Why? The question I’ve been asked and faced with so many times over my 17-year hockey career. Why do you play? Why I am I still doing this? Why do you sacrifice your weekends? Why do you give so much to just a game? The simple answer, I love it. You step in that rink and it’s as if everything else stops for the time being. You fall in love with that escape and it becomes much more than a game, it becomes your life. 

My name is Davis Mclean, I am a 21-year old Laurier Business student who played hockey for the Paris Mounties while at school. I write this article as my junior career has just concluded in a heartbreaking game seven loss to the Ayr Centennials in the second round of the PJHL playoffs. It’s tough to put into words what went through my mind as I stood in that crease for one last time and watched the clock tick down to the final seconds. The thing I remember most is never wanting to step off that ice. 

Hockey was never easy for me. After so many times of coming up short I finally got an opportunity to go play for the Hill Academy Prep school in my grade eleven year. That year we had a 70-game schedule, I played 7 of those games. I would travel Thursday to Sunday for a combined 20 hours on a coach bus almost every weekend, giving up my social life as well as time with my family to ultimately sit on the bench. To say I didn’t question myself on why I was still playing would be a complete lie. There were endless times where I’d call my mom from the hotel heartbroken that this was how things were. Yet I never quit. I became the guy who was always first on the ice and last off, the guy who never skipped a rep in the gym and the guy who excelled in the classroom. I worked my tail off even without the results because it was my passion, it was the only thing I wanted. The hard work paid off. In grade 12 I became a starter and finished the year being awarded as my team MVP among a team filled with a couple D1 commits as well as some D3, OHL and Jr. A commits. This incredible year where I saw my hard work paying off led to a call from the coach of Curry College. He wanted me to attend Curry for the coming school year. My dream was to play NCAA hockey and here it was. I rejected the offer. Probably the hardest decision I’ve ever made to this day. Curry was a mid-rank hockey program at the time but lacked a business program which was my pursuit of education. As well, I was coming right out of high school and not ready to move away to Boston on my own. I looked at the long term and what would happen once I graduated with a degree I truly didn’t want. My parents, as always, supported my decision and if you asked them today they’d probably say with no doubt it was the right one.

I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Rejecting that offer led me to play for the Paris Mounties Jr. C team as well as attending Wilfrid Laurier University for their business program. These two places combined have allowed me to meet some of the most important people in my life. When I first stepped in that dressing room 4 years ago I knew not one guy. I now walk out of that dressing room for the last time having built a second family. Growing up playing competitive hockey, you sometimes learn that it can be more of a business than a game. Yet from day one the Mounties organization, players, coaches and everyone else brought me back to that childhood love of the game. Todd Wood, owner of the Mounties, was one of the first people I met when I arrived and ever since he treated me like one of his own. He became a friend and one that I’ll never lose. He treats every one of his players with care and effort, he strictly wanted the best for us. In my second year I met what would be my coach for the rest of my time in Paris, Brad Jones. To put Jonesy in simplest terms, he’s one of the boys. He was far from a perfect coach but no matter if you agreed with his choices or not, you supported him. He wanted to win, it was a simple as that. Yet he never took any of his players for granted. These two guys alone made my time with Paris the best four years of hockey. Yet easily the most important thing to me when I skated off that ice for one last time after game 7 was the guys in that dressing room. We created a family, a bond that you’d only know if you were a part of it. I got to finish my career off with 20 of my best buddies including Blake Culley, my best friend from day one of hockey. Culley played on my house league hockey team when we were about 5 years old and ever since we’ve been brothers. In my third year he joined the Mounties after being traded from the Schomberg Cougars. We got to finish where we started. We went into our OA year as leaders of the team and I’d like to think we made a lasting impression on the culture of that dressing room. It was far from the result we wanted in the end but what I’ve learned is there is way more to hockey than the game itself, and the way I finished my career was on top.

To everyone who still has the opportunity to play and chase that dream; do not give up, do not give in, and even when you ask yourself “why” just remember why you started.

Davis McLean