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Simulation Sports Network: Khet Chupp Interview
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TheKandyCinemaRegistered Member
1,706 Words
Ready to Grade Double Media Article Bonus (just made it before midnight!  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  John Mack: Hello! Welcome back to Simulation Sports Network's SMJHL Post-Draft Show. The best place to get SMJHL and SHL related news, I am your host John Mack. Today, we just witnessed arguably one of the most promising SMJHL drafts of all time. Led by the first and second overall pick respectively, Robert Phelps and Sophia Bennett. These two are the new promising pieces for the Whalers organisation. However, that is not who we are going to be talking about today. I am here with Khet Chupp, the 8th overall selection chosen by none other than the St. Louis Scarecrows. We've managed to get in touch with him and we are going to ask him a couple question about his play style, where he sees himself and much more. <div align="center"> ![[Image: ea1447e019215a336826c748909891a8.png]](https://i.gyazo.com/ea1447e019215a336826c748909891a8.png) </div> John Mack: Hey Khet, how are you doing today? Khet Chupp: I am great man thanks, adrenaline's rushing right now through the excitement of getting drafted. Super excited to be on The Simulation Sports Network, huge fan of your show as a kid. John Mack: Thanks, Khet! We aim to reach out to all ages, and it means a lot to hear someone grew up on our network. Back to hockey, sounds like this choice means a lot to you. So for all the Scarecrows fans that may be unaware of who you are, do you wanna just give us a little brief description of yourself and your background? Khet Chupp: Absolutely Mack. My name's Khet Chupp and I was born in Gibraltar, United Kingdom, however, I am currently residing in Olympia, Washington. I am 19, 6 foot 5, and I weigh 211 pounds. Before I got drafted, I was playing for the Olympia High School Bears and racked up 42 points and 1 empty net goal in a 40 game high school season. Unfortunately, we missed the playoffs but I owe where I am today to that school. John Mack: Look like you had a great season there. Describe to our listeners your play style and how you play the game of hockey. Judging by your points, you must be an offensive defenseman! Khet Chupp: Hah I get that a lot. When people see my stats, they immediately think I am an offence first type of guy. Then when you watch the games, you sit back and wonder how this guy racked up point per game numbers. Always have, always will be a defence first guy. I did a lot of practice as a kid on my saucer passes with the mini nets so I have learned to evolve my game around a defensive, physical, guy who can also make the stretch pass on an offensive outbreak. I was never good at scoring, so I have always been a pass first type of guy as well. Always been very good on the PK as well. If you want one sentence of how I play my game; paying the price. John Mack: Seems like the perfect character! Blocks shots, makes passes, plays a physical game and plays the penalty kill. How do you feel about being drafted by the St. Louis Scarecrows today? Khet Chupp: Words cannot describe how elated I am to be with the Scarecrows. No matter what team I went to today, I knew that hard work and determination were going to be invested into the team. However, I must say that Scarecrows were definitely my number one team since I applied. I had many chats with the co-GM of the Scarecrows, Joe Kurczewski before and after the draft happened. The amount of engagement I had with this organisation before getting drafted in the SMJHL was enough to sell me on St. Louis being one of my top destinations to land. I am honestly thrilled and excited to think I will be wearing this jersey. This season cannot come soon enough. John Mack: Seems like you were sold right from the get go with the Scarecrows. Now to get into more detail with the team itself, where do you see yourself with this team and what role do you see yourself possibly playing? Khet Chupp: I hope to see myself with St. Louis for at least a couple of years. I definitely want to fine tune my game in the SMJHL so when I make that jump to the SHL, I will be ready to make an impact right away. In terms of my role, realistically right now I do not expect to have a guaranteed role in place and will be willing to play any spot I need to succeed. However, in my ideal world, I see myself as a 25+ minute a night type of guy who can also play on the first penalty kill line. While I hope to train hard and get my passing even better, I never see myself as an efficient power play