Login

DaftRaincloud · 04-20-2019, 09:20 AM

(This is my first article and I would like to use my bonus for this.)

Jonas was born to Milo and Astrid Larsen on November 11th, 2003 in the small city of Skien in Norway. Unfortunately due to complications from her pregnancy Astrid passed away mere hours after Jonas was born, leaving Milo to care for his son on his own. Milo did what he could to provide for his son, but like many of the uneducated workers in the city he worked at a manufacturing plant making very little money.

Jonas was a very curious and playful young boy and quickly became enamored with the local football club, Odds BK. From a young age Jonas would pick up small jobs around his neighborhood such as washing cars for their neighbors or assisting the municipal workers with cleaning up parks and roads and would save the money he made from these jobs to get in and watch Odds BK matches by himself.

He quickly had aspirations to become a professional footballer and with the help of his dad made a makeshift net in their backyard that he would spend hours kicking the ball in to. Milo signed Jonas up for an age 9 and under football league. Jonas was so adept at scoring goals in his league that his coach and teammates nicknamed him "Deadeye", a nickname that Jonas would carry with pride through the rest of his life.

During a freak accident where Jonas got tangled up with an opposing player he broke his leg and was left unable to play football for more than half a year. While Jonas was held up at home unable to practice or play football he got curious and one day snooped through the attic full of the heirlooms and keepsakes his father had collected over the years. While snooping he came across a photo album titled "Astrid - 1998". Jonas flipped through the album full of photos of his mother that he had never seen before. Her and his father together in America on a vacation, her posed in front of the Oslo Opera House, and more. One photo, however, caught Jonas' attention immediately. There was his mom - her face was immediately recognizable - but she was wearing full hockey gear. Jonas had seen hockey before on television but never paid it much attention, however he knew that was what she was wearing. He slid the photo out of the album and marched downstairs with it.

"Dad!" Jonas yelled from the top of the stairs as he hobbled his way down.
"What are you doing upstairs? You're going to hurt yourself!" Milo called up to him.
Jonas flapped the photo towards his father as he continued haphazardly down the stairs to the first floor of their home. "What is this? Mom played hockey?"
Milo snagged the photo from Jonas' hand and looked at it for a long while. His eyes began to well with tears before wiping them with the back of his hand. "She did. She was amazing."
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Jonas urged.
"Well.." Milo hesitated for a while, "your mother had to stop playing hockey because she got pregnant with you. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to feel like you did something wrong."
His fathers words impacted him strongly and after an emotional couple of days Jonas came to the conclusion that he wanted to carry on his mother's legacy and begin playing ice hockey.

Jonas purchased a second hand hockey stick and some pucks from a local consignment shop and using the makeshift goal his father had originally made for his football balls Jonas began to practice shooting pucks. He didn't take to it as quickly as he did football, but he worked at it tirelessly and after his leg healed he began the process of learning to ice skate.

Three years later, at twelve years old, Jonas was signed up for the Skien Shooting Stars, a local youth hockey team that played other teams in nearby rural Norway. Jonas was big for his age and was put on the fourth line with the other bigger kids, but his proclivity for goal scoring forced the coaches to move him up to the first line and give him more time on the ice. Through their short thirty game season Jonas racked up eighteen goals and eleven assists, making him the stats leader for his age group.

As Jonas grew up and moved up the age brackets the costs of travel and gear became more expensive and strained his father Milo financially. Jonas took up a part time job working at the ice rink for the local team Skien Ishockeyklubb, a professional team who also had an under eighteen affiliate that was more prestigious than the other youth programs in the area. Jonas sharpened skates, maintained the ice, laundered jerseys and other equipment, etc. and got paid enough to feed himself and cover his travel costs with the Shooting Stars relieving a lot of pressure off of his father. Whenever he had free time on the job he would take to the ice and his skills on the ice quickly caught the attention of the head coach of the Skien Ishockeyklubb.

After a year of working at the rink and continuing to play with the Shooting Stars the manager of Ishockeyklubb reached out to Jonas and offered him a spot on the U18 roster with the club. Jonas leapt at the opportunity and started to collect his first paycheck making money playing hockey. With the number 25 on his jersey, the same his mother wore, Jonas started to travel outside of his region for the first time in his life and playing against other teams from Oslo and other big cities from Sweden, Finland, and Russia. With the higher levels of competition Jonas wasn't able to get by on talent alone and started putting in more time working on his fitness and skills to elevate his game.

The team was invited along with other junior teams from Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Germany to play exhibition games in the United States in front of scouts representing teams in the WHL, CHL, OHL, and other major junior hockey leagues across the United States and Canada. After pleading with his father Jonas convinced him to go and they pooled their savings together to purchase plane tickets to Minnesota. Jonas' first time in America was an extreme culture shock to him, but thanks to his father's insistence that he spend time learning English Jonas was able to communicate extremely well and acted as an interpreter for many of the players on his team.

While the shooting stars lost all of their games during the exhibition Jonas put up three goals in six games and caught the eye of Mike Tomlin, the head scout for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL. Mike told Jonas in confidence that Portland was going to select him with their first draft selection in that year's bantam draft and months later huddled together in front of their small television in their home in Skien Jonas and Milo hugged and yelled in excitement as Jonas' name was read out in the draft.

The two sold what they didn't need, packed what they did, and headed off for a new life in America. They landed in Portland, Oregon and got an apartment together in the city. Jonas played on the second line for the entirety of the year and through 72 games recorded 40 goals and 16 assists. He enjoyed his time in the league but looks forward to what greener pastures now lie before him on his professional hockey journey.

Tomasnz · 04-20-2019, 09:28 AM

Nice origin story.

DaftRaincloud · 04-20-2019, 09:30 AM

04-20-2019, 09:28 AMTomasnz Wrote: Nice origin story.

Thank you! I appreciate it.

Grapehead · 04-20-2019, 09:39 AM

Nice introduction to your player! As someone who has a deep connection to hockey from my mother, I can relate to this story <3

Also, I hear the move from Portland to San Francisco is pretty nice Wink

***notorioustig*** · 04-20-2019, 10:28 PM

Nice first article!

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us