Why Anaheim?

Why this rag tag group of skaters and goalies? Why do I love being on this, team so much? I was drafted into Anaheim in season 28 pretty late into the draft after my last player went nowhere-actually, let's step back a bit more. The Anaheim Outlaws GM known as Ace was drafted into the London Royals of the DSFL which is the ISFL's minor league. I happened to be playing on this team when he was drafted so we have gotten to know each other pretty well during that time. He quickly became a good shutdown corner for the Royals and we became friends even though London had a pretty mixed season.

Ok so during that time Ace became the GM of the Anaheim Outlaws and managed to convince me to come back to this league. I created my right wing skater Jack Micro and was interested into the draft where again I was drafted pretty late. I think it was like pick 60 something. And thus began a tale of triumph and frustration that sometimes makes me surprised that I stuck around despite all the hard times. But that just shows how good of a GM Ace is too keep my wanting to come back. It also helped me to want to help Philadelphia know to pick him in the ISFL draft not long after, but that is nether here nor there.

Obviously Anaheim has been through some hard times. We had one of our top rookie players go undrafted and quit on us. We had another go undrafted in the same draft. In that draft I went late 2nd round to the New England Wolfpack who Ace is also a big part of and is actually the founder of. I would be frustrated at the time that they went undrafted but now I see that they kind of did it to themselves. If you're reading this sorry Valor but it is how I feel.

Not long after that I would become an SMJHL HO Intern which supplemented my income for the season and helped me through my media slump. I had hot a personal media slump where I just did not feel like doing much media so i put my efforts mostly into the Intern job and I do not want to toot my own horn but I have a few messages pinned in that Intern's office. As for Jack Micro, he is slowly but surely improving his play. He went from having no goals and 6 assists in his rookie year to having three goals and 8 or 9 assists in the early parts of his third season.

So why am I telling you this? I already mentioned a lot of this in my From the Intern's Desk media not too long ago. Well I really want to just say this: despite everything that has happened, from drama to being swept out of the playoffs last season there is one thing that is true: I am still here. I am still earning pretty well and I still love this team. There is really no one on Anaheim I actually dislike so I want to highlight a few people on this team. Let's start off with:

My SMJHL GM Ace has the patience of a freaking Saint. He has gone through so much bullcrap with not just me, but the rest of the team but he still soldiers on and hopes that we do as well. Because of his attitude we do solider. Despite the drama, despite the frustration, despite the lack of playoff success, we keep on going no matter what. He has created a culture where we just don't want to disappoint him and want to work hard to get that 4 star. He has also been awesome in the ISFL for my Philadelphia Liberty by the way.

My teammate Videl Valor has been a rock on the team. Honestly being undrafted would have deflated most users but he has used it as motivation to keep going and prove people wrong. On the ice he has been a huge scoring machine and one of Anaheim's top players. Valor just deserves more sim league success then he gets and I hope he gets some luck coming his way soon.

Marco has been a great mentor to the team these past couple of seasons and I think no one deserved the co-GM job more then him. This man with the Mermaid Man discord profile picture is basically the guy who can help you with your build and with your tasks occasionally. He has also had to deal with our shit for a while and I do hope to bring him a 4 star.

There are more guys like Gcool who I am so happy to see recently had his daughter be born and Raven who is a great alternative captain for the team. If I did not mention you don't worry this is mostly an emotional vent peice anyways. The point is that the Anaheim Outlaws are a great team of players and users that I am proud to be playing with for as long as I have until I am called up. I love everyone on this team and really have no bad things to say about them. Despite our bad luck last season I think there will eventually be a point where we will finally start to break out. We have too much talent not to.

Let me tell you this: at approximately eight pm tonight the SMJHL sim presentation will start again and Jack Micro will eventually skate onto the ice in red and white and brown. He might win or he might lose. He might get an amazing hat trick or he won't even get a point. That's hockey for you. Hell that's sports in general. On any given day someone can be amazing and perform thier hearts out. But the thing that matters and is the same is this:

I am still here. I am still earning. I am still alive in this league and that is partly thanks to Anaheim.

So why Anaheim? Maybe the better question is:

Why not?