Paddle Prairie product captures role with Kings

Page

Sometimes hard work pays off, as it has for 22 ?year-old Clarence Houle Jr. Whether it's in or out of the rink, as a defenseman for the Red Deer College Kings Houle gives it his all at every game and practice. Coach Ray Bennett describes him as a competitive leader.

"He's above average in talent, not the top, but he puts himself up there because of his work ethic," said Bennett.

This is the first year for Houle on the Kings, a team that finished the regular season with 12 wins and a tie from 22 games. Now they are tackling the SAIT Trojans in the best-of-five Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference semi-finals series. The last time the Kings played SAIT, Houle ended up on the injured list.

"Knock on wood," Houle said, hoping he won't end up there again. Earlier in the season, he separated his shoulder and missed three games. He still goes to physiotherapy at the college and wars a brace.

At 180 lb. And 6 feet, along with a never-give-up attitude, Houle sometimes gets hurt, but you never see him along the sidelines for long.

"I thought we might have started playing him too soon after the injury, but he said he was fine and seems to have recovered nicely, said Bennett. "Even f he wasn't fine he would have said he was anyway that's just the type of guy he is. He gets involved in the game and plays hard."

The game of hockey started early for Houle, who strapped on skates at the age of four.

"My mom would clear off a patch of ice on a creek near our house and me and my sister would skate around till our feet froze," he said.

Living in Paddle Prairie meant raveling half an hour to High Level to play hockey. The Houle family did just that until Clarence's first year of peewee and their move to Innisfail. He played in Innisfail for two years, then another three years in Red Deer while in high school. After that, he spent three years on the Fort McMurray Junior "A" Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

As the youngest of eight children, Clarence Jr. wasn't the first one in the family to grow up in skates. His two older brothers played for the Red Deer Rustlers until one was lost to leukemia and the other was in a car accident.

Houle is modest about his own abilities, but you know he's a winner, whether or not the season ends with a championship. "I'm fortunate to be asked to play hockey and attend school at the same time, " he said.