BY RANDY SCHULTZ –
It is amazing what a difference a year can make. Just ask 16 year-old North Buffalo native Owen Parker.
Just a year ago the young goaltender was headed to St. Catharines, Ont. for his first AAA hockey game in the Nike/Bauer Tournament. He was a total unknown hockey player.
The SCTA, the hockey league he would eventually be playing in, was a mystery to him, as well as the rest of his family.
Today, 365 days later, Parker headed to the same tournament. But he had one year of experience under his belt and he had just been drafted by the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.
All of this with less than five years of goaltending experience. Owen spent his first five years of youth hockey playing defense in the Buffalo Bisons house league.
Owen will tell you that he became a goalie almost by accident.
“It was about five years ago I was on a team with a bunch of kids who wanted to play hockey, but not a single goalie in the group,” said Parker, who was drafted by the Greyhounds in the 10th round of the OHL Draft in early April. “We happened to know an adult who had some goalie equipment.
“So my dad figured that maybe I should try goaltending out. So that season I did, splitting my time between goaltending and playing defense.”
Parker will be the first to admit that he wasn’t comfortable as a goaltender.
“The first practice, we put the pads on the wrong legs” recalled Owen, who attends the Frederick Law Olmstead School in Buffalo. “I fell maybe 40 to 50 times in that first hour of practice.
“I was terrible for a very long time before I became any good. And it’s actually pretty crazy how fast things have changed.”
But Owen’s goaltending career almost ended as quickly as it began. In his first season of travel hockey with the Bisons Pee Wee Mixed A team, Owen was the back up goalie and wasn’t seeing much playing time.
About half-way through the season the 12 year-old Owen told his parents that he didn’t want to be a goalie any more and would prefer going back to defense. A defining moment came when Owen’s father, Chris, offered some advice.
“My dad told me to at least stick it out until the end of the season,” remembered Owen, the son of Chris and Kirsten Parker. “He said that if I wanted to give it up at that point I could.”
Chris remembers the moment quite well.
“I remember adding the fact that I didn’t know whether he’d make a travel team as a skater and his response blew me away. ‘It doesn’t really matter dad, I’m not gonna make the NHL anyways.’
“I couldn’t believe my 12-year-old don was even thinking something like that. Maybe it’s not that uncommon, kids dream when they play sports. It just was so far out there that it took me by surprise.”
Ironically, a week later the Bisons played an exhibition game against a AA team with Owen in goal. The Bisons won, Owen played great with the coaches saying that Owen had made the difference for their team.
Owen got into more games. By the next season the biggest change of all took place, with BIG being the operative word.
Owen had started to grow out of his pudgy little boy body at stood almost 6-3 when he began playing Bantam AA hockey. By the time he was 14 he had grown to 6-6.
By that time Owen was playing on a regular basis, attending clinic upon clinic upon clinic with veteran goaltending instructors.
Then came last April, another defining moment. Owen was ready to tryout for a AAA team in Wheatfield.
About four hours before the tryout the Buffalo Regals called. Another goalie they had been counting on had changed his plans. The Regals wanted Owen.
The Regals were a step up for Owen, playing in the SCTA, an all-Canadian League. Following a few phone calls the decision was made and Owen was off to the Regals.
“Things reached a high-point for Owen on a January weekend in St. Catharines,” remembered Chris. “There were multiple scouts from multiple OHL teams watching his every move.
“Owen played very well that weekend. Maybe that clinched it for him. We don’t know.”
Owen is now a draftee of the Soo, the same organization that has Wayne Gretzky on their all-time roster of players. For now Owen is scheduled to play for the Regals 16U team for next season.
There will be some spring and summer tournaments as well as hockey clinics. There will even be a trip to the Soo for their rookie camp.
But for now Owen, now standing 6-7, is taking things just one day at a time.
“I take goaltending and playing hockey seriously,” commented Owen. “But up until this past year, I never thought I was good enough to have a league like the OHL look at me.
“But I now know that I can do something special with this game if I work hard enough and keep getting better.
“I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
Stay tuned.
