Carles Puigdemont bio [2/2]

[Eudaldkp 160]

Carles Puigdemont - The Spanish Kid

 

Where does Carles come from?

Carles Puigdemont, son of the politician also named Carles who is by many considered the leader of the independence movement in Catalonia, has been for years considering leaving Spain. He didn’t have a rough childhood, his mother, Marcela and his father Carles gave him everything he needed while growing up, well, maybe not everything.

 

Discovering Ice Hockey

Carles grew up wanting to play hockey, he went every weekend to watch his brother’s quad hockey game. He tried signing up for the local team, but there weren’t enough interested kids to form a team so he signed up for the basketball team instead. He kind of forgot about hockey until he was 11, when he caught a game of ice hockey on the TV and he instantly became hooked to the game. Carles started looking up highlights from the VHL’s youtube page and started researching everything about the game, it just was such an exciting way to play hockey. Here in Spain, quad hockey dominates the hockey scene and while it is a dynamic game, it isn’t as fast-paced and exciting as ice hockey.

As he became more interested in the game, Carles started to find basketball more and more boring, to the point where he stopped caring about the game at all and just decided to sign up for an ice hockey team. With his new hobby in mind, Puigdemont fired up google and started looking for teams around his area, but to his disappointment, the ice hockey scene isn’t that popular in Spain. Regardless, he decided he wanted to play for the popular FC Barcelona Ice Hockey team.

 

 

Switching sports

He talked to his mother Marcela, and she didn’t find any problem in switching sports, but his father didn’t like the idea. He played basketball when he was young and he was seeing the image of himself reflected in his son, but with much more potential and upside, he didn’t want Carles to give up the career that he gave up to pursue politics. Carles became enraged at his father, and he stopped showing up to the basketball practices and instead went smoking some joints with his druggie friends, whom he didn’t see that much lately. His father didn’t notice the increasing pot smell in his house because he was hardly home due to work, but for Marcela who worked selling oils and was a #bossbabe found the behavior of his son very disrupting.

One day, Marcela decided that it was enough, and even though her oil sells were already tanking he thought that it was because of Carles and his disruptive behavior (although we know it didn’t matter, those oils are shit). She talked to her husband when he came home tired after 12 hours of work and countless arguments with other Spanish politicians about the Catalonia independence, Carles Senior didn’t want to argue for more than 5 minutes, and he ended up giving in and giving the opportunity to Carles to switch sports.

 

 

The Start of his career

Carles, now 12, full of excitement with his father approval to switch sports, went to the Barcelona rink ready to sign up for the team. But, to his surprise, there weren’t enough youngsters of his age to form a team. Again. The same thing that happened to him when he was way younger. Carles left disappointed, but this time he wasn’t going to let destiny rule his life. He decided that he would practice so hard that they would admit him in the 15yo team. He told his family that he was accepted to the team and they bought him his first stick and skates, along with some pucks. Carles started practicing like a madman in his free time, and he even gave up pot. He watched videos from the great VHL players, focused on their technique, tried to get it down step by step. Once he felt like he had improved enough, he went to the ice rink again.

He tried to convince the secretary that was working in the office to give him a try out for the team, but she wouldn’t concede. Carles spent there around 30 minutes arguing with her, until the coach of the team came. He kind of laughed at Carles first, but when he saw that he was so insistent on joining the team he decided to give him a try-out.

 

The try-out

Carles wasn’t a very good skater, he had only practiced in the public ice rink of Barcelona and he couldn’t go very fast there, and the coach noticed that. He was starting to rule him out but they moved on to shooting drills. He clapped shot after shot, he had an strength that very few kids of his age had, and the coach felt that it was on par with the 15 year olds from his team, if not better. He decided to give Carles a free-pass to skate in their ice rink and practice, and he would participate in a team try-out in 2 weeks.

Carles practiced every day his skating for atleast 4 hours, his family started to worry about him but they would rather have him practicing that smoking. And then the day of the team try-out came.

They did some warm up drills and jumped right into a practice game. The coach was super impressed with Carles’ skating, and then he started seeing how he played. He had amazing vision of the rink, and although he lacked skill and practice with his stick, you could see the kid’s potential. He ended up the practice with two assists and almost a goal, he hit the crossbar.

The coach went up to him in the end and told him that he was in. Carles was super stoked.

His career as a youngster

Carles was 3 years younger than the other kids, but he was a big kid himself and you could barely notice the difference, well he had a bit of a baby face but that was it. He started out in the 4^th line, and as time passed he jumped lines and eventually reached the 1^st line when he was 16. By that time, Carles was already the best player of his team, raking up points each game and he even got called up to the senior team. He was a 3^rd liner then at first, but as the season passed he jumped to the 1^st line too. When Carles was 17, he started getting attention from the VHL scouts, and eventually, in his 18^th birthday, he got an offer from the Saskatoon Wild for 1,5 million dollars, and he didn’t even think about it.

 

 

 

The VHLM

Carles is coming late into what will be his first season in the VHLM, and he is looking to make an impact in the SSK helping them get the cup. He has a week to gel with the team before the playoffs start, and depending on his performance he may get picked high in the next VHLM draft. He is now looking to be a top prospect for the S65 draft and making history.

 

Edited December 8, 2018 by Eudaldkp

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Review: Ah, the one skater ahead of Smitty Werbenmanjensen in the S65 Draft Rankings  . What a surprise that Carles has been considering "leaving Spain". Love the commentary on essential oils. Overall, I really enjoyed this biography. The story was unique and didn't follow the traditional "he was really good since he was 7 and is now joining the VHL(M)". Congrats on the Founder's Cup win with Saksatoon, and good luck next year and in the draft!

[Eudaldkp 160]

4 hours ago, Fire Hakstol said:

Review: Ah, the one skater ahead of Smitty Werbenmanjensen in the S65 Draft Rankings  . What a surprise that Carles has been considering "leaving Spain". Love the commentary on essential oils. Overall, I really enjoyed this biography. The story was unique and didn't follow the traditional "he was really good since he was 7 and is now joining the VHL(M)". Congrats on the Founder's Cup win with Saksatoon, and good luck next year and in the draft!

Thanks buddy!

[StamkosFan 72]

Review: I think that this was a good biography that did well with not making him into a Mary Sue. I liked that he had a weakness and some struggles in the game! I would've liked to see a bit more about his life outside of hockey though, such as his schooling and his brother. I think the idea of his father campaigning for the independence movement in Catalonia is an interesting storyline and would've liked to see it explored a bit more.