Sax Justice - Junior Review

[Eso 117]

Sax Justice was born in England, but was orphaned shortly after he was born and grew up with a foster family in Canada (it's a long story, I was doing some roleplay in the PBE when I first created this character). He grew up in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and like many of his peers, played ice hockey growing up on outdoor rinks during the cold prairie winters. Unlike most players that eventually turn pro, Justice did not dominate his local youth leagues at any level, and mostly played house league. He did play well enough to get invited to try out for travel teams through most of his youth, and while his foster sister also played competitive women's hockey, it was very much a hockey household.

 

Due to his dual citizenship, Justice was offered a scholarship to play for a private school in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and there he quickly became a "big fish in a small pond" as very few of the local English players had as much as experience with ice hockey as he did. In a fledgling league consisting of several schools in England, Justice quickly emerged as a star player, whom many of the rival teams begrudged, believing him to be a "ringer" brought in from Canada. To these accusations Justice could only laugh, knowing that he had only been a middle of the pack player in Canada. Even while playing against older youths, Justice's combination of speed, vision, and hands allowed to him to lead the league in scoring for all three years that he played in it, often using his speed and puckhandling to execute his "signature move" of carrying the puck through the neutral zone, going outside on the defenseman, and driving towards the side of the net before throwing a cross crease pass to a teammate for a tap-in. During this time Justice did not neglect his studies, though he did miss the more pervasive hockey culture back in Canada.

 

As he approached the end of his secondary school career, Justice weighed his options. Several colleges and universities in the United Kingdom had offered scholarships and he thought long about the opportunity to continue being something of a local superstar, however he did worry that the relatively poor strength of local competition might be holding back reaching his full potential as a hockey player. Fatefully, that Christmas break when he was back in Canada, the local senior men's amateur team was shorthanded and he agreed to fill in. Here, even playing amateur hockey, he relished the speed and intensity of playing against other people who had grown up with hockey. That experience helped him make up his mind to decline the offers to play collegiate hockey in England and instead to declare eligibility for the minor division of the Victory Hockey League.

 

470 words