who's that guy?

grant jeffries was 28 years old. he knew that he had, baring injury or a sudden health issue, lived for less than half his life expectancy. he was aware he still had many good years to come. unfortunately he was also convinced his best years were long behind him.

perhaps they were, when he was in grade school, when he first started to show an affinity for the sport of hockey. the teams he played on, the games they won, the tournaments there was a lot of attention paid to little grant and he soaked it all up like a sponge.

maybe grant’s happiest years were when he was in junior high school. when it became apparent that he was a half a stride faster than everyone else, that his stick-handling ability was just a bit better and his passes were just a bit crisper. coupled with his ability to be in the right place at the right time, he was hands down the star player in the league.

that was the time when grant’s hockey future was set. every break from school and he was in a skills camp. he began to move through the midget hockey league ranks as his parents sought a more competitive environment. grant couldn’t have been happier... or so he thought.

by the time high school rolled around grant had truly hit his stride. he had a strapping 6 foot frame, he was strong and he explosive speed. by now grant had a good stride and a half on the competition. he just seemed to ‘know’ exactly where the puck was going to be when it came off the boards. grant could fake any goalie right out of his skates. then the university scouts started coming around, offering grant his pick of some of the best hockey playing schools in ontario. but probably best of all, was the women. as a hockey player, no as a star hockey player grant had his pick of the girls in his school. at the party, just about anywhere he happened to be. yes, grant’s life was that good.

things changed when grant got to nipissing. for the first time in his life he wasn’t the fastest on the ice, in fact he was one of the slowest. he was no longer the best stick handler on the team and he still ‘knew’ exactly where the puck would be but only because there was another player ‘there’ waiting for it.

in a very short time grant went from being the man to the nobody. he didn’t just roll over and die. he hit the ice every chance he could, he worked with the coaches, he worked out in the weight room. nothing seemed to make much of a difference. he just kept sliding further and further down the rotation until he was basically in danger of falling right off the end of the bench.

nothing was going along with the plan grant had. he had planned on at least one invite to join the canadian junior hockey team. either after his first or definitely after his second season of national team play, the nhl was supposed to come calling. he’d even had several scenarios in his head where he scored the game winning goal to seal the stanley cup victory.

grant had no clue what went wrong. all he knew was he was 28, strong and healthy. he still plays hockey but it was just for an adult recreation hockey team. he still had all his moves but he was still a nobody.

once again another blog post inspired by a member in my gym. it is not that i think that every one on the gym floor has a tale of woe. but the real life 'grant', much like the real life, 'frankie' strut around the gym. they appear both cocky and incredibly self-conscious at the same time. it is that juxtaposition that stands out to me and usually inspires me to 'write' their story.