Joseph McWolf's Journey [1/2]

[McWolf 3,115]

I; Roots

Joseph McWolf was born on January 27th 1998, in Worcester Park, a suburban borough in southern London. His parents, Henry and Fannie McWolf, own the Wolf Gardens Café, a coffee bar founded in 1945 by his grandfather, George McWolf. The Wolf Gardens Café never was the most popular coffee shop around town, but it did bring in enough customers so that the family didn't need any outside help to scrape by. For as long as young Joseph can remember, his brother Oliver and he helped the family by cleaning tables and dishes. His childhood was a fairly uneventful one, because he didn't know any better. On weekdays, he'd wake up early and work a hour or two at the café, then he'd attend school. The café wasn't too busy during the evenings, so it gave him the opportunity to play with his younger brother. They both were pretty active as kids and they took great interest in sports in general so, far and away their favourite evening hobby was to go in parks and join other kids there to play football, rugby or any other sport played at the moment.

The brothers liked playing on the same team, as they were complimenting each other fairly well. Oliver was the younger one, with more energy to spare. You could always count on him to do everything in his power to be the one to score the goal, or the try, or anything. On the other side, Joseph had always been more of the laidback type. He never needed to be in spotlight and valued teamwork as high as other kids typically valued scoring goals. Him being the older brother and all also meant that he would always stand tall for Oliver when he would inevitably get in trouble after unintentionally kicking the goalie when he was trying to save the ball. Joseph didn’t mind it though, he felt like it was part of his job to protect the sparkplug.

 

II; Something New

Joseph was never at the top of the class in school, but he never failed a class either. He did enough work outside class to get through it and that was about it. His parents always tried to push him to take get better grades so he could attend business administration school, so he could help the family’s Café, but this was obviously never the plan for Joseph. For him, everything was about sports. That was all that mattered. He knew from that young age that his future career would be have to do with sports. Probably football. It would only make sense, with him being a top defender in his school’s team for a couple years. Though he was also invited to take part in the selection camp for the school’s ice hockey team. Hockey isn’t the most popular sport in England, so the team staff had to go out of their way to find enough players to actually have a full roster. He never really took interest in the sport which was mainly because he never learned to properly skate, but he was definitely curious, so he loaned some gear from friends and checked-in for the first practice of the training camp. He figured he had nothing to lose if he gave it a try. Worst case scenario, he doesn’t like it or he doesn’t make the cut and he goes back to playing football.

The camp was very rough for McWolf. He knew it would be hard, with him having only limited knowledge of the game and him not really knowing how to skate. He never bothered to do more than just casually skate with his buddies in the neighborhood’s ice rink. In summary, the best he could manage to do on skates was to go forward with awkwardly stiff legs, turn slowly to the let and fall on his ass when he tried to break. Joseph surprisingly discovered himself to have a nice natural skillset that could help him become a great stay-at-home defenseman, according to the team’s coach. He looked to instinctively know where he needed to be in his own zone to help his goaltender and he did manage to takeaway a couple pucks from opposing forwards trying to move passed him. But if he wanted to enjoy any level of success in the sport though, he would definitely need to work on his obvious weaknesses, like skating, passing and just basic hockey sense.

 

III; Early Career

Joseph McWolf was finally selected to make his school’s team. He obviously was a lot less dominant in hockey compared to football but, after all those years, he started finding football a bit dull. It’s no fun playing as a defender when most games might end with a 0-0 score, even if you don’t show up. Hockey was miles away from that. He was fascinated by the speed of the game and the stickhandling skills of people dangling around him. This would be a tough challenge for him, he knew that, but it was also going to be a fun challenge. He was up for it.

As it was expected, the first season was a terrible one for the Worcester Park kid. Most of the opponents would use the speed difference with the defenseman to easily skate past him, often leaving his partner outnumbered in the defensive zone. He still got a couple of shining moments, though. He stole a couple pucks here and there throughout the season. He even got one single assist when a speedy winger literally just stole from him and went on to score, before he threw it away like he would usually do. But, overall, those moments were far apart from each other and the couple games in between two takeaways felt discouraging. Joseph also felt the rest of the team saw him as a liability, which was right for the most part.

 

IV; Defining Moment

However, he did get a chance to redeem himself in a big way as the season was nearing the end. The team’s captain dumped the puck in the offensive zone and try to move past an opposing defenseman to chase the puck down. He reached it first but, while his back towards the play, the defenseman slammed him hard into the board, knocking him out. Joseph didn’t even have to think about it; as soon as the hit unfolded, he skated towards the hitter, dropped his gloves and started into on his helmet. He ended up knocking him as well and was sent to locker room. On the way out, he noticed his teammates were clapping and screaming, all fairly proud that the teenager with no real hockey talent dared to step up when no one else did.

The school board awarded McWolf a suspension for the couple remaining games of the season, but he didn’t mind at all. He felt proud of himself for what he did. He protected the team’s best player, kind of like he did for his younger brother when they played football together as kids. This fight changed so many things. His teammates’ opinion of him changed for the best and Joseph now felt like he was part of the crew which, in turn, made him like the sport so much more. He spent the next summer practicing with them with rollers and they all tried to help him get a little better at skating,  at passing the puck and at making tough decisions on the run. He was ready to turn the page on this tough first season and move on to the next.

 

V; Future

The team’s effort to make McWolf into a better player proved efficient as he quickly became one of their best defensive defenseman. It turns out the coach was right with him; he did possess a nice defensive skillset and just needed to learn the game’s basics to unlock them and become a strong player. In every game, he would make less defensive mistakes, take more pucks away and block more shots than in the previous one. Throughout his high school and college career, Joseph never stopped growing. He started playing late in his life compared to others, but he was a natural at it and he was a quick learner. He finished his college career on a high note, with him being named Defenseman of the Year in his final year, an impressive feat for a defensive defenseman who only managed 3 goals and 20 assists in 48 games. This brought some attention to him from some mid-tier leagues around the globe. There were rumours sending him to a couple of EIHL teams, like the Milton Keynes Lightning and the Guildfore Flames, but Joseph McWolf ended up deciding to move to the VHL’s affiliate league, committing to the 62^nd VHLM Entry Draft.

[Beaviss 4,957]

That’s one of the best bios I’ve ever read..... amazing job!

[McWolf 3,115]

Thanks a lot, man. I rushed it a bit at the end, when I realized I was at 900 words and the kid was still in high school.

[oilmandan 688]

Review 

Best biography I've read on this site. So detailed that it seems to be all fact and not a bit of fiction.  Should've had you write my biography. Awesome job!

[McWolf 3,115]

8 minutes ago, oilmandan said:

Review 

Best biography I've read on this site. So detailed that it seems to be all fact and not a bit of fiction.  Should've had you write my biography. Awesome job!

 

Wow, thanks Dan!