It's that time of year

Page 14

The Major Junior and NHL drafts are key moments in every hockey hopeful's life. Last month, Aboriginal players were taking big steps in Toronto for the Ontario Hockey League annual player harvest and in Pittsburgh for the NHL selection show.

It's the same every spring; talented young hockey players sit in stuffy buildings, wearing suits and ties, surrounded by family, friends, fans and supporters. They go to determine their hockey fate; to see if the scouts and coaches and general managers think they're good enough; to see if their big league dreams will come true.

It's a tough, tough road for any hockey prospect to complete successfully. By the time a young player gets to sit in an NHL building, he's one of a chosen few.

And, more and more, Aboriginal players are part of it.

It wasn't always that way. Many hockey managers will privately admit they believe that Aboriginal players have an even tougher path to follow. It's part of the game's inside lore - a hockey cliche - that Aboriginal kids often find it too hard to adjust to life away from their families and culture and frequently abandon the team and go home before they've given the team a chance to recover its investment in them.

But a growing number of promising Aboriginal players are facing that stereotype down and putting it to bed. Many are encouraged by the success of Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan, an Ojibway who grew up on the Garden River reserve in Ontario and went on to play in the NHL, then coach Memorial Cup teams, and finally, coach in the big show.

In each of the last several years there has been a prominent Aboriginal name on the tongues of selectors and - more importantly - after those players are drafted they are taking on the responsibility of role models.

Young Aboriginal players are proving that, if the knock on Aboriginal players ever was true, it's true no longer.