A Local Hockey Story Worth Telling: Where Were You?

Where were you? - Photo by Ian Kennedy

Where were you? I was sitting on a couch with my dad the moment Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal for Canada as they beat the USA to win the Gold Medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

In the upper echilons of AAA, Junior, or OHL hockey, you’ll hear a lot of people complain about politics, unfair treatment, and bad luck when it comes to tryouts or “making it.” Parents will claim their kids work harder than anyone out there, and those young hockey players actually believe they’re doing enough to make the next level. From now on, after hearing a motivational story about Wallaceburg’s Seth Griffith, when someone gets into this conversation with me, I’ll ask them where their son was during Canada’s Olympic gold medal win.

While coaching at an Under 17 Selection Camp, my trainer told me about Seth Griffith while he was playing Junior B with the St. Mary’s Lincolns. He said Seth was the most dedicated player he’d seen in years, he was the first on the ice at practice, the last off the ice, and for Seth, nothing was more important than improving, because the London Knights brass told him he had to become a better skater, and all around player to be on their roster the next season. So Seth worked, every minute he could. Then this trainer told one of the best stories I’ve ever heard about a young athlete doing what it takes to make it in hockey.

The real sign of showing “what it takes” for Seth Griffith came on February 28, 2010. That was the day Team Canada won gold in overtime against the United States at the Vancouver Olympics. 

Almost every Canadian, hockey fan or not, was glued to their TV watching, and surely every hockey loving boy was furiously cheering on Team Canada…well, not quite every boy.

Sitting in the St. Mary’s dressing room, the Lincolns team and staff were supposed to be on the ice for practice, but the gold medal game was still on so the team watched and cheered like the rest of Canada on their dressing room television.

When this trainer looked around the room, Griffith, the team’s leading scorer at the time, was nowhere to be found. When he got up and left the dressing room, he heard skates on the ice. There, working alone on an empty sheet of ice was Seth Griffith.

As the trainer told it, he approached the ice and yelled, “Seth! What are you doing? The game is still on.” Griffith simply replied, “Yeah I know. Will you pass me some pucks for a while, I want to work on my one timer.”

Read that again kids and parents. Team Canada was playing the USA in overtime of the Olympic gold medal game and all he wanted to do was work on his one timer. Now think of where you were, or where your child was. Was it on the ice? Was it in a gym? Where were you?

Seth had a goal to play in the OHL and one day the NHL, and he took every opportunity to improve, and nothing, including watching his country play for gold could distract him from that goal. That is dedication, and that is “what it takes.” It wasn’t “fair” that he missed watching the gold medal game, and it wasn’t “fair” he missed other things he’s given up in the last year to work in a lonely gym or on the ice.

He missed the biggest game played by any person wearing a maple leaf on their chest in the last three decades, but he made the OHL’s London Knights and scored nearly a point per game this season. Now he’s overseas wearing a maple leaf on his own chest playing for Team Canada at the Under 18 World Championships. If you think his success wasn’t fair, or that your child deserves to play AAA, Junior B, or in the OHL, ask them what they were doing during the gold medal game of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Seth Griffith was on the ice alone working toward, and is now living his own dream, while his teammates, and millions of people across Canada sat and watch the dreams of others on a television screen.

Let the games begin.