Eye-opener for Rockets players
On November 6th six Kelowna Rockets players were given the opportunity to get up close and learn first-hand about the realities of drug abuse.
Players Riley Stadel, Michael Herringer, Rodney Southam, Gordie Ballhorn, Devante Stephens, and Tomas Soustal were given a tour of East Hastings Street in Vancouver by the R.C.M.P.
Assistant coach Travis Crickard also got to experience the tour with the players. It’s an experience he says is well worth it.
“In any type of sport or group oriented community there are always parties and there’s always going to be an offer of some kind of substance,” Crickard said. “I think it just helps the guys really understand the paths that you can go down based on the decisions that you make. The people that they were able to talk to on East Hastings are addicts and have basically ruined their lives because of their decisions; I think it was an eye-opener for the players to basically make better decisions because of what they saw and what could happen.”
The boys had a presentation right away about different kinds of drugs, how addicting they can become, and the gateway to harder drugs. They then went on two different boats with the Vancouver Police and they were shown how they inspect the boats that carry large cargo. They even got to see it done live as there happened to be an unidentified boat that needed inspection.
The players were then taken to East Hastings where they walked around for about four hours. They were given a list of questions to ask people willing to talk to them. Rockets forward Tomas Soustal says what they saw was very stunning.
“It was a pretty cool experience. Very very eye-opening for all of us I think,” Soustal said. “It got to our hearts a bit. It’s definitely a place you don’t want to end up. When people share their stories with you it’s hard, and like I said, it’s very eye-opening.”
Cst. Keir Thomson of the Kelowna RCMP Street Enforcement Unit (SEU) noticed that it was a big shock for the Rockets players to meet men and women from diverse backgrounds, each battling addictions while living in Vancouver’s downtown east side.
“Almost every person that the players spoke to gave the young men the same advice, Stay away from drugs, don’t ever use them, not even once,” he states. “A powerful message for these young hockey players to hear because of who the message comes from. Coaches, parents and us as police officers have all passed along the same message many times before, but when that message comes straight from someone actually fighting addiction, who explains to the players how their life has been forever impacted by their addictions, it carries so much more weight,” adds Cst. Thomson
“Our hope, in giving the players this kind of experience, is that it will not only help prevent them from ever going down that road themselves, but will also empower them to be even better role models, by spreading the word to their teammates, friends and all of the youths in our community,” further states Cst. Thomson.
It was a great learning experience for the players and coach Crickard says he hopes to be able to do it again next season.
