Biography of Edward Vigneault [2/2]

[Patpou22 63]

Biography of Edward Vigneault

 

Chapter 1: Childhood

 

His story begins in the small town of Baie-Comeau, a mere city of about 20,000 habitants, located in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec. Born of a labor father in the sawmill of the region and a mother babysitter, family income is quite high. He grew up in hockey thanks to his father, Charles Vigneault, the biggest fan of the Quebec City Meute. Indeed, he listens to these religiously every night there is match. Edward is enrolled at a young age in minor hockey of his region. His friends are Louis-Pierre Gauthier and Félix Allard, hockey teammates and classmates at Boisvert Elementary School. Every weekend, Edward, his father and sometimes his friends, go to their cottage located 50 kilometers north of the city to practice their favorite activities: hunting, fishing and relaxing. For weekday evenings, they are dictated by practices, hockey games, improvised games of floor hockey in the street and homework. Edward is clearly not a A+ student, indeed, he has a lot of difficulties at school, but managed somehow to succeed all his courses without failures. This rhythm of life extends throughout his elementary school. However, big changes will be coming for high school.

 

 

Chapter 2: Adolescence

 

Unfortunately for Edward, he must leave his home town at the age of 12 if he wants to continue his hockey career, his region is very far away, recruiters and coaches don’t go in Baie-Comeau to scout or give camps of improvements. It is rather rare in this region to see a guy with Edward’s potential, so it is under the guidance of the director of minor hockey of Baie-Comeau that Charles, Edward’s father, decide to take a fly for his son to the city of Quebec and to enroll him in a high school there. He must live with friends of the Vigneault family and study at La Camaradière high school in hockey concentration. By no longer living with his parents, Edward have his mother helping him in his homework, that he would then create a drop of grades and a few courses failure. He managed to pass his high school with the help of his friends. On the hockey level, Edward stands out by his physic. His slap shot improves a lot, and he distributes good checks. Unfortunately for him, the different teams of VHLM consider him not mature enough to use a draft pick on him. He started working on weekends in a hardware store’s backyard where he developed strength. Every summer, his father bought him a fly back to Baie-Comeau to see his family and friends. He loved to be back in his region every summer, he was always asking to go to the cottage, since he couldn’t go hunting and to go fishing while he was in Quebec. Fortunately for Edward, every academic year, he was also able to see his parents when they were coming to watch a Meute’s game. He loved to go there with his father because he was analyzing the way every defenseman in Quebec’s team was playing to try to mimic them in his own play. He worked so hard during his high-school years that he got a place in Laval University hockey roster.

 

 

 

Chapter 3: Becoming a man

 

Due to his bad grades during his high-school years, he had to do some refresher course to get in human science, since he wasn’t decided about what career he would do in his life. Refresher courses helped him a lot and he finally got good grades without any help. He found an interest in the human mind, he liked to know they way people reacted to a given situation, that’s what motivated him to get through his classes, he finally knew what he would do if hockey wasn’t successful. On the hockey side of things, Limoilou’s team was exceptionally good these years, so good that he did not have that much ice time as he was expected. That fact motivated him a lot to prove himself and give everything he had every single shift. Year went pass and he moved up in the organization’s line to finally get a top 2 role. He developed so much during his cegep’s year that he got  a few elite’s bourses to make his way into the university’s world.

 

 

 

Chapter 4: Living in the man's world

 

Finally, time for him to get an apartment with a friend that went to Laval University, like him. He struggled a little bit at first but liked having his own house quickly. His room-mate was John Talbot, a teammate from Limoilou. They got on very well and helped each other out in class, because they both decided to enroll themselves in psychology. Of course, they struggled more than in cegep, it’s university after all! But with passion and work, they passed every class they took together. They threw a few parties here in there at their apartment, did some things that they were not proud of, just like any other university student. They played hockey a lot, they were on the same defensive duo in the Rouge & Or, the university hockey team. It was hard at first, after all, they were in the highest non-professional league in Quebec. Their coach was just amazing, developped them in a matter of months into real VHLM ready players. Unfortunately for them, three consecutive year passed without any VHLM team willing to give them a shot. Edward had the impression that he was doing everything right, but that was just not enough. So, as always, he trained harder, worked harder, until one day, one day that he will never forget.

 

 

Chapter 5: Going pro

 

27^th February 2019, Edward is going to get himself dressed for his practice, when he was just about to enter the locker room, his coach was standing in the door, he told him that someone wanted to talk to him in his office and didn’t wanted to tell Edward who it was. Edward, make his way to the coach office, head full of thought, stressed. He makes his way to the door, open it, sees a woman, sitting in the coach’s chair, looking outside the window. He has no idea who that woman is. She turns around to face Edward, and say ‘’Hi, my name is Blade Maiden, I am the general manager of the Philadelphia Reapers, a team in the VHLM league.’’ Edward couldn’t hide his smile, he now knew what was about to happen, his dream was about to become a reality, he will become a professional hockey player! They talked about the term and agreements of the contract for about 1 hour, at the end, Edward signed his 1^st professional contract, when he came back to the locker room, everyone was aware of the signing, thanks to his coach. They celebrated like they never did before, finally someone was being signed in their team! That was the beginning of a beautiful story, a beautiful story yet to be concluded…

 

 

** First time writing a story in english, I am sorry if some sentences are weird

Edited March 13, 2019 by Patpou22

[FacebookFighter 67]

Review- I read the whole thing and just the amount of grammatical errors had me sighing and then I saw your disclaimer. For the first time writing a story in English, it's very well done. For future reference I would put your disclaimer at the beginning of the story

[K1NG LINUS 145]

A fun read, and surprisingly well-written given your disclaimer. I enjoyed the persistent theme of Edward's bad grades, and eventually overcoming them and doing well in University. Hopefully his hockey IQ is a little better than his early school performance. I will definitely be interested to hear more about Edward's journey in professional hockey. 

 

See you on the ice