Lance Flowers - A Life Story [2/2]

[CowboyinAmerica 2,705]

The Biography of Lance Flowers, Hockey Player

 

 

The Itch

 

 

There are a few things that you need to know about London, before we begin. The first is that while it gets cold, it doesn’t particularly get cold. Sure, snow isn’t an unheard of event; the people of London have been known to walk past a snowman or two. But it certainly hasn’t become a source of pride, like a Calgary, or a constant source of consternation, like a Boston. It’s simply there, and then it’s gone, as the urban heat eradicates whatever may fall.

 

The second thing that you need to know about London is that it’s a sporting town, but only the right kind of sports. Football, sure. Cricket. Rugby. Wimbledon, of course. And there’s enough space for a few others, in the right spots, but the expectation is that you’ll cheer the Gunners or Blues or Spurs and you won’t need too terribly much more than that.

 

Lance Flowers didn’t need too terribly much more than that. Born to second generation Nigerian parents himself, Flowers was born a giant and progressed into a goliath. Already by his twelfth year, he neared six feet, weighed 200 pounds, and probably wouldn’t have carded if the owner of the local pub hadn’t known his family for years. It shouldn’t be any surprise, then, that Lance was drafted to play sports right away—the right ones of course, a fullback in football and a prop in rugby. And truth be told, given his determination and his head for sports, he probably would have made a solid living in League One or on a local rugby side.

 

But then the magic snowfall occurred. It was not magic for some—in fact, right around Christmas time, it actually became a giant headache for London’s last minute shoppers. For Lance, though, it was fortuitous time, particularly when the neighborhood kids came around to play ice rugby. Dangerous? Of course, but 12 year olds have a penchant for sugar and concussions. Lance stepped onto the hose-made lake and found... well, that he could move quite easily. Even playing in sneakers, he enjoyed sliding, enjoyed hitting, enjoyed being in a place that seemed natural. He couldn’t get enough.

 

Like any kid his age, the next stop was Google and Youtube, trying to find if ice rugby was actually a thing. It wasn’t, of course, but this odd sport called hockey was. Enthralled, Flowers asked his parents for an emergency Christmas gift: a pair of ice skates. The closest rink, it turns out, was only a 15 minute tube ride away.

 

 

The Growth

 

 

There are a few things you need to know about Oulu, Finland, before we continue. The first is that it is very, very cold, with full sunlight only coming an hour or two a day during the worst parts of the winter. If you’re not from Scandinavia, and especially if you’re from, say, a major city in the relatively balmy British Isles, you’re going to want to stay inside as much as possible.

 

The second thing that you need to know about Oulu is that it’s not the most conspicuous place for a black 17 year old from the west side of London. Oulu is a larger city for the north side of Finland, sure, but also a size that would be considered a mid-size suburb of London. The bigger issue was that more than 97 percent of people in Oulu spoke Finnish, with only about 600 people in the city from elsewhere in the EU, and being in the latter category and not the former was not a fun place for a teenaged Lance Flowers to be.

 

However, Oulu did offer one thing: a chance. Oulun Kärpät has been one of the most successful teams in Finland’s SM-liiga over the past two decades, after all, and being able to play in a top-flight, foreign club isn’t exactly an opportunity afforded to many players who picked up their first stick at the age of 12, let alone those that came from the UK. When Lance received an invitation from a scout one year ago to try out for the team, and further when he actually impressed enough at the tryout to be given an offer and a small salary, how can you say no?

 

So here he was, not yet a man, perhaps somewhat considered professional considering his salary, and living in a place where he didn’t know the language or the culture. With that bearing down on him, it would have been extremely easy to bow to the pressure, to engage in some sort of excess, or to give in to his laziest impulses. But what Lance Flowers did was work; he didn’t know what else to do.

 

In the first of Lance’s two seasons with Oulun Kärpät, he played a grand total of three minutes per game, averaged out. In many cases, he floundered—only 16, playing against grown men who could probably skate before they could walk, how could he not? But still, for every time he was out of position, or for every time his pass was intercepted, something was there. It might have been one check at center ice, causing a huge turnover. Or it might have been his hustle stopping a two-on-one break, saving a goal. Or maybe it was his general demeanor in the locker room, where he couldn’t understand the talk but always kept a smile. Something about Lance stood out, showed that he could be special.

 

At the end of the season, Oulun Kärpät’s front office gave Lance a choice: He could go home, work on his skills a bit, and come back when he was older. Or, he could stay with the first team over the summer, where the workouts would be brutal but he would learn. It was never an option. Continuing to be battered and bruised repeatedly, Lance slowly but surely made progress in Oulu that summer, both on the ice and off. Coming into his own, he learned that living on his own was actually achievable, and in broken Finnish, even made a friend or two.

 

His second and final season with the team saw a new Lance. No, he wasn’t a superstar—he scored exactly one goal on the season, after all. But he was confident, earning consistent second line minutes, and tallying 0.6 assists and 7 hits per game. He would be caught out of position on occasion, sure, but the growth was rather evident. Everybody with Oulun Kärpät saw that the team may have a future star on their hands.

 

Unfortunately for them, scouts from the VHLM saw too. And they came calling.

 

The Future

 

 

There are a few things you need to know about Lance Flowers, before he dives into his VHLM career. The first is that he has only been playing hockey for six years, and this is still all a bit of a whirlwind. Upon arriving in Halifax to sign his first VHLM contract, it struck Lance that he’d be moving to his third different country, his second living on his own, in four years and all before he’d be allowed to drink in Nova Scotia. For all intents and purposes, Lance is still a child.

 

But the second is that his personality is to take it all in stride. A number of the VHLM’s stars have been playing hockey since the moment they were born, seemingly destined to pick up a stick. That was never Lance, and thus the cruel weight of expectations unceremoniously avoided his rather large shoulders. At this point, Lance stands 6’7”, 244 pounds, an imposing force of a man that masks the youthfulness underneath. Youthfulness, however, does not mean naiveté. From his past experiences, Lance knows exactly what it takes to succeed, especially at another level of hockey and another physical location that he had never even dreamed of achieving.

 

And so, he works. There Lance is, skating after practice with the 21st coaches. There he goes, watching film of the team’s latest game, or a Wild match to see if they can catch up in the standings. There he sits, chatting with teammates about their experiences—at least they speak English in Halifax, or as near an approximation as Lance can get with the local Eastern Canadian accent getting in the way. He has found home, or at least home for a while. Home for a while, though, is all he needs, as long as he has his love the ice.

 

Scouts have already begun to say that Lance will be a first round pick in next season’s VHLM Draft; in all likelihood, that means he’ll be uprooted once more, maybe this time to America and yet another foreign country. Past that, maybe a trip to the VHL and… Switzerland? Sweden? Russia? The future holds so many possibilities and so much promise, it can be impossible to comprehend unless you really try. The endless threads of the future spinning out from one moment playing rugby in the unintended and serendipitous snow in London.

 

But there is one thing you need to know about Lance Flowers: He’s ready.

Edited June 6, 2019 by CowboyinAmerica

[Greg_Di 932]

Review: Great length, Pictures were a nice touch. Great background to Lance. Only thing I would really add is maybe some quotes from past coaches, players or even Lance himself just to give the article more of a real feeling. Well done!

[chillzone 231]

Review: Awesome biography, I like how you took us through Lance’s decision making process. You did a great job charting his growth and development as a player. Well done! Love the photos too.