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W19eaver · 09-10-2020, 02:41 PM

I'm going to start this from a user point of a view, then jump into it from my player's perspective.

Well I've been a member of this site for 57 days now, and let me tell you it has been a very pleasant 57 days. Before I finally joined this illustrious class of individuals we call SHLers (I call SHLers? I guess I've never seen someone else use that refrence but I'm sure there has), I was feeling fairly bored in my life and found when I wasn't working or busy with my family/household chores, I just couldn't figure out what to do with my limited "me" time. Once I joined the SHL I really sunk my addictive personality into this site and what it has to offer, and I have been very happy with the experience so far. Big shout out to @Ace for first turning my eye to the SHL. We are in a FHM online league together and he happened to advertise the league at some point. Fun fact: I joined the SHL discord very shortly after Ace had mentioned it, but then was intimidated by it all and just muted the server and rarely looked at it for probably a couple of months. Then one night when I was bored at work (I work maintenance so it's not slacking off if the mill is running Wink

) I happened to notice another SHL advertisement on a red wings sub reddit. I'm not sure why but it again sparked my interest and decided to not let it overwhelm me this time and just create a character. So I decided to create a character based off 1 story I heard about my dad from his old hockey coach who I randomly met at a pub 30 years since he last seen my dad. I had some fun with the story I wrote for him embellshing some of his past, but the part about the nick name was true. Apparently it had some effect because shortly after that I started to meet some very awesome people. It was shortly after that story, I had the great @Jala message me saying he made me a signature. I was estactic. I definitely did not expect it and I thought it was super bad ass and extremely kind of him. I believe I joined like a 4 or 5 days before the draft so after filling out some IP threads I had a few SMJHL GM's contact me, ask me the usual questions. I also had a fellow S56 draftee, @Andy, contact me before the draft and while he did ask the me the usual scouting questions we also had some real good conversation. So I believe at that point I had written another media piece interviewing my player before the SMHJL draft in hopes of being picked as high as possible to stroke my ego. Going into the draft I had realistic expectations, goalies aren't exactly hot commodity and figured most teams would wait until the 2nd round at the earliest (if not later) to grab a goalie. Luckily for me the SMJHL had just expanded that offseason to include 2 new teams and with their 2nd 1st round pick, 9th overall, the Nevada Battleborn's GM's @Jearim and @Nokazoa had seen enough that they liked to draft me. A first round pick, I was completely over the moon about it. Funny real life story, after I was drafted into the first round I excitedly messaged my wife telling her that I joined another fake hockey league (I was already in some FHM online leagues at that point) and that I was able to get drafted into the 1st round and how excited I was about it, and then she just hits me back with a "you joined another fake hockey league how many is this now?". Definitely not the reaction I was looking for, but luckily I'm sick enough to find humour in it after the fact. So now I was officially on a SMJHL team and low and behold @Andy and @Jala were both drafted to the Battleborn as well! I was stoked on that to say the least. Now I probably should mention and tag all my awesome teammates but sorry I'm just not going to. I will throw out a big shout out to @Wasty though, he made the entire Battleborn line up team signatures, and again I thought it was extremely bad ass and had to figure out how to make my signatures rotate (luckily that was easy). So during the season I decided to do a series of "Battle Reports" to cover the Battleborn's sims and make sure I was making phat stacks. I messed around with the format a bit but I think I found something I like and I really enjoy doing them and will probably continue them into next season. Now I'm not going to get into my player's stats (I'll let him handle that) but as the season went on the Battleborn locker room remained a positive place, with everybody realistic on the season expectations and tons of optimism for the next few years. As long as the great locker room, I also really enjoyed doing the PT's through out the season. As far as I can remember I had fun with them, especially the championship week PT some great prompts there. As the season ended there was an oppertunity to be a GM for the up coming WJC. I remember seeing it encouraged new users and junior players to apply for the jobs, so I figured why the hell not and applied for my home team Canada. To my surprise I was picked to co-GM team Canada with @CB2212 and so far he's been a great partner and other then a minor kerfuffle with the roster announcement (which was totally 100% my fault and am super sorry to the parties involved) everythings been going great and am looking forward to bringing the glory of gold to Canada. Also want to have a big shoutout to @reid who used my player in the S55 graphics contest, he's in the final round and my bias ass feels he needs more votes (come on people). So now I'm waiting with anticipation and excitement for Saturday and the S56 SHL draft to see if I can become another 1st round pick. Theres been some users who have put me in their 1st round mock draft so far and while that's super kind of them, it does make me feel good about the chances. Although it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I were to be a 2nd round pick instead (would be a little suprised if i fell further then that though not going to lie). So thank you everybody here for making my first season a very enjoyable experience and I am looking forward to the many many more I plan on being here.

