Ozzy Earns His Name

[Ozzy Batty 293]

Ozzy Batty is a 6’2”, 205 pound Center from Bath, England. Ozzy is currently a member of the Mississauga Hounds as a waiver signing so he knows that this may be his only season as a Hound, but he wants to make the most of it. 

But how did this youngster find his way to Canada and become the offensive presence that he is displaying on the ice? Ozzy is a complete unknown so everyone is desperate to find out more about the silent scoring machine that is quietly making a name for himself in the VHLM.

Ozzy Batty is the middle child of Wally and Nora Batty. He has an older sister named Harriette and a younger brother named George. The whole family enjoys watching Ozzy on the ice and has enjoyed his continued success. Ozzy, whose real name is Oswald, started skating not long after he started walking. He started on roller blades and quickly moved to ice skates since there was an ice rink close to their home. Nora, a secondary school English literature teacher, and her husband, Wally, who taught world history in the same school, raised their children to know the value of an education. But young Ozzy would hit the door and head to the rink as soon as his studies were finished. He would stay there on the ice until the rink closed and Wally would come to pick him up. Even though the family home was just 4 blocks from the rink, Ozzy’s parents didn’t want him walking home after dark by himself. 

One afternoon when Wally had taken Ozzy to the rink since it was raining very hard out, a man approached them and introduced himself. His name was Fred McBurny and he was the coach of the local youth hockey team. He had seen Ozzy on the ice and wanted to know if he was interested in joining for the upcoming season. Ozzy looked puzzled, he had never played ice hockey, let alone any organized sport, so he was not sure why this guy wanted him to join the team. See, Ozzy just wasn’t very talented when it came to sports. He had tried out for the local football team and the coach was heard to say the boy could trip over a blade of grass. He then gave cricket a whirl, but ended up batting himself out by hitting the wicket. He like to skate, but to play on a team? Play a “sport”? Ozzy just wasn’t sure. 

Wally said they would talk about it and as Fred went to leave, he handed the Battys a hockey stick and a puck. He told them the net was set up on the other end of the ice and told Ozzy to give it a go as he headed out the door. He turned and told Ozzy, no hard feelings if you don’t want to play, but no harm in trying it out. 

Ozzy took the stick and headed to the ice after lacing up his skates. Wally tossed the puck onto the open ice and Ozzy took a swing at it…and missed it completely. He hung his head and the 8 year old got that same old feeling, that sports just were not for him. But as he started to skate towards Wally to give him the hockey stick, he stopped. Wally later would say that he saw a change come over his young son that day. He saw his son turn from a boy into a young man. Ozzy lifted his head, set his chin, and headed back towards the puck. He took a swing, and missed again, then another swing, another miss, this went on for about 10 minutes and then he made contact and slammed the puck into the far wall. The grin that spread across his face could have been seen all of the way to London. 

Ozzy spent the rest of the night, until the rink closed, practicing with the stick and puck. He even hit the net a time or 2. When they got home that night, Nora saw blisters on her son’s hands and glared at Wally. Wally nodded and told her to put some plasters on them and to not worry. So Nora treated the blisters on her son’s hands but deep inside she knew that this wouldn’t be the last time she would bandage her son up. 

Ozzy kept practicing, joined the team and was on the 4th line. The small firecracker was still known as Oswald. He quietly carried out his duties on the ice, but the drive and focus in the youngster were hard to ignore. Oswald stayed on the team and each year he moved up a line and each year, he got a little bit better. By the time he was 12 he was the captain of the team and Oswald still was known for his passion and, well, to be honest, his quietness. That is, until the final game of the season. They were on the verge of breaking the record for the most wins in a season. They had already won the league cup so really there was nothing to play for, except the record. And the team was playing that way. They were getting manhandled off of the puck, their shots lacked any fire and it seemed like they were just going through the motions. 
Ozzy had changed his look over the years on the team, the young ruddy-faced 8 year old with the crew cut and glasses had become a lanky, muscular picture of stability, except for his long hair (he refused to cut it) and the 3 earrings he had decided to wear. He normally wore his hair pulled back during the games as he didn’t like it getting in his face, but as the team headed into the locker room for the 2nd period break, down 0-3, Ozzy was seen to be pulling the tie out of his hair as he went down the tunnel. 

Ozzy walked into the locker room, sat in his normal spot and starred at the floor. Fred was trying to fire the team up, talking about the record, about their parents, but nothing seemed to phase them. That is, until Ozzy stood up, a fire in his eyes that no one had ever seen before. The buzzer had just gone off for the team to head back out to the ice and Ozzy let out this scream that echoed off of the concrete walls of the locker room, as his voice faded into the quiet it had created, at the top of his voice he yelled, “Let me hear you scream!” It seemed to do the trick, the team came out for the final period with the fire that Ozzy had lit in them and they went on the win the game 5-3, sealing the best record in the history of he youth league. 

The legend of Ozzy had been born. Ozzy continued to grow, not only physically, but also as a player and a leader. By the time he was 18 he had amassed a wall full of medals and trophies. He knew that this is what he wanted to do. After convincing his parents that he could make it work, he spent the summer earning money to pay his way. He talked to his uncle Otis and he headed to Canada to join the Mississauga Hounds.

What the future holds for Ozzy, no one knows, but where ever he goes he will take this history with him and will forever been known as Oswald “Ozzy” Batty, the Wildman of the ice!

Word Count: 1277