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The Dalton Wilcox Story [2/2]


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The Dalton Wilcox Story

 

Early Life:

Dalton Wilcox was born in Hong Kong to a travelling rodeo clown father and a barmaid mother, whom his father met after one of his travelling shows.  Soon after he was born, Wilcox’s father took him to the United States, which is where Dalton spent the majority of his life.  His father did not want to stay in Hong Kong to raise his son, and his mother did not want to leave for the United States.  Heartbroken, his mother decided to let Dalton go, hoping he would have a better life in North America.

 

 After his father retired from the rodeo scene, he opened up a ranch where Dalton was put to work at an early age.  Dalton developed his speed at an early age, chasing after dogs that were on the ranch, and eventually chasing horses.  He developed his hands by milking cows.  He developed his shot by building up his forearm muscles by wrangling cows and other small animals.  He really developed into a physical specimen at a young age.  He helped his father build fences and with other minor construction around the ranch.

 

Seeing Dalton full of energy and being physically strong, his father decided to put him into hockey.  Right away, Dalton was a natural on skates.  He was a man amongst literal boys.  His speed, strength and shot were all at another level compared to his peers.  However, his hockey IQ left much to be desired.  His father, being a rodeo clown, knew nothing about hockey.  He was unable to guide Dalton on the smaller aspects of the game, but he was his biggest cheerleader and tried to attend every one of Dalton’s games.

 

At school, Dalton was known as the “gentle giant”.  Despite being more physically developed than the other kids, he was never a bully.  In fact, he was known for helping out kids who were being bullied, by standing up to the bullies.  Although Dalton was popular in school and was succeeding in sports, he felt something was missing from his life.  Other kids had two parents to return home to every day, and often talked about life at home.  Dalton’s mother was still in Hong Kong and Dalton had no memory of her.  Although his father did a fine job of raising him, he was missing a maternal presence in his life.

Image result for child cowboy

 

High School/Junior Hockey:

At the age of 15, Dalton was drafted into the USHL by the Waterloo Black Hawks.  At Waterloo, Dalton played with a young phenom known as Brock Boeser.  Here, they partnered up to light up the USHL.  Dalton started to model his game after his good friend and linemate, by focusing on being the goal scorer he can be.  It was a success, and the duo combined for 80 goals before Boeser moved on to the University of North Dakota.  Dalton took on more of a leadership role after Boeser left and continued to grow his goal scoring prowess, tallying 50 goals in his next season.   VHL scouts started to take an interest in Dalton as more and more scouts started attending his games.   Unfortunately, after running into the powerhouse UNTDP team in the semi finals, Dalton’s junior career with the Black Hawks was over.

 

Image result for waterloo blackhawks

 

During high school Dalton was diligent in his studies and continued to work hard on all things that were going on his life.  If he wasn’t going to make it in hockey, at least he would be able to go to university.  He was particularly interested in economics, having been fascinated by the movie “Wolf of Wall Street”.  If hockey wasn’t going to work out, he would be pursuing a career on Wall Street as an investment banker.

 

Most of his time was spent either on his studies, playing hockey, or working on the ranch.  His time growing up in the ranch instilled a work ethic in him that was that could also be attributed to his father.  In the summers, Dalton continued to work with his father on the ranch.  He started to ramp up the physical activity as he saw that he can make hockey a career.  He started to physically lift up small animals and carry them to the other parts of the ranch.  He built and repaired fences completely on his own.  He learned how to operate heavy machinery and was soon plowing fields all by himself.

Image result for bobby hull farm

 

However, Dalton felt something was missing from his life.  Dalton had worked so hard and developed a tough exterior, both physically and mentally.  Was it love that he was missing?  Perhaps it was the absence of a mother in his life.  He didn’t know much about his mother other than that his father met her in Hong Kong and she never left with him to the United States.  Why didn’t she come?  Did she know who he was?  Would she even recognize him if he saw him?  These questions haunted Dalton and caused him to have a lot of sleepless nights.  As he got older,  Dalton made it his mission that one day he would be able to earn enough money to travel back to Hong Kong in order find his mother, whether it was through hockey or other means.

 

Beginning Professional Hockey:

Dalton was drafted into the VHLM at the tender age of 17.  He knew that this was just the start of something big. Having had success at all levels of minor hockey, Dalton, his coaches and father knew that he would be destined for success. He knew his strengths as a goal scorer and physical player, but he also knew that there was a lot of work to be done.  Defensive play, playmaking, making use of teammates were all things that Dalton could still grow in his game.   He knew that his work ethic instilled in him from his upbringing will carry him to a long and fruitful career.

 

Will Wilcox fulfills his destiny as one of the VHL’s best players?  Will Wilcox ever find his mother and find the love that has been missing from his life?  Stay tuned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Review:

Length is good, lots of pictures and great bio information. Don't really see anything that could be improved. Well done! This could definitely be used as a base for future VHL media articles to see how Wilcox progresses and if he finds his mother or love ;) 

Edited by Greg_Di
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  • DollarAndADream changed the title to The Dalton Wilcox Story [1/2]
  • 1 month later...

Review: Really cool concept of his dad's backstory and longing for the countryside and glad to see that Dalton picked up on his habits and work ethic both in and out of the rink. Dalton seems very relatable in how, when he was younger, he wanted to keep his options open in either hockey or his studies and his questioning of his mother. Glad to see that hockey came out on top and hopefully he'll meet him mom. Well done and great transitions in giving the reader a colorful idea of his timeline leading to his career!

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