Bo Johansson's life before the VHL

[Shindigs 1,771]

Bo-Ingvar Johansson

Defenseman

Sweden

6'6" - 205lbs

 

Now I've touched upon Bo-Ingvar Johansson (which is his full name) and his life before hockey in both his junior review and his prospect scouting report. But it was mostly just in passing, with the focus being more on what he did in juniors in Sweden and how he was a late bloomer. Starting out as nothing but a pretty average looking defensive defenseman, only to bloom into what he is today. But there was a lot more to it than that. How did a young Bo-Ingvar come to get into hockey in the first place? What was his family support like? Was he a good student, or did all his brains go onto the ice? All will be answered, hopefully, in this Biography.

 

Bo first joined his hometown team at the tender age of 4 years old. But how did this come to happen? Well as a young child Bo quickly made a strong connection in daycare with another boy by the name of Martin. Martin was what you'd at the time probably refer to as "slow" these days. That wouldn't fly, but it was clear he had learning disabilities as well as quite massive social struggles. But Bo just clicked with the playfulness and made sure he always had a spot at playtime with the "cool kids" as due to his natural charm and leadership Bo was very central to that group.

 

As it turns out, it would be Martin's dad. Someone very invested in the local hockey team as the younger brother was the starting goalie in the junior team. Who would suggest that Bo try coming along to a practice with the kids group there. As Bo's father was a long-time hockey fan. He was totally on board with this and so that's how Bo's hockey career started. Wearing double socks in a pair of oversized skates, going around the ice holding two cones for balance. Not the most exciting of starts to a career. But it was how it all began.

 

Hockey kept being a large part of the Johansson family's life from that point on. His sister and mother never really got into it, attending maybe 2-3 games total in all of Bo's years playing before the VHL. But his dad ended up taking on multiple roles for the team. Both as their administrator and as the equipment manager for the team. Meaning that hockey became a strong bonding experience for the two of them. As really both were equally invested in the team and its success.

 

As i touched on in the junior review, I believe it was, Bo wasn't a standout in his youth though. And the only reason he get into one of the sports schools and could play hockey there was more due to his scholastic achievements than anything he did on the ice. He usually struggled to care about schoolwork, finding most of it pointless busywork. But despite that ended up in the Top 5 of his class when he left his hometown school at age 15 to move to the sports school in another city. Living alone for the first time at the tender age of soon-to-be 16. Certainly not an uncommon thing in Sweden for athletes by any stretch, but still a large change in his life.

 

As an avid home cook, even from a very early age, Bo quite liked life on his own. Like most kids moving away from home that early he did struggled a bit with keeping up with laundry and cleaning his apartment. Living that bachelor life. But at least he ate well. Though over time he adapted and by the time he was 18 and getting ready to head to the VHLM for his first games with the Miami Marauders, he was very much used to all that living on his own meant. Making the massive change of jumping the pond seem a lot less terrifying than it otherwise might have.

 

So clearly Bo had pretty good support and a relatively normal upbringing by Swedish standards. But surely hockey wasn't all he did? Well, I've already mentioned his love of cooking. With him having taken over cooking all dinners every other week as his mom was commuting and having to come home and go straight to cooking was wearing on her. Causing Bo to ask if it was okay if he took over dinner every other week (with his dad doing the other week) by the age of 12. Which I think sums up Bo's personality a lot. He's all about helping, as can be seen on the ice from his pass first mentality to his leadership. The other big passion that he shared with his older sister was gaming. You see growing up in small town Sweden there are only really 5 things to do: Sports, Gaming, Drinking, Bumping Uglies and Fighting. Now Bo didn't do #3 on account of trying to focus on sports, which meant by default there wasn't much of #4 and none of #5 which means the only other thing left to do was gaming.

 

So there you have it, the formerly gentle, now not so gentle, giant Bo-Ingvar Johansson's Biography.