It's been a rough season for the rookie Wuma Duce. He was drafted earlier than anyone had expected, and he's had a tough time living up to that draft pick. It's still too early to decide if he's going to be a bust, but more than halfway through his rookie season he's not really impressing anyone. We had a chance to catch up with him at the start of his teams road trip and ask him about the highlight of his rookie season, and how his play has effected him.

"The highlight of the season for me so far? It's tough to narrow it down, but I'd probably have to go back to the game against the Raiders."(Editor's Note - Game 34 of the season)"I've had a tough time putting up points in this league, it's no secret. I'd been going through a tough time and was starting to lose confidence in my puck game. It's been a rough game for both teams, we enter the third period tied at zero and both teams are starting to play with some desperation. Halifax scores pretty early in the period and you could feel it on our bench. A few seconds later, Hammersmark takes a nasty pass from Chuppy and ties it up. That got us all going. A few minutes later, I think it was Oles puts them up two. We still had some major energy going from Hammy's goal and knew we had this. We get on the ice for a face-off after a shift or two after we go down. Chupps hit me with an absolutely perfect pass, and I got to set up Ruggeri for the game tying goal that would eventually send us to overtime. I haven't been a part of many really meaningful goals up to this point, but getting the assist on that goal really helped to ground me again."

"Yeah, uh, it's tough. Stepping up to the SMJHL is a big change of pace from playing back in Germany. I've tried to keep my spirits high, there's days where you look back on your last game and try to figure out what you could have done differently to help the team, the guys on your line. This season has been a huge learning experience so far, and I really feel like I'm finally starting to get used to the North American ice and pace. I just really want to thank the Mammoth head office and my teammates for supporting me, and I look forward to living up to both their, and my, expectations."

With his team battling for a playoff spot in the SMJHL playoffs, Duce is really hoping he can step his game up to the next level and help his team clinch a playoff spot, for them and for him.