 5 2017, 01:14 PM
write more if you can, you can really make a lot of money off double media payout

other than that, great article.

Yeah, this is my 2nd one this week, the first was over 3k words and got me 8.4M...I don't have time to do another big one...this is more for character dev.