Ondrej Vencko's biography

[Mutti 134]

Born in 2001, in a small town in the north of the Czech Republic, Ondrej (or Ondra, informally) was always looking for something to spice his days up. Although he loved watching hockey on TV with his dad, he never really showed any interest in the sport, until the year 2016 came along.

 

On his 15th birthday, during the match of the local hockey beer league, he broke into the locker of the home team, stealing goalie's kit. The match was about to start, so he quickly hid himself outside in the bush, while the home team sent their actual goalie for a new kit. Ondra, being a joker, went back inside and put the stolen gear on. That's when the rest of the team noticed him.
However, because he was looking ready for action, they just rushed him to the rink.

 

There was no turning back. Blood was flowing. Ondrej remembered the passionate evenings in front of the television hockey and thought to himself: "It is time to shine."
And shine he did. The end result was 11:0.. For the away team.

After the birthday fiasco, he realised that he was actually having a lot of fun, being a goaltender. Thus, the journey for becoming the greatest goalie in the village began!

 

 

The training began right in the following winter, when Ondra found a frozen pond for him and a few of hockey enthusiasts to play on. It went really well, Ondra even making some saves this time!
That was until the third period came along and his team was forced to pull him out for an extra man. He skated to the side, when he noticed a breakaway from the other team. Unluckily, the ice on the pond cracked..

Even though he did not make the save, he set the village record for the fastest swimming hockey goaltender. (Still unbeaten to this day.)

From this, he worked hard and practised as much as he could to finally get to the Czech national league. He was 20 at the time he joined the Prague Mic Czechs.

 

 

His first season surprised everyone around him, as not only that he helped his team to get to the top of the league, he also recorded 6 shutouts, .913 save percentage, 2.1 GAA and scored 1 goal. This caught the attention of scouts from the NHL, who instantly offered him to play "across the pond". Sadly, as everything seemed perfect, his team lost in the first round of the play-offs, making scouts question his abilities.

However..

In the next season, after summer full of practising and hangovers caused by first round exit, he and his team came back with a vengeance.

Mic Czechs dominated the league once again, and even though Ondra hasn't scored any goals, he stood on his head. Recording 6 shutouts, .920 save percentage and 1.9 GAA, he and the team stormed the play-offs, winning the National cup. This interested the scouts from the NHL again, now confirming to them that they want this player in their league. They ensured him that he would receive a special invitation via letter to be officialy able to join the league across the ocean. Unfortunately, the person in charge of writing the letter made a typo in Ondra's surname, when they wrote "Plecko" instead of "Vencko" (which is up to this day super hilarious for Czech inhabitants). Ondra never received his long-awaited letter.

 

But every cloud has a silver lining and this story ended up the best way possible. Because while some, who don't know the wonders of the internet, consider the NHL to be the best hockey league in the world, Ondra found himself the perfect and in every way better alternative.

The VHL.

He quickly showed his interest in joining the league and before you knew it, he was offered a contract by Houston Bulls, where he will play his first (and hopefully not last) season. Some might think that a Czech boy would find some other cities more appealing, but to that he says with a smile:
"Houston, we got no problem!"

 

 

Alongside with hockey career, Ondra also aims to make an impact in the world of music.
He has been playing the bass guitar for over 4 years now and tries to experiment when composing his own songs. Ondra has a broad range of music taste, ranging from metal to pop, from rock to jazz, from classical to electronic music. He also occasionally plays live with his band Take Cover!, playing cover versions of well-known songs. The biggest gig he experienced took place in August of 2018.

 

They were playing at the annual ball of his hometown's hockey club, with many people in the crowd being passionate fans of various NHL teams. The gig was going well, but then the guitarist began playing Slapshot, which woke up all the New York Rangers fans. They immediately formed a moshpit, right next to a long isle of the other New York team fans. After a few minutes of mind-numbing riff repeating, one guy tripped with his shot of vodka right onto a table with a lit up candle. This created a fireball, which made New Jersey Devils' fans go nuts. Fire caused a smaller chandelier to fall down. One guy, an Oilers' fan, braced himself and shouted: "I am a goalie, I'll catch it.", and then proceeded to not catch it at all. A Toronto Maple Leafs' fan appeared, and said that he would throw a fire extinguisher to the people nearest to the fireball. It wasn't necesarilly a difficult throw to be made, but the guy managed to miss anyway. Extinguisher dropped on the floor and exploded, taking the fire out in the process. But at the same time, it covered half of the place in white foam. This encouraged Jets' and Coyotes' fans to fanatically spin their white T-shirts, which led to two of them having a heated argument, whose tradition it TRULY is. In the end, Ondra looked to the drummer to save the day and to play something that would calm the situation. Unfortunately, drummer proceeded to play Chelsea Dagger, which turned the whole crowd hostile after just a few of the "Ta-da-das". One Blackhawks' fan in the crowd did not fight for his tune, because, as Ondra and his bandmates later discovered, he did not want any spotlight on him, as he was trying to hide some dirty secret.

 

From that day, Ondra focused mainly on composing his own music, with playing covers of songs, that won't turn any hockey fan nuts.

 

Right now, though, he is focused on the VHL the most, with a long and hopefully successful career planned. And just like bass player holds the low end of the band, he aims at holding the back of the rink and keep all the pucks of the other team away from his net.

So, slap those slapshots away, hockey bassist!

 

 

 

Edited January 8 by Mutti
Not enough words, now it is over 800.

[jacobcarson877 2,069]

Lets gooooo! Looks like you're off to a great start!

[Mutti 134]

2 minutes ago, jacobcarson877 said:

Lets gooooo! Looks like you're off to a great start!

Thanks, hope so, haha!

 

[AJW 1,744]

First time suiting up and it was a blowout hahah. Great write up @Mutti !

[Banackock 7,642]

MVP MVP MVP

 

IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN

 

 

[Mutti 134]

Thank you all, guys. 
It is so heartwarming to be here and to be able to do this.

Thanks once again, your support is amazing!