<div align="center"> Joel Westbrook: The Profile of a Hockey Draftee
By: Reporter Number 6


The Press Conference

Sitting there, seeing this world for the first time again and again, Mr. Joel Westbrook said, “He was my mentor, he was my friend, he was… He and his family were as much like family to me as my own family was to me. Taldon was the person who put me on this path, and I couldn’t thank him enough. It really is an amazing journey. You live your whole life knowing what to expect, what will come forward, but when you are a hockey player, your life is started over again and again. Every draft, every new team… All of it sets a new path, it gives you new chances, it gives you an adventure of a lifetime.”

Joel Westbrook sat there, speaking slowly, but with passion and conviction in his words as he carefully chose which one to say next. He seemed like an outstanding young man. He did not even seem to care where, why, or what position he was playing hockey at. He just seemed to love the game and everything that went along with it.

One person even stood up to ask him why he chose to play defense in the league he was about to join. He responded quickly, with, “There is not a real reason I chose it. I just want to play. I suppose I can make a reason if you like.” The room gained a slight clatter of laughter as his joke set in.

He continued, “Defense is an in between really. It is not quite forward or goalie. You are not committed to any one set of roles. Other than enforcers, which can come from most positions, forwards are required to have offensive proficiency just to keep up. Goalies only have the ability to play a defensive game. At defense, you get the mixture of those two. It allows you to pick your own destiny for yourself. In the end, it seemed like the natural choice.”


Joel Westbrook sits and answers questions for some reporters

“What about your mentor, Taldon Shepard? He played forward, primarily on the wing, throughout his entire career. What stopped you from making the same career move in your decision?” a reporter asked after.

“Oh, Taldon has been an inspiration to me. He has always been one to make everything seem much more capable of being done and handled. I wouldn’t say his skill set rubbed off on me. He made it a priority to let me learn the specifics of the game my own way. What he did do, however, was teach me the work ethics and methods of learning that allowed me to get here today. It was a hell of an experience, I can tell you that. In the end, his positional tendencies never really rubbed off on me. It didn’t matter to me that he played on the wing. He was a hockey player. He was and still is a great guy.”

A reporter inquired to his mentor’s, Taldon Shepard’s, involvement with the United States IHF team this year, to which he responded, “I’ve been a to a few games. They’ve done very well so far. Also as an American myself, it is always fun to watch my fellow citizens and players battle it out to help put America up in the top teams as we are doing now. Recently I was able to attend the gold medal game they played. It was such a close one. Sometimes you really hate box seats though. At the end when Carlzner blocked it, I had thought it went in. I started pulling my hair because I thought overtime was coming our way. Soon enough – or like a couple seconds later – I was promptly corrected by the cheering and waiving of flags by the Americans in the crowd. It was a great game by both squads. Germany could have easily won that game as well. So, yeah… USA!”


The United States, GMed by Taldon Shepard, team took gold at the annual IHF tournament earlier this off-season.

The Childhood of Westbrook

After the whole press conference was over and such, I approached Westbrook and asked him if he was willing to sit down and assist me in creating an article profiling him as a person and a player entering the Northwest Junior Hockey league. He agreed and we chatted for a while. When we got down to business, I started with his early days.

Westbrook grew up in the Chicago area, watching and playing hockey when he could. He had always done well in school, as well as athletics and sports in general. He played many sports as a child, including ones like football, baseball, soccer (futbol), and lacrosse. These were the ones other than hockey, of course. Up until recently, Westbrook had never really had a definitive direction on what he’d do with his large skill set in the future.

“Football had to be my favorite along with hockey. When I was a kid, all my coaches always told me how I could always make all the passes when I played the quarterback position. Recently I hear that term and recognize it as having an excellent throwing arm, but getting that recognition when you’re eight or twelve means very little, ha ha.”


Joel, as a child, playing youth football in the Chicago suburbs.

Westbrook was not alone in his endeavors. He had two siblings. One was a brother,, and the other was his sister. His brother Jacob recently graduated out College with a bachelors in engineering. His sister, Sarah, is two years younger than him, and is apparently also very athletically talented. She recently placed in national competition for various track and field events. This includes a third in the sixty meter hurdle and a first place in the eight hundred meter middle distance racing event.

