Recounting my short time as part of the SHL community so far:

It all started during a snowstorm in 1996, when I was born in this little place off the east coast called Long Island, NY. I was given a Isles Fisherman jersey and ice skates before I could even walk. But then... Disaster! I moved away to a place that made it very hard to play hockey, which was, is, and always will be my favorite sport.

Fast-forward a bunch of years and we find me in early 2020, still never having played organized hockey, but with the passion for hockey still burning inside me. While browsing /r/hockey instead of doing my actual job, I see a post for a little thing called the Simulation Hockey League. I say "What the heck" and go ahead and give it a shot. All of the sudden I feel like I am both in my element and way over my head at the same time. Shout-out to all of the mentors who got me on the right track in the beginning. I definitely wouldn't have gone far without their help at the beginning.

Right off the bat, I starting hitting it off pretty well with a bunch of players in the rookie discord. Namely @Aephino. What started this/makes it better is we both made British players so we got to play in the WJC for Team British Isles just a few days after joining the site! But now things were starting to get real. The SMJHL draft was looming near and no one had any idea what team they were gonna go to. I had talked to a couple of GMs but not nearly all of them, maybe just over half of the league, so I was starting to get a little nervous. To make it worse, I wasn't available to watch the draft live, so I had to wait until later in the day to see where I went. When I was finally able to pull out my phone I saw I had like 10 tags on discord and an invite to a new locker room. The Detroit Falcons locker room.

I was immediately met with thunderous applause when I finally logged in. I went especially crazy when I found out that Teddy and I were drafted back to back to the same team. I knew right away I was gonna love it there. I've had more fun talking online with this team than I have in quite a while. What a great group of people. I mean, we've got @roastpuff, you couldn't ask for a better dude than this to share a locker room with, @Aephino, who I already talked about but now in this context he's on my team, @leviadan , again, a great guy to share a locker room with, @"reid_sutherland", what a level headed and supportive guy, @Rangerjase, what to say about this guy? If you told me he was like a long lost twin or something I wouldn't be surprised. I feel like we are always on the same wavelength. And who could forget about @"Awesomecakes"? I'd take this big, loveable, blue smiley faced, ALL-STAR goalie over any other in the league (sorry @"feeler"). And that's just the start! I don't even have time to get into @jeffie43 , @JMacNCheese, @Mutedfaith, @lukejm37, @JSS331, @"feeler", and @Murtsi!

And of course I owe a great deal of my success to the fantastic GMing of @notorioustig and @nour, who, I'm not even sure contacted me before drafting me? Whatever. Without the guidance of the little green frog that is Tig, I'm sure I'd be enjoying this a bit less than I am now. I really can't say how great these guys are.

And a look into the future! I am really excited for my upcoming time with the Cudas @MCP_! And I'm super excited to have Zoltan on my team once again! I look forward to the coming years in the SHL!