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***Acsolap*** · 07-08-2018, 01:13 PM

First time media post.
Word count: 1010 (just scraped in)

South London Times.

London- Prior to this weekend’s SMJHL entry draft we caught up with one of the United Kingdom’s newest hockey hopefuls Rex Kirkby. Kirkby hails from Tooting Broadway in the London borough of Wandsworth which proved vital in the early days of his hockey development due to the proximity of Streatham Hill Ice and Leisure centre. It is one of the few full sized rinks in the United Kingdom and Kirkby remembers spending a large portion of his childhood at the centre. “My parents had me on skates since before I can remember and I was down at the Stret pretty much every day after school.”

Sporting pedigree runs in the Kirkby family and it is perhaps no surprise that he has taken to Hockey. His father Barnaby Kirkby was a professional Cruiserweight boxer and mother Yohanna Bergstrom represented Sweden in figure skating in the winter Olympics. In fact his mother had hoped that he would follow in her footsteps, “Yeah, mum had me pinned for figure skating but as I got older I realised that mesh shirts and flared trousers aren’t for me. I have a banging pirouette though!” Due to his background in skating Streatham IHC invited him to their junior trials where he impressed enough to earn a spot on the team and moved his way up through the Scorpions to the Royals, the under fifteen and eighteen teams respectively.

At this critical point in his career Kirkby needed to make the important decision on whether to move up to the men’s team or try his luck abroad. “It was a tough decision to leave home and move to North America. Unfortunately hockey is not popular enough in the United Kingdom and in order to really test myself I needed to go where the best go.” Given that such a drastic relocation at such a young age can cause difficulties in anyone’s life let alone a professional athlete trying to bed into a new locker room and system we asked him if he had any preferences on where he would end up. “Ideally I would like a close locker room. I am not afraid of getting rowdy or taking the piss and a like-minded team would suit me. The current state of the team is not concerning to me but I want to help a team build and win.” With so many rookies entering the league in this draft it certainly seems like there will be opportunities for a bunch of players to come up together and create something special.

When you meet Kirkby he strikes a formidable figure. Coming in at six foot two and two hundred and twelve pounds and with his father’s background in boxing you would assume that he would be no stranger to a brawl or two. However he is somewhat of a gentle giant and has personal reasons for shying away from fights. “The old man tends to drool a bit and his eyes sometimes wander off in different directions, for that reason I kind of avoid getting punched in the head.” It would be expected that a man of his size would base his game around using his strength and taking the body however due to his background he tends to rely more on his speed and agility to force players to the outside into low percentage areas or onto the boards where he can out battle them for the puck. We asked him to describe his playstyle in his own words. “I like to be responsible in my own end primarily affecting turnovers and then use speed or passing to break up ice and catch the other team in transition. I’m not afraid of going in for a hit but it isn’t my go to. I also prefer to set my teammates up rather than score myself but if I bag a goal or two that’s obviously good too.”

Scouts have identified Kirkby’s strengths as his mobility on the ice, passing ability and the presence of mind to make the safe play rather than dive in. However there have been some concerns about his puck handling ability with one scout going so far to say “he has bricks for hands”. Kirkby responded to this with “I definitely need to work on my control of the puck and since making the move across the pond I have been focusing on that area of my game in an effort to make up the gap with other players.” It will be interesting to see what the general managers make of his improvements and whether their coaches will be able to iron out the kinks in his game but we believe that he has the right frame of mind and perseverance to make good on his promises.

Towards the end of our interviews we like to ask the prospects what their plans or goals for the short and long term future are. It gives us a gauge on their personality and allows us to reflect further on down the line. Kirkby said “Short team I’d like to just get drafted into a junior team. After that I hope the team shares my goal of building and pushing for titles and I can use that as a springboard to get drafted into the pros. Personally I want to become the best player possible but I am not after individual awards, the success of the team always comes first. My other long term goal would be to represent the United Kingdom because even though I am leaving these shores ultimately I would love to give back to the people that gave me the opportunity to even be drafted in the first place.”

Overall we have high hopes for Rex Kirkby and wait with anticipation to see what the draft brings tomorrow. Hopefully with more British talent coming through hockey can start to make inroads on the more traditional sports of cricket, rugby and football. We wish him all the best and will endeavour to catch up with him sometime soon after the draft.

Credit to Ml002, King, Wasty, Carpy, Bruins10, Rum_Ham, Turd Ferguson, Ragnar and Enigmatic for the sigs.
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