“I love my family. Sarah and Jacob are really good at what they do. Years ago when I was hearing about Jacob getting a full scholarship to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, it was shocking to me. I knew he was smart, but I never realized he was in that sort of league. I used to even have some hope I could catch up to him that way. All those I can say are safely dead, ha ha. As for Sarah, her and me are a lot alike. She was actually one of the reasons I asked Taldon to help me. She was getting a lot of help from her coaches, who used to be nationally competitive themselves, and I was getting the standard treatment with my sports training, I saw how much she could progress and I wanted that sort of help. She actually was the one who thought of asking Taldon.”

His parents, though, did not share this success as their children are gathering. His father grew up poor and was never able to attend a college. He managed to build his own small business selling hardware through his store locally. It can’t match the big name brand stores, but it has done well to support their family of five over the years, I’m told. His mother got a two year degree in business and has been able to help his father run the store while they’ve been married using that experience and knowledge of her’s.

“The hardware store… ? Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of memories there. Both my parents worked a lot, so they spent a lot of time there. Luckily, they also owned the place, so they converted a room in the back to be a room for us to spend time when they brought us there. My mother spent a lot of time on the business side of it all, so she was able to spend a lot of her free time while doing her work with us in the back. It was a bit odd. I know spending time there often bored Sarah to death. I generally tried to look at the whole situation as what my life was. I can’t really say I liked the store a lot, or even my hometown, but that in itself may just me wanting to get away from it all. At a point you realize you want to move on at a point. You want to make your own life, even if that means rejecting things that are actually good simply for the sake of finding your own place.”



The hardware store his parents own

Westbrook seem to be flourishing with stories from his childhood. I asked him what, out of all his times, was his most memorable memory?

“That is always a tough question. I’d hate to forget it and come back with a different answer later. Though… I’d have to say when I was five and Christmas time came around. The store is in the perfect spot for advertising during the holidays. It is in a small strip mall and on its corner. The corner sticks out to face a major intersection coming off the expressway. It was also at just the right angle so that when the lights in the sign – or lights for stuff like Christmas and Halloween decorations – come on, you can see it clearly more than any other store I can remember down the expressway. And because of this I found that my regular place I spent time as a young child also doubled as where little me went to see Santa every year. "

"Back when I was a kid and still believed in a thing like Santa, it was like a wonderland for a kid during Christmas. My parents set up elaborate decorations to go along with the seasonal advertising. They told my siblings and I Santa’s presence made it instantly more winter like in the store. It was a total lie of course, but it really put us in the Christmas mood every year. We’d all rattle off all the things we wanted from Santa that particular year for many of the years while we were still young. My parents usually watched us while being so proud of us as we grew up… One year was particularly memorable. I was just about 3 or 4 – I don’t really remember which anymore – and I was asking for stuff from Santa. I ended up asking for ‘green.’ Yeah. I do not have any idea why, but I wanted ‘’blue.’ We weren’t sure of what it meant, but I actually seemed to have wanted the color blue. My family tends to assume that it has to do with the oceans. I wanted water, or a trip to the beaches like we normally did in the summer. I feel obliged to agree with them. I can’t think of anything better for that idea. I probably just hadn’t associated any of the words with all that together by that point. That is the thing that pops into my head when I think about memorable stuff.”


A stock photo that does not represent Joel well during the winter festivals

In the end of all the talk of history and childhood, I was considerably surprised that he was so opened to telling me so much about himself. Even though I was making a profile, many people don’t go into so much detail – especially details often considered very personal – with me in the questions. I asked him to see why he thought he was so open in these answers he gave me.

“Well, I am not totally sure on that one. I guess there’s a point where you open up because… Everything is changing. I don’t know any better way to get across what I am trying to say. I am moving forward to who knows what future in hockey… It is a bit nice to get some stuff off my chest here and there with reminiscing and such.”

What about his Hockey Sense?

By this point, I felt a bit intrusive. It was not so much that I was delving into areas he rather keep left untold, but more than his willingness seemed questionable in motive to say the least. I decided that moving on to a new subject might be in the best interest. I quickly ran through my mind of the best things to talk about. Soon enough, I was asking him her ideas on hockey.

His abilities have been well documented and critically analyzed by many people from the industry that report on the Northwest Junior Hockey League teams. I wanted to get his thoughts on the importance of the various skills that you were scouted for coming into the league. I began with a common criticism in this league and asked about his generally low penalty shot ability.

