h the draft concluded and training camps almost finished, we have decided to look at the Saint Louis Scarecrows roster and see how the team feels towards the team, and find a bit about them. We caught up with the newly named captain of the Saint Louis Scarecrows at the press box and caught his story.



When I first got drafted to Saint Louis, some would feel sad and depressed, as it was rated 2nd worst team in the SMJHL by Generals Managers. But to he honest, this is the place I wanted to be drafted to. The Management here was the only one to contact me before the draft saying they were planing to draft me. Sure, the Impact General Manager contacted me after the draft saying they wanted to pick me up, but I really wanted to be drafted to the Scarecrows the most. So after the draft I was ecstatic. Being named Captain was a bonus.

But, the truth be told, I never liked hockey as a child. Back in Lviv Ukraine I was your typical 7 year old. Getting 70’s in school, playing soccer which was “the thing” there, and getting drunk. Back in Ukraine the legal drinking age is 18, but the cops don’t to anything to stop it. The reason is that they did nothing was that they drank as kids as well. They didn’t want to bust a kid for doing something they did as a child. So I sent most of my summers playing soccer and beer pong. But once I hit 10 years old, something changed my life forever.

My cousin from Mississauga Mark Malyckyj came for a visit. He brought something that would chafe my life forever: a pair of skates. He said he bought them while in Lviv, but I never saw them in my life. When he explained what they were I took them and gave him a funny look saying “Чому ти купив це?” (Why did you buy this?) he explained that it would be fun. So when our pond in the backyard froze over he made me put them on when none of my friends were in town and we hit the ice.

The next 2 hours were the longest in my life. Even though the pond was fifteen metres long and three and half metres wide, I would only make it 10 centimetres before I fell face first. My cousin would always laugh at me saying, “I would get it eventually get it.” He would always skate backwards as if to show off, making me feel like a loser. every time I feel I told myself “This is the stupidest thing ever.” every time I feel, he would laugh, and I would swear so much that if a teacher caught me saying all that, they would make sure I would never come within 500 kilometres to a single school. But once the 2 hours were over, I had finally learned to stop and skate forwards with some degree of skill. Then he said he will teach me how to do the same thing but backwards, and I laughed and fell into the snow and said, maybe tomorrow.

So we kept repeating the same thing for the next week. When the week had finished Malyckyj had to go back to Canada. I was sad that he had to go because i thought that he had taught me something I would never have dreamed of being fun. Before he left to the airport he said he had a surprise for me. He told me to head with him to the backyard. When I saw what he did I didn’t know what to think. I was half mad half amused. He took my old mini soccer net and cut it in half making it the average size of a hockey net, which at the time I didn’t know what “hockey was”. When I was about to kill him for breaking my soccer net he laughed and said take these. He handed me a stick that was right up to my nose, and a small rubber saucer thing. He said to “use my imagination” which I didn’t know what he was talking about.

I decided to test out these new “toys” on the ice. When I shot the puck for the fist time I hit the post and was scared because of how fast the puck went. I kept shooting it and realized that if I put a bit of an edge on the stick it would spin a bit more. Then I tried lifting the stick high and hitting the puck. I saw it go so fast and hit the net so hard that I wanted to do it again, and again, and again. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. Three years later I became quite good at skating backwards and forwards. I could also shoot with some degree of effectiveness. Then we got the news that my cousin got drafted to the SHL. That’s when it hit me, I wanted to play hockey professionally.

When I told my parents I wanted to do the same thing my cousin did they laughed. They said I had no chance. I never cried much, but when they said this, I ran upstairs and cried for about 10 minutes. Then I pulled myself together and hit the ice. I took so much frustration out on the ice. I hit the puck harder than I ever did in my life, I skated faster and with more desire than when I was with Malyckyj. I hit the puck so hard in the end that the stick snapped in my hands. I fell to my knees but forced myself not to cry. The one thing I had to prove I was good enough just snapped into pieces. My father saw the whole thing.

He looked at me, and told me that he saw everything. He handed me something I would have never expected him to hand me: a new professional stick. i asked where he had gotten this and he said that he saw he one the ice and wanted me to have a better stick because he thought that I at least deserved that. The next thing surprised me even more. It was 3 plane tickets to West Kendall. My father said that he always wanted to get out of Ukraine as things were getting worse with Viktor Yanukovych as president. The tickets were for the next day.

When we flew into Los Angeles, I realized that it was real hot in the city. Then I realized we were in Florida, where it never snowed. I was about to yell at my dad for getting us to of all places LA, when my Cousin came and greeted us. He said that he played here now. I was so surprised and happy I was about to cry. Once we got to our new apartment, he said that I have a good chance to get drafted to the SHL if I got to the SMJHL first. Malyckyj said in order to get their first, you have to play for a real team and make an impression.

Looking back I like how things went down, and would not have it any other way. But enough about the past, it’s time to talk about now.