Jean-Pierre Camus goes home for vacation

[solas 1,946]

Jean-Pierre Camus goes home for vacation

 

There aren’t many opportunities for a VHL player to get rest during the season.  The 72-game campaign is a grueling affair that tests even the very best.  So it was a surprise to hear that Chicago Phoenix goaltender Jean-Pierre Camus went on a brief vacation recently, in the middle of the season.  Camus is notorious for his work ethic and single-minded focus on winning, and the Phoenix are currently battling for first place in the North American Conference.  So why now?  This seems like it would be one of the worst, and most unlikely, times to go on vacation.  The answer is simple: he wanted to go back home.  To Quebec.

 

“I spoke very openly with the management and my coaches here,” Camus said in an interview with VHL.com.  “They understood why I left, and I really appreciate that.  I just had to go home.  I’ve been working so hard on improving as a player and helping this team win that I haven’t been back home in over a year.  I didn’t go anywhere during the offseason, I just stayed in Chicago and worked out.  Through the last month or so, I’ve been starting to feel homesick because of that.  And I figured it’d be a good idea to go home now, give Klox [Chicago backup goaltender Kloxified] some starts, rather than have my mind be in the wrong place when we’re going into the playoffs.”

 

Camus was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, to a multilingual household.  Like many others in the province, his first language (and the language most spoken in his family) was French.  That’s something fairly unique in the VHL - none of his teammates speak French, and the league’s only other notable Francophones are Dragons forward Guy Lesieur and Wranglers goaltender Jacques Lafontaine.   In fact, English isn’t even Camus’ second language - it’s his third.  His father, currently a philosophy professor at Université Laval in Quebec City, emigrated from Algeria in his twenties, and as a result Arabic was more common than English in the household.  (As one might be able to tell, however, “JPC” is now fluent in English - he learned it in school and from teammates, but credits much of his development to watching English-language broadcasts of Quebec City Meute games.)

 

Language, of course, isn’t the reason for Camus’ trip home.  But it’s a good demonstration of why he did.  Going into the league at such a young age (he first played in the VHLM at 19) is difficult, and that culture shock can have a big effect on you.  Even after five years in the VHL system, things can still be difficult.  So a trip home, to Quebec City, was just what the doctor ordered.  “I got to see my parents for the first time in a long time.  My sister, too.  It was fantastic,” he said with a smile.  “I even got to meet up with a couple of my old friends and teammates.  We didn’t even talk about hockey, just life.  It was fantastic, just what I needed.”  Camus pauses for a moment, then his smile fades back into a look of steely determination.  “But now it’s time to get back to work.”
 

530 words - good for one week

[Bobo 470]

Love the diction and structure. You should join VHT, if you don’t have too much on your plate. We would love to have a mind like yours on our team.

[fishy 1,755]

we finally got you to start sharing your articles with us in the locker room. all it took was blazzer and me sharing them for you and giving you shit for not sharing them.

 

i cannot believe you shared this article and said, "it is like an hour of work, though, so it's not very good. please do not read it."

 

you are so annoying because this article is very good - a unique take on theme week that gives your player character. an easy-to-read writing style, as always, interesting phrasing, and, of course, a great take on the prompt. shut ur mouth and go kick some ass in jeopardy! or something.