“ I am a defenseman for one. I don’t really need to be great at penalty shots, ha ha. Though, if I was playing forward I can’t honestly say I’d put much more effort into it. It just isn’t a very helpful skill. You can be great at so many things that will make your ability on penalty shots and shootouts a lot better, but if you focus solely on the skill of the shootout attempt, it will rarely be helpful elsewhere.”


Westbrook hits a player

Satisfied with the answer, I moved on. Next up on my list was his defensive ability. His presence and capability in the zone were often cited as too average for a defenseman, although still usually seen as above average for players in general at his age.

“It is definitely something I plan to work on, yes. I want to be offensive, so at a point in this stage of my career that part may suffer. I plan to do everything I can to get that up to as high levels as I can. If I just decided to ignore getting those abilities better, what sort of defenseman would I be? I certainly understand the criticisms there. I can be a lot better in my own zone and plan to be in the future.”

I went on to ask him about his shot and scoring skill. It was among his best skills, according to the scouting reports that seem to tout it quite highly that I read..

“The big shot from the point is something I to try and be good at. There are not a whole lot of people who are known for their offensive skills like a great shot, and I want to focus my game on being a great offensive asset no matter where I play. When it comes to offensive defenseman, you look for one of two things. First you have the ability to skate well. After that you see the ones you will put the shot you want onto the net to make the big chances. If a team doesn’t have that ability, you lose out on a lot of possible chances.”


Westbrook follows through on a point shot

For an offensive defenseman, his passing skills are actually one of his more criticized abilities. While not horrible, most sports analysis express a definite need to work on the skill. I went on to ask him about that take on it.

“I have to agree with those sentiments. Especially for the type of game I want to be playing in this league, I do need to work on my passing. It is very important for both breaking out and zone possession. The thing about passing is that – for defensemen – it is more of a need for competence. Sure, the ability to feed a player perfectly from the point, or as they dash up the ice to take advantage of a bad change by the other team, are both incredibly useful skills, but they also require a very high level of skill there. Most times you see the need for passing from a defensemen, it is all about being competent enough to get the simple passes consistently. Although I would prefer to be better, going forward I want to make sure that competency is one of the big needs in regard to passing going forward.”

I laughed at the next note I had talked about his lack of any real face-off skill. I thought it’d be interesting to bring it up.

“Ha! Who said that? I am amazing at face-offs. Though, seriously, I bet that bit of information was probably scrounged up before I decided exactly what position I wanted to play in the league when entering it.”


Westbrook played for his high school before joining the NWJHL.

I wanted to keep on offensive skills, so next I went to my notes on puck handling, another on of Westbrook’s more highly praised skills. The reports on how good were near around what I heard for his scoring ability.

“Puck handling? Well puck handling comes into play all the time. It isn’t the most absolute essential skill for a defenseman, but I tend to believe that being so intertwined within every aspect of the game – even when you don’t have the puck – makes it important enough to make it a huge priority going forward. Honestly, I think it would be hard to argue its importance another way.”

Next up on my list was the recent issues he had with a broken thumb. It actually said it was the second time he broke on of his thumbs. These were not major injuries, but this developing history of injury problem could call up red flags for anyone scouting him no matter the reason.

“Yeah, though both were odd accidents. And although I doubt any injuries like that last one especially will happen again, I do plan on increasing my general training time along with my durability training time. It does not worry me all that much, in the end of all things. I severely doubt there will be much of a problem with it going forward.”


We do have reports that Westbrook was in fact not apart of Seal team Six when it took down Osama bin Laden

Over half way through my list I was on endurance. Not the best of his reports. At the levels he played at, it never became much of an issue, but there were some troubling concerns over how it transition.

“Without a doubt I agree with that. I definitely need to beef up the training overall like I said before for durability. Endurance is another one of my targets to get better in my workout schedule. I’ll probably be spending a bit of time at the gym just for these various trainings I want to get better. Endurance is just too important. If you are tired, the rest of your abilities don’t mean anything to anyone anymore.”

We had been big on training style parts of the game, so I went on to continue that trend by bringing up his strength. The reports I had from the scouts on Westbrook’s general strength were similar to his endurance. It was not too much of a detriment in his days before this league, but there were concerns that his strength may not hold up enough at this next level. For a defenseman, that is a bad concern to see in your scouting report.

