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Show ' I I.: ; - r , i ( -S r . ' :: , . 1 V ,. -'' .. t 1 - - A I- ' a .. : . : ... - i t. I ; A : " .:, v I I - . '" ; 'j . ? IL,A A.:,.,,,--. - I ' i'-j: ' . " ' : i . . ........3 4 y $ .'yy:' , '.. '' 'Z. ' " ; I '. I-:': ' x-r: '" J:.Zr : t - . :i'ty . ''C ; ;'' ' -v .' ''''. ,' :V'- ffi- "' ' ' ' V- & -' ' ' -y ' : ir-'-'' .,:Syyyy. ;y-yy-yy'y.y y.y:yyi;Wyy.-y.yy: '.y M..:.:y'- Z-'--y--'-' "; ... v:j" yM'::b'' JUHJN CUUK Top In League By DAVE WIGHAM BOUNTIFUL If young , hockey players in these parts decide they want to become professional in the sport then they can plan on one thing for sure. Moving to another state, since Utah isn't exactly known as the hotbed of hockey in the states. ONE SUCH player that decided de-cided to give it a shot is John Cook, a graduate of Viewmont High where he helped the Vikings Vik-ings to two straight state titles. John has dreamed of playing hockey as a profession and realized that in order to catch the eyes of the scouts he would have to go somewhere else to show off his stuff. Joe Rodgers. the man they call Mr. Hockey in Utah, went to a national coaches meeting and soon had one of the coaches interested in this tall player from Utah. Soon the groundwork was laid and John was on his way to Waterloo. Iowa to play in the United States Hockey League. RECENTLY JOHN was home for a vacation and was still showing signs of excitement excite-ment about playing in this league. "There are players from all over on the club, we're all just playing hoping one of the scouts picks us up." Those scouts are both college and professional, although John does admit that like several other players, he doesn't want to go into the college ranks. John lives in a house with 14 other hockey players with his main roommate being from New York. It seems to be rub- bing off on him a little as one could detect a small accent in his voice. All in all there are 22 players on the club from states suchas New York. Minnesota, all around the New England area, and oh yea. one from some state called Utah. TO BE in this league the players are from the age of 1 7 up to 20 years old. they set the limit at this age noting that if a person were older then no college col-lege or professional team would be interested since they go after the younger players. The team travels by bus to their other games in states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, Wis-consin, with the season starting start-ing in October and the playoffs scheduled for March. "There are seven teams in our division and the top two go to the playoffs. play-offs. The winner of the playoffs play-offs then get to go to the nationals na-tionals in Detroit and that's where the scouts really take a good long look at the players. So it's important to all of the teams to get to the nationals." noted John. USUALLY THESE success stories started when the kid was in diapers but that isn't the case with John. This is only the fifth season that John has played play-ed hockey seriously, although as a youngster he was involved in just about every sport you can think of. "I started to ice skate and really liked it and began be-gan doing it about six hours a day for six days a week. Then my brothers and I would play broom hockey or stick hockey at the house and things just fell together for me." In comparing the two states as far as hockey goes. John sees the Utah people behind the times. "Hockey is big around these parts. In fact it's kind of nice because w e're treated tre-ated like the big times by the people in the town. They want our autographs and the whole thing. They are playing a much more physical style of hockey, almost a head hunting style at times with a lot of stiff checks." This style really doesn't bother John since his frame is 6' and 2(15 pounds he can dish out as much as he takes. THE CLUB actually pays for anything connected with hockey, the sticks and other equipment. They have trainers, train-ers, doctors and just about everything ev-erything the professionals have, everything except the money that is. ' The coaches are beginning to notice John too. The Olympic Olym-pic coach saw him play and was quoted in the two papers as saying "He's a good skater and really handles himself well on the ice." JOHN IS hopeful of making a professional club next season but if he doesn't he wants to change leagues to play in the Seattle area because according to him there are more scouts there. To put things into perspective perspec-tive as to the level he is playing the line goes like this. The top is the NHL. then comes the minor leagues like the Golden Eagles, then the senior league followed by the juniors and colleges. John is playing in the top level of junior hockey. HIS PARENTS are supportive suppor-tive of this move but his father Don does have some reservations. reserva-tions. "I'm right behind him if he takes it seriously. Sometimes Some-times with those youngsters, you can forget why they are back there and start to mess around. If he is playing hard and working hard then I'm right with him." Sounds like John is doing both. Having a good time and w orking hard at his goal of becoming be-coming a professional hockev player. |