type of guy. My plan is to play my game and stay focused on the objective of winning games. John Mack: It is great to see some humble players in the league, but also those who have goals and expectations they want to meet. Let's go back a decade now. How did you get into the game of hockey and who do you owe your success to? Khet Chupp: I would go live with my grandparents in Bristol, United Kingdom every summer but come back to Olympia when school started. Being in Washington, my parents are and still are to this day huge Seattle Riot fans and have been supporting them since they became a team in the league. With the TV on all the time and being a bored child looking for stuff to do, I'd watch the Riot games with them. I was instantly hooked by the idea of the game. Guys beating each other up, I even remember the names back then. Ross and Brian Burke, Jason Due, Chris McZehrl to name a few. Soon enough at a young age, I instantly convinced my parents to get me into ice hockey. It was originally tough since I was put at forward and I was never a goal scorer, however, I switched to defence and my game improved tenfold. And now here I am. Some people I owe my success to are my parents, my grandparents in England, high school coach Larry Gumm and my childhood bully, Brian Hartman. Without them, I'd never be here today. John Mack: Sounds like a childhood with some ups and downs, but ultimately one that led you to get drafted in the SMJHL. We have dove deep into you as a hockey player, but now for the Scarecrow fans and fans of the SMJHL, in general, we want to know you personally. Got any hobbies you like to do in your free time? Khet Chupp: I obviously love to watch hockey, but some other activities I generally like to do are playing video games and weightlifting. Might be asking the wrong person for a list of hobbies haha. John Mack: I see, it is always good to have the fundamentals down. Well, Kett Chupp, we will not bother you anymore. We appreciate your time on the show, and we are going to have your co-GM sit-down and answer a question or two. Take care, and we hope for the best in your career. Khet Chupp: Appreciate it Mack, take care yourself. John Mack: Welcome back to the SMJHL Post-Draft Show and today we have a special interview. We are here with none other than co-GM Joe Kurczewski. Winger for the Calgary Dragons and now running the front line of a team. So we have one simple question as we are aware you are a very busy man, tell us, what was the thought process in selecting Khet Chupp and what made him stand out? Joe Kurczewski: As we got down to the 8th pick, we knew exactly who we wanted. We wanted a defenseman, for sure, as that's one place our team sorely needs some help at. I talked with the other guys in the room (STL GM Ryan King and STL Director of Amateur Scouting, Chris Crutchfield) and we all were very happy that Khet Chupp was still on the board. Defenseman went a little early than we anticipated in the draft, so for us to have one of our top guys staring us in the face at the 8th overall selection, it was a no brainer. We took Khet with the fastest made pick in the draft. It was damn near instantaneous after Colorado took Niklas St. Croix 7th overall. You always wonder what other teams see, and not only did we take Chupp quickly, we were also hit with a message from another GM jokingly, but not jokingly, yelling at us for sniping them with Khet. That's always a good feeling. Why did we value Khet so highly? Well, for me, it was a conversation I had with him about a week ago. I had just started my scouting, since I was busy playing for the Challenge Cup with Calgary. He just asked a few good questions about the team, and where we were headed. He expressed a desire to want to help the team start on its winning path and my favorite part was honestly how much he wanted to improve as much as possible. He has a desire to get better, to compete. That's the type of attitude I love to have on my Scarecrows. Khet's first words to me after we drafted him, besides Thank you, were that we were his top team. That's always awesome to know its such a good fit. I look forward to really seeing what Khet Chupp can do with the Scarecrow on his uniform. I wouldn't want to be an opposing player that's trying to survive being on the ice with Khet and Brett (Kennedy) at the same time. I'd go buy stock in pain killers sooner than later. John Mack: Looks like he's got a great attitude and a willingness to improve. It's always great to hear from you, thanks Joe! That just about wraps up our show tonight folks, we hope you enjoyed and as always, take care. We'll see you next time.
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