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So what's it like to be the parent of a two-sport phenom?
Talking to Terry Hawryluk, who runs an insurance and travel agency up in Roblin, it sounds like there's never a dull moment.
One of Hawryluk's five kids is a nine-year-old, goal-scoring machine named Jayce, who's tearing up the Saskatchewan Major Hockey League.
Tearing up, as in scoring some 300 goals last season, 250 the year before.
"He just scores all the time," Hawryluk was saying from his office yesterday. "It's just what he does. The other teams know what's coming, but it just doesn't seem to matter."
It sure didn't last weekend, in a pair of games against Melville.
Playing against bigger kids
Playing his first season of atom hockey, against kids much bigger than he is, Jayce kicked things off with seven goals and three assists in an 11-4 win, then came back with five goals and an assist in a 7-6 victory.
That gives him about 61 goals in 17 games this year, according to his coach, Lyall Bates, who's having a hard time keeping up with the kid's stats.
"There's not much I can show him about scoring," Bates said. "He's got that figured out. I don't remember seeing someone with hands like this."
Crazy thing is, Jayce might be better at baseball than he is at hockey.
Picture a nice game of catch between a father and his four-year-old in the front yard. Now picture dad rearing back and throwing his best heat at the kid.
"It's almost like adult brutality, throwing a ball as hard as you can, and he's four or five years old," Hawryluk said. "People would stop by my house and just watch me play catch with him."
Of course, during our conversation, Hawryluk realized pretty quick that this was going to sound like an overly-proud dad gushing about his son.
So he asked me to call assistant coach Dave VanderMeer, just to get a more unbiased opinion.
Problem is, VanderMeer is right off the deep end about Jayce, just like everybody else I talked to.
"To watch him play sports is phenomenal," VanderMeer said. "On a scale of 1 to 10, he's off the scale."
For example:
- Playing shortstop in the provincial championship last year, Jayce dove through the air for a line drive, caught it as it hit the ground, then threw the batter out at first -- from his knees.
"I just can't grasp how a kid that age can be at that level," VanderMeer said.
- As a pitcher, Jayce isn't allowed to throw his curveball too often, because it's not good for a kid's arm. That's right, he has a curveball. One that breaks about a foot.
Well, one game he starts throwing it.
"It's breaking over the plate," VanderMeer said. "The umpire turns around and looks at me, and I just shrug my shoulders. He goes, 'Oh my god, this kid's throwing a curveball like a 17-year-old.' "
- Jayce's fastball has been clocked at 58 m.p.h. That is not a misprint.
All this has created a bit of a buzz in Roblin, particularly when word got out that Jayce will be featured on CBC-TV's Hockey Day in Canada broadcast, Jan. 7.
New Year's baby
His parents, though, are used to the attention. After all, Jayce has been getting it since the day he was born: he was the area's New Year's baby in 1996.
"He came in with a bang," his mom, Sandra, said. "And he's been in the newspapers ever since."
The thing that might make mom and dad proudest, though, is what's between the kid's ears.
Sounds like Jayce is beyond his years in attitude, as well as ability.
By all accounts, he's not a puck hog, likes to dish out assists as much as anyone and sticks up for kids who get picked on.
As outgoing as he is, you'll never hear him boast about how many goals he got in his last game.
"I don't like bragging about them," Jayce told me after school yesterday. "I just score them."
credits: Winnipeg Sun, aznbanana *for telling me about this
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