Ethan Marek
Author, Editor, and Screenwriter
Hockey Career
Name: Ethan Marek
Age: 20-years-old
Birthday: April 6th, 2001
Goal: I'm aiming for a Junior team next season, and I want to play college hockey, but I only get one year to prove my shot. There's just this powerful orb floating inside of me that knows I can be the dominate player.
GOAL II: I've signed a contract to play for the Great Falls Americans junior hockey team in Montana. My goal for my one and only season with junior eligibility is to become the fastest player on the ice. From there, I don't know where life will take me, but it'll for sure be one heck of an adventure. Life will take me on its course from here.
Road to Juniors
Talk about old time navigation. Ever since I graduated high school, I've tasted the urge of competition to play hockey again. While I attended an accelerated school to earn my Creative Writing Bachelor's degree, chasing my dream to write books and movies, I still wished someone would have told me how hockey worked after high school. When the pandemic hit, I flew back home and finished school online, but on the other side of the boards, I had another dream. A mission.
I needed a job, and the only one that suited me was an opportunity I knew about a half-hour away from my home, closer to the cities. The place was a hockey facility meant for improving kids' skills year round on a small sheet of ice and dryland area. I trained here three times in the summer between my sophomore and junior year, working on my shot and puck handling. But now, I worked there, for a full year (2020-present 2021). I coached a part-time job, working forty hours a week, if you called it work that was. I never felt like I had to put a uniform on, but I did place my coaching hat upon my head. Connecting with younger kids was something I craved. They were always a blessing in my life, especially through the chaos I had to go through to get here today.
Oh, and let us not forget how a mysterious injury had to pop up at just the right time in my early training. My snap shot affected my wrist as the month of December blew in. My hand was so weak after a five-hour shift of work. It stopped working. I literally couldn't shooter stickhandle or pass anymore. Too much pain, and my wrist was super stiff. It was determined to be a bone contusion on my lunate bone, but the doctors didn't really know how it could happen while my lunate bone wasn't a concern in length. It was supposedly overuse, which I still don't believe since I had use the wrist a ton more in high school at that time. And the injury still hasn't fully healed itself, and it may never heal itself. But it was doable after two months in a split, weeks of hand therapy, two X-Rays, an experience in a 45-minute MRI machine, and two months in a cast. I kept wearing a wrist splint for training though. I still wore it today.
While I coached, my coworkers taught me a lot about Juniors, something my high school coaches never talked to me about. But I did blame myself from time to time; I never asked. I was a lucky one for sure with age eligibility. April birthday, I could compete for a Junior hockey team for one full season, then I'd be done. And since I didn't play hockey for two years, I knew I had to work hard to achieve my goal. My motivation though, that doesn't worry me. It was more so the fact, was I taking the right course to reach my goal. Slowly but surely, the mush cascaded away, and the path presented itself.
THE CCM SHOWCASE in Denver, Colorado. After doing months of research, I found an opportunity that could bring me back into the game. This was what I trained for. I'd play in front of hundreds of scouts, coaches, and players, showing my skills and strengths on the ice. I wrote a six-month blog about my training journey (down below) for the one's who wanted to read what I did on a daily basis. I trained in the weight room, dryland area at work, and on the sheet of ice with my coaches. Sometimes, I'd have the ice alone to myself to skate, but I enjoyed my coaches being there for a set of eyes, gaining their mastery advice.
I played great at the Showcase. Colorado was for sure a fever dream, doesn't feel like it happened, but it did. It was magical. The road trip for sure made it fun. Instead of blogging it, I did a classic travel vlog for it. I believed that ten-mile hike I did in the Rocky Mountains prepped me well for conditioning before the four games I played in. I met some awesome players around the country. We were Team Black, won three out of four of our games.
The aftermath of it all was a success. I got scouted by over ten teams, and then there were a few hockey tryouts and camps sending me invites, but this Showcase was the tryout, so I passed on those expensive opportunities. And as ironic as it was, I didn't sign up for any of the teams that watched me live. One of my older brother's teammates who played Juniors in the past connected me with his old coach. The team sounded marvelous, and it was close to home. That was when I signed for my one year of hard determination. My one year of Juniors.
I can't wait to play for the Great Falls Americans in Montana for the 2021-2022 season.
Junior Training
I have quite a nerve-racking goal in mind right now. It's a goal I can't stop thinking about everyday. Hockey has kept me sane in life while living through the catastrophes of the Shingles Virus in third grade, financial crisis of 2007 in the whilst of my middle school and freshman year of high school, tearing my left labrum junior year of high school hockey, senior year of high school hockey being an absolute train wreck in the midst of a coaching change and moving up in the double AA ranks, moving to Florida for my dream of becoming an author and scriptwriter (no car, no hockey; no athletic sports at my university), the celebrity appearance of the Corona virus, and through all of those events, there's one thing that I didn't give up on.
Hockey is my heart, and when it's ripped away, I can't live without it. Through all of my hard work with hockey, I'm truly baffled no one cared to lead me in the right direction with the sport. My coaches definitely saw something different in me. My first year of playing high school hockey, I practiced on both JV and Varsity, five days every fricken week so I could get better. Junior year, I did a lot more Varsity, but still bounced into JV practices if I wanted to. And then Senior year, that was something else. At least my weight-lifting teacher saw the light and hope inside of me. I was the strongest kid on my team, one of the fasted sprinters on the track and ice, one of the best vertical jumpers, and I made the leaderboard for squats, bench, and clean. He asked me to play football, but there's only one sport I NEED in life. And here I am today.
I have the attitude. I have the adrenaline. I have the fuel and dedication to push myself not to the limits but ABOVE it. I have a fricken strong shot, breaking lights and plastic shelves. Stickhandling needs a little bit of work, but nothing doubts me. I'm here, ready to play with a team of brothers, ready to use the skills and strengths I have built over the past years. I've been coaching kids now for about four months, and it's time to coach myself.
Below, you will find my blog that I'm updating everyday. I'll continue to update the document everyday while I'm training for my last year of eligibility with Juniors. No coach ever told me how hockey worked after high school. No coach ever led me on the right path. So, I never knew I needed to tryout for a Junior team. This will be my FIRST & ONLY tryout. I'm nervous.
After two years of unravelling my emotions, figuring out what path with hockey I have to go down to reach my dreams of becoming a dominate hockey player out on that ice, I'm here today, asking you scouts, readers, and coaches to follow me on my jaggety journey. It's time to prove others wrong. I'm here with a dream, and I'm not letting my love wander out from my life.