March 2013.pdf - Kelowna Secondary School

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Westerns
Satisfy
La Musique et
le Cerveau
Grad Semi
Formal
Continued from page 1 Considering this, it is obvious that other things, such as school work, aren't
top priority. Homework is especially hard for the student players.
“It’s tough on the bus with bumps on the road and everything,” rookie Rourke Chartier admitted.
“You try to get as much done at home as possible.” There isn’t much time for catching up with
schoolwork, so it is especially vital for the players not to fall behind at all. If their grades drop, the
WHL rules force them to sit out for games until they are caught up again, something everybody
wants to avoid by any means.
In order to make it to the NHL, all these young men make huge sacrifices. Some are thousands of
kilometres away from home, like Chartier or Henrik Nyberg, who is from Sweden. "I wasn't really
homesick," Chartier said, "but I've heard the stories."
Food is nothing to enjoy, either. The players have a strict nutrition plan. “Just stay away from junk,”
Chartier explained, “and for dinner it's Chicken and Pasta.” And that every evening. “They’re sick of
it by Christmas,” Mr Wishlow laughed.
All of this for only one goal: "I’d like to play for Colorado Avalanche. I've always been a fan of [ex-
Avalanche player] Joe Sakic."
Darren Wishlow, KSS’s “Rocket Scientist”
by Julia Roigk
That some of the Kelowna Rockets, aspiring NHL
players, are attending KSS is probably common
knowledge. Something less well known might be
the role Mr Wishlow, KSS's very own Biology
and Marine Biology teacher, plays in all of this.
Mr Wishlow is a "parent for school" for the students,
some of which are thousands of kilometers
away from home and their parents. He is
the point of contact for anything school related,
from grades over absences to off-ice behavior.
The Western Hockey League (WHL), and
the Kelowna Rockets organization especially,
value academic achievements, going
so far as to force students with bad marks to
sit out games until they are caught back up.
Mr Wishlow’s job as Team Education Advisor
includes helping new players settle into
their life at KSS, making sure that they chose
the right courses and to some extent looking after
them. “The work load varies,” he explained,
“especially in August and September there is a
lot of organizing, [such as] talking with the home
school and their parents to organize their courses,
every day it is checking up on the players with
teachers, and once the season is done, we have to
transfer the students back to their home school.”
The checking up part is especially important, as
the players inevitably will miss school. With 36 of
their games played away from Prospera Place, they
spend a lot of time on the road, and even more time
is spent training, so staying up to date is mandatory.
Aside from school work, one thing waiting for
him in the future is the draft. Come June, even
his wife “who doesn’t follow hockey at all”
will know that draft day is approaching quickly,
as it won’t be unusual for her to answer the
phone and have scouts from the Anaheim Ducks
or Chicago Blackhawks on the line. The scouts
don’t want to know about the prospects’ on-ice
achievements, however. Rather, they are interested
in their work-ethic and general behavior,
because “[the market] is so competitive out
Above: KSS Rockets Chartier and Linaker
pose with Julia Roigk. Below: Mr. Wishlow
stands with Chartier before practice
there that they want to make sure they’re getting
a well-rounded individual for their draft pick.”
In the eight years since Mr Wishlow took
over that position from then-vice principal Glen
Leslie who is retired now, he has helped shape
some of the best defensemen in the NHL, with
some of whom he still is in contact. “I spend
two years dealing with their school work, [so] it
is nice to see how they are doing in any of their
careers,” he admitted. “[The] ex-players that return
to Kelowna, I usually see around the rink
in the summer and end up talking with them.”
But for all that work he puts into the next generation
of NHL hockey players, he isn’t paid at
all. So for a moment, let us all just appreciate the
effort and time put forth by Mr Wishlow, a man
in an important role that gets too little attention.
Chartier fights hard for the Rockets. Photo contributed by the Kelowna Rockets.
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