CARSTAIRS – A local hockey player with a potentially promising career at a more professional level was recently signed onto a Manitoba team in the Western Hockey League.
Isaac Davies, from Carstairs, had mostly played hockey in the community until this past season when he joined the U15 triple-A Airdrie Xtreme, who won a 2022-23 provincial title in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.
The 15-year-old who plays left-wing and centre recently learned that he’d been tapped by the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings.
“When I was signed, it was just a great moment for me and my family,” said Davies adding he was notified earlier this month.
“I got a call from the GM and my agent,” he said, calling the Wheat Kings “a great organization.”
Measuring approximately 1.8-metres tall (five-feet, 11-inches) and tipping the scale at roughly 75 kilograms (165 pounds), Davies developed early on in life an acquired taste for the sport, which was not exactly a love-at-first-sight fairy tale.
“My earliest memories were Sunday free skates with my family,” he said.
“My mom and dad pushed me around in the stroller on the ice and once I got on the ice, I didn’t like the cold too much. So, I laid down and I cried,” he said.
Asked if that meant he initially wasn’t particularly fond of the sport, he quickly replied, “No, not at all.”
However, throughout the span of the following year, he got acclimatized to the cold and along the way began to develop an affinity for the sport and eventually had a change of heart.
“I was improving and I was flying out on the ice,” he said.
“I’m not too sure,” he said when asked what had changed over time. “I just started to fall in love with the game and that’s what got me right into it.”
But perhaps he was at least in part inspired by the adrenalin-packed action delivered by the NHL.
“I watched a lot of NHL games and I just wanted to be like them,” he said in response to being asked if he’d looked up to any role models.
His passion for hockey is three-fold.
“For me it’s just to compete and to have fun, make new friends,” he said when asked what motivates him to keep playing.
The biggest hurdle, he said, is the higher-pressure level of tougher competition.
“It’s always a challenge playing against all these other guys that are high level too,” he said.
But he also embraces the chance to face off against skilled players on the path toward self-improvement.
“I love a challenge,” he said.
Before he will be able to move to Manitoba to play with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Davies must first finish a final season much closer to home with the Airdrie Bisons triple-A.
“I’m feeling pretty great, I feel confident in myself,” he said when asked how he felt heading into the coming season.
“I play with a lot of confidence, so I just can’t wait to see what I can do out there with my new team,” he said, alluding to both the Bisons and the Wheat Kings.
His adoptive mother Jane Davies, spoke proudly about Isaac, who was still little when the family originally fostered him. Aspiring to provide him with a positive outlet that would help instil responsibility, sportsmanship and teamwork, his parents ensured he had opportunities to get involved in sports.
“He’s excelled in every sport he’s ever tried, but his love is hockey,” said Jane.
Yet hockey was his first introduction to sports and clearly left an indelible mark.
“I started off with hockey. When I was younger, I played a little bit of soccer and basketball,” he said, adding he never reached the level of competition in those sports as he did in hockey.
“I was just at a higher level in hockey, so I just took that as my first sport and it’s gone well,” he said.
Asked what kind of training he does during the off-season to keep in shape until the puck drops once again, he said, “I do a lot of powerlifting and a lot of cardio.”
He also spends plenty of time on the ice practising a variety of drills.
While that all requires no shortage of self-discipline and commitment, Isaac also recognized a person can only go so far alone on their own steam.
“I couldn’t have made it this far without my family, my parents,” he said. “They put the work and time in to get me places. I think if I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t be this far.”