Yours Truly,
Jeremy Weaver AKA W19eaver

I'm writing this out so that ahead of the SHL entry draft, SHL GM's and scouting teams can have an insight on what I have to offer them as a hockey player. I just went through my first full year of professional hockey and what a ride it was. I'm from a small town in northern British Columbia and was shocked when I heard SHL and SMJHL scouts started coming to my games to watch me play in "AA" midget hockey. It's always been my dream to be a professional hockey player ever since I first watched the sport on my small black and white TV back when I was 8 years old. I just figured people from small towns are usually stuck in small towns. I figured I would eventually follow in the paths of my older brothers and become a logger or end up stuck on the family farm. But apparently all those 5 am practices and dedication to stopping frozen rubber with my body paid off. I can still remember getting a call from the SMJHL commissioner asking me to come to a combine so I could run some drills and show off my skills a bit more before the draft. The combine that year was held in Detroit, Michigan home of the Detroit Falcons of the SMHL. Now before this I had never been out of Canada. I've played tournaments in BC cities like Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George and thought of those as big cities. Then I had to travel to Vancouver, BC to get on a flight to Detroit. Vancouver itself seemed daunting but then I got to Detroit and I'm not sure if it was just because I was in a different country but Detroit felt even bigger (although I'm not sure it is). Now I must have had a pretty good combine because a week later I recieved a phone call (wasn't able to make the draft live due to family obligations) from the Nevada Battleborn saying I was selected 9th overall in the draft and that I needed to report to team training camp in Las Vegas, Nevada as soon as I could. So the next thing I knew, I was on a plane over looking the Hoover Dam as the plane was getting close to my destination and was filled with an incredible feeling of smallness. The world out there is huge and I was just beginning to see that. After landing in Las Vegas and making my way to the practise rink, I decided the best thing for me to do is just put my head down and get to work, just as if I was on the farm. It sure worked because even though Las Vegas could be a very distracting place for a young man such as myself, I just went to work and eventually won the starting job in Nevada out of camp. Being named starter was a pretty incredible feeling, although the first guy they brought in to challenge me wasn't much of a challenge, he wouldn't talk or do anything as if he wasn't actually there or something. I remember playing in my first pre-season game, it was against the Anaheim Outlaws. I remember thinking before the game that this is it, this is the beginning of everything I've ever worked for. I ended up letting in 5 goals. Now the team was outshot very badly and there's nothing I could do about that in net but I still wasn't very pleased with my performance but my teammates and coaches were so I did what any great goalie needs to do when he isn't pleased with his performance, I forgot about it and went to practise the next day ready to work. The first 2/3 of the season was quite the blur. I started the first 36 games for Nevada and I remember there being a onslaught of pucks thrown at me. I'm pretty sure I led the league in shots faced after the first week of the season and never let that spot up, even though 10 other goalies ended up seeing more minutes in net then I did. One of my fondest memories of the season was our 2nd game against Quebec City and we had just won the night before against the Scarecrows and with the success we've had against Quebec up til that point, we figured this was our best chance for our first ever winning streak. Well we were right because the whole team came out on fire and I ended up recording my first (and only) shutout. Even though I had a good number of really solid games, I also had a bunch of stinkers where I was absolutely disgusted with my performance. I was tired and being slightly over worked by that point, and the management knew this so they went out and signed CK Supernaw to split time with me the rest of the year. I was very grateful for Supernaw and all though his giant frame was a little intimidating at first, we became very close in net, always pushing each other to be better and I thought he played unreal in relief of me the remainder of the season. CK and I were also able to shoot some commercials for the Dodge Ram Hellcat and quickly learned what a funny S.O.B that guy is. So with the playoffs coming up and I was watching the crease really heat up with CK in it, I lobbied for him to start in the playoffs. Never underestimate the hotness of a goalie and I was feeling a little stiff and cold at that point from my 12 games on the bench. Even though CK did start and played amazing in his 2 games, the Battleborn management was loyal enough to get me to let me get a couple starts in as well. Now I wasn't very pleased with my performance again was really hoping to steal a game from the Kelowna Knights but I just couldn't do it. So the playoff experience was bitter sweet, it was really cool being in the playoffs and that energy, just wasn't the finish we were hoping for. Since the playoffs ended for us Battleborn I decided to head home back to the farm for the summer but then I got a call from IIHF Canada, I made the team for the upcoming WJC. To be able to put on that jersey will be another dream come true even if I'll be riding the pine most of the tournament. I'm hoping this letter of my thoughts and feelings over this past season and my up coming performance at the WJC's will encourage all the SHL GM's who actually read these types of letters, to boost me up their draft board and pick the sure fire pick that is myself.

Yours truly,
Phillip Weaver