“Strength is a big one too. It also affects many parts of the game. Not as much as endurance, but as a defenseman it does come into play a lot in the game I’ll need to be able to play. You are definitely right about that. I’m not all that great at checking either. I do really want to get better in these regards - and will without a doubt try to – but I do want to give more focus onto my offensive game and make sure that that is in tip top shape. It is a need to improve, yes. It will be another workout training that I plan to use to get it better than it is now.”

Wanting to change the subject, I decided to move on to one more of his better skills. This one was the last one I had high accolades for, being skating and another offensive skill in the game. It was also similarly suggested to be around as good as both his shooting and puck handling like I said for puck handling before. I asked him about why he thought skating was important and why he put so much work into making his technique and speed so high quality.

“Skating is just as important as endurance. It hits you and forces you to be good at it in order to be a competent player at any level. If you can’t skate, you can’t do anything for anyone. Like a lack of endurance could lead to not being able to use your skills, skating does the same thing without even needing to get your tired. It doesn’t matter how good you can check or puck handle when the guy outskates you to the puck or whatever situation every single time. I see it as one of the few essential skills for every hockey player that plays. I’d be lost if I was not a good skater. At defense, it is often a quality alternative when breaking out. It can become a huge asset when people are covered and you’re a good enough skater to get it out and put your team on the rush in the snap of a finger. That is just one of the many uses skating has for everyone.”


Westbrook shows off his puck handling and skating skills in one play. Impressive, I know.

After that I took a quick look at discipline. It seemed like a very big given that basically everyone was just as given as one another, or at least almost always they were. So, I decided to move on and not touch that particular subject this day.

My last two scouting reports were on fighting and checking. Fighting seemed like it could easily be a fun conversation to have with him, so that is were I decided to go next when I asked him the next question. In short, his scouting report said nothing good about his fighting skills.

“Ha, do not ask me to fight. I will definitely go down. I got into a fight once at school. It was against one of my friends who we all knew was not very good at fighting. It was over something trivial. I was less mature then, really. But we fought, and we both held our own up until we actually started throwing our fists at each other. You know, that stand off before the fight you feel so cool in until you see that someone videotaped how long it was going on, ha ha. I did not do very well top say the least. though it wasn’t like I got knocked out or anything. While I was a bit younger then, I don’t think I’ve gotten a whole lot better at fighting. I can see myself getting in a few good shots here and there, with most of them being completely based on luck.”

So finally we got to my last scouting report. It was on his checking ability. Like he said in strength, it definitely was one of his skills that he needs to try and work on. The scouts agreed with him word for word. Well, close to word for word. With that in mind, the direction I decided to take was to ask him about the significance of the skill in both the game in general and his position.

“You hear about a defenseman that is not the best checker and you think why are they playing defense, right? Most people would be like that if they knew hockey even a little. I have to agree with that, as well. Checking for a defenseman is – other than defensive awareness – easily one of the person’s main tools they use all the time. If you can’t check, you cannot defend the rush or zone possession offensive schemes very well. People can easily just zip by you without being touched on the rush, and you will not do very well at stopping them from going wherever on the ice they need to in order to set up the play they want. I want to get considerably better at checking, yes. Even as an offensive defenseman, that tool – that technique – is something I will need in the future.”


Westbrook will be in the upcoming NWJHL draft, and the SHL one after that

As I finished my list, one last question on the topic placed itself in my mind. I decided to ask him, if he was one of these GMs building a team through the draft, how would he go about it? He smiled a bit as he heard the question.

“Oh, I like this question. I do. Hockey is on the best examples of a team sport. You have basketball, which is largely based around complete support of one or a few people’s skill set that dwarfs everyone else. It’s a team sport, but it can easily be dominated by a single player if they are good enough much more easily than other sports. Then you have baseball. There is barely a team sport to it. I do not respect baseball players outside of pitchers, honestly. There’s also soccer, which comes similarly in team sport need to hockey, but with so little scoring its more about forcing the right bounces at the right times. Every sport has that, but it sort of seems magnified in soccer. Last sport I have otherwise is football. It’s a team sport, but there is so little need to have an all around game it loses a bit of that attribute.

In hockey you need to have the right people in the right systems. When you build a team, you should be focusing about where you build it around. You can have all the highly touted players you like, but if they don’t fit in the spots you need them to, it does not make one bit of a difference. A lot of teams like to build down the middle, with the centers. I’d probably start there. Other than that, it is down to getting the right pieces for the system you want to play. You want a powerplay that focuses on the point shot? You better have a good shooting defenseman. You want a team to focus on possession play? Your stars better be good at puck handling. But mainly that is what you look for in the cogs for your team. The rest of the players have to compliment the key players that define your team so that your team can have that all around game with less weakness that can be exploited. That is how I would go about building a team from a GM’s perspective.

