CASTLEGAR — Selkirk Saints defenceman Stefan Gonzales celebrated his greatest hockey triumph last March when he helped his team to its second straight British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) title at the Castlegar Recreation Complex.
The bumps and bruises from the seasonending highlight moment were well earned, but the opponents Gonzales faced on the ice were nothing compared to the battles he faced in the classroom after returning to school after a four-year absence.
"I barely survived the first semester," recalled Gonzales. "I never really had great study habits in high school; I got good grades by just showing up to class. I was lucky in that sense, but it didn't really prepare me for the amount of work I would have to do coming back to school."
Gonzales played junior hockey for four seasons before arriving at Selkirk College for the start of the 2013-2014 school term. Forgoing any college courses after high school to concentrate on hockey, and two months into his first semester at Selkirk, Gonzales had failed a midterm and was struggling in the role of student athlete.
"After four years of just playing hockey and hanging out with your buddies watching Netflix and playing video games, there wasn't a lot of studying going on then," he says. "Coming back, it was a steep learning curve for the first couple of months. It was much harder than I anticipated."
Gonzales grew up in Surrey and found a passion for hockey at an early age. When he was 12, the prestigious North Shore Winter Club recruited him to play at its North Vancouver facility. In pee wee and bantam hockey, he was teammates with the likes of NHL's Evander Kane (Winnipeg Jets), Stefan Elliott (Colorado Avalanche) and Martin Jones (Los Angeles Kings).
By age 17, Gonzales was a highly touted prospect and went to play in Tier II Junior with the British Columbia Hockey League's Burnaby Express.
"I wanted an NCAA scholarship and that was my main focus," Gonzales said. "I was drafted into the Western Hockey League (WHL), but my goal was to combine education and school, so I took that pathway."
Gonzales played three full seasons in the BCHL with Burnaby, Quesnel, Chilliwack and Victoria. The success Gonzales experienced with the North Shore Winter Club in minor hockey was not mirrored during those seasons where he played on teams that struggled to get wins. In his final season of junior, he was traded to a team in Ontario; when Gonzales decided he didn't want to make the trip across the country, he opted to play Junior B with Aldergrove Kodiaks. It was a difficult choice - one that put an end to his dream of playing hockey on a scholarship in the United States.
"When it's the goal for so long and you are so focused on it, when that doesn't turn out, it's disheartening and you have to re-evaluate what you're doing," Gonzales said.
Determined to make the most of it, Gonzales had a tremendous season with Aldergrove. He led all Pacific Junior Hockey League defenceman in scoring and helped his team to the championship final. Along the way, Gonzales was recruited by former Selkirk Saints coach Jeff Dubois, who had built a powerhouse program in Castlegar that saw the team post a 21-3 regularseason record and capture its first BCIHL Championship in 2013.
"I hadn't gone to school for a few years and I was sold on the small school experience," says Gonzales. "I felt like that would be a good adjustment period to get back into the swing of academics."
Gonzales enrolled in the Business Administration Program and, on the first day of class, was a 21-year-old freshman who hadn't cracked a textbook since graduating from Grade 12. Though Gonzales and his teammates took part in the College Success Workshop with Selkirk College's Learning Skills co-ordinator Todd Solarik, he quickly felt overwhelmed.
"I was excited to be going back to school," Gonzales said. "But when things started to get stressful, hockey was the comfort zone, so I focused even more on hockey. When you are so stressed out with school, you are not having as much fun at the rink because you are thinking about school. Instead of trying to fix it, it's easy to ignore it and then that only makes it worse."
Rather than give up, Gonzales battled through the first semester. When the second semester started in January, he took a deep breath and paid another visit to Solarik where he sought help through Student Support Services. It was there that Gonzales found tutors and counsellors that helped him channel his energy.
Now midway through his final year of the Business Administration Program, Gonzales is a star student and one of the key Saints' leaders, both on and off the ice. Gonzales plans to continue with his education and hockey career once he graduates in April. With Business Administration transfer agreements in place with a number of different institutions in B.C. and Alberta, Gonzales has set his sights on putting in two more years and earning a degree.
"The transitioning from four years of not really using the academic side of your brain and not learning away from the rink, Selkirk College has been a great place to make that transition," he said.
Bob Hall is community liaison for Selkirk College, in Nelson.