Satisfied with his answers, there was one more topic I wanted to cover with him as I continued my profile on Joel Westbrook. For now, though, we took a break and I had dinner with his family. They were nice people who were very interested in the article I was writing on their son and brother. The food was great, and we enjoyed ourselves as they accommodated me as I’d imagine one would a friend.

Where do you want to go, Joel?

After dinner and some time talking with his nice family, I sat down again with Joel with my final subject to talk about for this profile. I wanted to ask him where he wanted to go in the upcoming draft.

He quickly struck down the idea of anyone place to be his destination.

“No, no. I really do not want to play favorites. Everyone does have his or her own preferences, sure. But the last thing I am going to do is go and say I’m going to be disappointed unless I get drafted by so and so team from so and so place. “

In a bit of time, I managed to convince him to rank off some of his preferences. He agreed on the case that he would not set a single best or a single worst team preference in where he wanted to go to play hockey. I asked him to start with the lower ranked side of his list first.

“Like I said, I’m not naming a worst. So I’ll just be naming two in a group instead. I would have to say… Montreal and Detroit. No particular order in which is better or worse.

The thing about Montreal is the language barrier. I know they are in French Canada and I cannot deal with other languages that well. It is not a matter of me against French or any other language in specific, but foreign languages in general. I just hate learning them. I took Spanish courses in high school, and by the end of the required two years I had a class for it, I learned I hated learning other languages. It was not anything having to do with the language. It was the learning the thing I found so annoying and boring. I do not think I’ll thrive living in French Canada. If I do go to the Impact, I’ll probably end up finding an English speaking town to buy a house as close as I can to the rink and stuff. I would be great with playing for the team, it is more just the location that throws me off.

As for Detroit, it is a similar situation. I went there once a year or two ago for a hockey tournament and… I also could not see myself being willing to buy a house there. I also happen to be from Chicago, so I do not like any Detroit sports teams in any sport, like the Detroit Lions football team in competition with the Bears every year. It is like that in most sports. I do not think I would enjoy living in that sort of environment, ha ha. Now the Falcons are fine on that front, though. They are a Junior Team that hasn’t been up against a Chicago team for a long time now. Though, with Chi-town getting a new team this year… It really would be something I would want to avoid, no?”

I had to agree with his assessment on some of them. They each did have a negative for him personally. After those, there were 4 left, the Hitmen, Whalers, Knights, and Firebirds. I asked him which was next.


Montreal is just one team with a NWJHL franchise

“I’m going to go ahead and do another group of two, with both the Kelowna Knights and Vancouver Whalers. I do not really see one being much or at all better than the other.

The Knights I’m very much indifferent in terms of things that I can differentiate between all the teams. Most teams have a management that could probably be capable of getting the job done, but in the end you are still picking largely in the dark on most of these players, leaving who is good each year production wise very much a shot in the dark when it comes down to it. So, in the end, the management staffs are not much better at any given place to give an edge to any. With that in mind, I do not really have anything positive or negative to say about the Knights.

As for the Whalers, Taldon had good to words to say for them. He told me about the times back when he was in the league and he gained respect for them because they only really had one guy who was outspoken enough to be noticed, Olvera. There’s that, and also I know some of the people in charge there decently well, so it would be nice to have that as an option when playing in the league for the year. On the downside, I do not like Vancouver, at all. I really do not like the Canucks, and there really is not anything else to sway my opinion to a more positive manner. Just the city, not the citizens or anything quite that mean. It is like what I said for Detroit. With all those random things swaying my interest in going there, it puts me around indifferent, which is similar to what I said for the Knights.”


Vancouver is another. That happens to be why were are talking about it.

That left only the Chicago Hitmen and Prince George Firebirds left for him to pick for the top two. I doubted he was going to rank one over the others after the rest of his attitude on the subject, so I just asked him what he thought of each team.

“Yeah, both teams I’d very much like to go to. The Hitmen are a hometown favorite of course. Playing in Chicago would be great with me living here all my life. Who would not want to represent their home by playing for that team? There’s no Chicago team at the SHL level, so really it also may be my only chance. I am not too worried about that changing my interests overall, though. I would love to play for my hometown, but that is not what drives me to play. I want to play hockey, and even if it is somewhere else I will gladly do it. Like many other teams, I know the General Manager in Chicago now is one to look out for. He already made the move before the draft to get number one overall. He could end up doing a lot more if he feels adventurous enough. It all comes down to what is available to be adventurous with. I wouldn’t blame him or be surprised if he made no other moves either. Wait… Did I just go in a circle? ****. Heh, I should really have thought that through before I said it. Well, out of all the things I have said so far and to only make that one little mistake, I think I am doing quite well. We are pretty close to the end now, are we not?”


Chicago and its classic skyline

I laughed at his blunder, but quickly went back and reminded him so that he remembered he had one last team to comment on. He seemed almost surprised, as though he had forgotten the conversation we were having, He reeled himself back in and got his mind back on track to what we were actually talking about.

“Prince George… Prince George…. Another place I would like to play, for sure. Taldon told me about his season there. He came in late to play that season and signed there. Prince George has a long history of excellence in the Northwest Junior Hockey League, going all the way back to that first championship game. Taldon told me the Four Star Cup was called the Rocky Cup, or something very near that, during that first season of the league. They have won two more since. It is one of the more distinguished histories in the Junior League. That alone brings me to be interested in playing for them. They also have another plus in the new staff the organization hired on to be the General Managers for the team. I met them a number of times when my family and I went with Taldon’s family to watch some of his games this past season. Like it was with the Whalers, knowing the people in charge is always a plus to go along with everything else good about a franchise. I also know they are very capable, like many of the other General Managers in the league this year and its history. In the end, it probably all adds up to being around the same area of interest, as I would have for the Chicago Hitmen going into this year’s draft.”

With his list done, it seemed that Westbrook was a bit uneasy with the whole list he made. I asked him if there was something wrong. He shrugged off the concern, so I decided a slight change of subject may make him feel better. I asked him how he expected the first rounds to play out and what he thought of the various mock drafts from all the various publications out there.

“There are actually a number of ways I can see it play out. The biggest thing I see is a large number of quality defenseman. There are not anywhere near as many highly touted forwards. So, it could either be a race to get the forwards or defensemen in the first rounds. It depends where people are going to look to pick first before teams start getting scared that they may miss out on if they do not use their next pick on that type of player. I also see a lot of love for the new guys in the mocks. There are a number of players available that have stuff like I did with Taldon that connect them to the league and are known better because of that. I could easily see those players going earlier than many seem to be giving them credit for. People tend to like to go with things that are more familiar to them. Then again, it is hard to say how much of a read the general managers all have on the more brand new players. If you know enough about them to make them similar enough like the more connected players, it can easily argued that reaching for them might nit be a bad idea.”


We look forward to seeing where Joel goes in the upcoming draft

He still seemed a bit off, so I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to add to his previous statements about the teams.

“I would also like to emphasize that these are only based on the factors that distinguish each team from one another in my preferences. I do not want to be that guy that goes and says I must go here or else. Though, at the same time, it is almost impossible for someone to be completely indifferent to every option all across the board. But that does not mean that any of these are bad choices for me to go and play with. It is like picking between a Lamborghini and a Corvette. If you have a chance to have one of them without any real downside like debt or whatever, you would love to have either. You may like the look of one of them better, but when it comes down to it you do not care which one you get so long as you get it. I want to play hockey. That is the main point of everything. So if you’re one of the teams lower down on my list, do not worry too much about picking me because where I go in the end does not matter too greatly to me. If you rather have a player that is ecstatic to go play for your team, instead, then you may want to look in a different direction when making your pick if you are lower on the list. That is the farthest extent this list could possibly mean in any regards. I hope you all understand.”

With my profile completed, I said my goodbyes to Joel Westbrook and his nice family. The guy seemed knowledgeable and capable of great things in the league in the following year. Only time will tell how he does. But from how I see it, he without a doubt has the potential to all that and more if things fall his way in his hockey career.

Code:

Words: 6713
Pictures: 15

Note to reader: Any resemblance in Joel's life to any other person is completely by accident and not meant to infringe on anything

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:o awesome Theo

Woah nice job Theo!

holllly, unreal man. 6000, must've taken u a whie

not gonna lie, I stopped reading really early... but very good job

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