Photo by: Michael Wade
An Eye on the Cup
9/21/2020 10:40:00 AM | Football, Blog
While he chose football over hockey, Wiley Green's love of the sport remains strong
The routine for a college quarterback on a typical September Saturday usually revolves either playing games or watching fellow collegians take to the field. However, in a sports year where conventional timelines have become irrelevant, last Saturday night provided yet another example.
Football might have held sway earlier in the day, but Wiley Green's Saturday night belonged to the first sport of his youth as the former aspiring hockey player was locked into the return of the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since June of 2000--two months after Green was born.
Normally, the chase for Lord Stanley's Cup begins as spring football practice draws to a close in April and the finals roll into early June where it shares the stage with the NBA Finals while baseball's focus is on the All-Star game and football is looking to the opening of training camps. This year those two sports are sharing airtime with the final days of a truncated major league baseball regular season and the return of football on the collegiate and professional level.
Dallas' 4-1 win over Tampa Bay was a clear winner for Green's attention, who was instantly smitten with Canada's game after attending his first game at the spry age of two.
"I fell in love with the game," Green recalled." A year later, my parents started taking me to skating lessons. When I was about four or five, the Stars had a program for $99 that let you play a season. They gave you a stick, skates, pads and five sessions on the ice. Jumping into hockey was my first sport."
Green took to the game quickly and by age eight he was traveling to Philadelphia to play in a select tournament. Around this same time, he was able to join his NHL heroes on the ice before a game.
"I was selected the Mini Mite Star of the Game and got to skate out on the ice for the National Anthem. I still have the picture of me and Brenden Morrow standing there hanging in my room. I actually was trying to stand by Mike Modano, but he wasn't starting that game. So I wound up standing next to the captain (Morrow). He was one of my favorite players and I loved watching him play," he recalled.
Once, it was a rarity to have multiple American-born players on any NHL roster and even rarer for one to be a top draft pick. Those days are now a distant memory and the dream of one day being the player you youths excitedly stood next to before an NHL game is being realized over and over.
The 2020 Finals feature 11 Americans on the two rosters, including one from the Dallas area (Tampa Bay's Eric Coleman, from Plano). Modano was the second of eight Americans to go first overall in the NHL Draft, with two of those selections coming in the last four years.
The journey to become a prospect in hockey may start anywhere, but eventually will mean a move to play in the more traditional proving grounds for the sport. While recruiting in football means a player will move away from home for college, the decision in hockey comes much earlier.
"We played in a tournament in Canada and did really well and that's when I started getting a lot of interest from these boarding schools in Minnesota, some of whom have links to the development team for the national junior team, which was pretty exciting."
For Green, who was also finding success along a more traditional path in football, the time came for a choice to be made as he approached the start of high school.
"I'd had a couple of injuries and my parents said I had to pick one physical sport: football or hockey. It was a tough decision, because I loved hockey."
That Green decided on football and be at the helm of the offensive attack was in keeping with his preferred role on the ice.
"I liked scoring goals and being in front of the net," he admitted. "A couple coaches wanted me to play defense, but I said no, I wanted to be up front. Even being one of the bigger guys out there, I wanted to stay out of the (penalty) box because I wanted to stay on the ice."
Green's decision also saved his parents from some of the other realities all hockey parents know so well.
"Our garage smelled so bad because I wasn't allowed to bring my hockey bag in the house. You have pads that you've been sweating in all day and then you throw them in a dark bag. The smell in a hockey locker room is something I don't think anyone ever truly gets used to.
"I got out of the sport with a full set of teeth," Green added. "That was big for my mom and I think also big for me."
Green's main connection to the sport these days is as a fan and passionate promoter of the game.
"I still love watching hockey and love watching the Stars. I went to the Winter Classic on New Year's Day….85,000 fans watching hockey in the Cotton Bowl. Coming back from being two goals down to win (over Nashville) was pretty cool," he noted.
"A lot of people don't give hockey a chance. They think it's a game they play in Canada, but they don't know how much great hockey there is in Texas. It's such a physical and demanding sport that I think (more) people in Texas would love if they just gave it a chance. They'd love to see the high flying hits, they'd love to see the fights—which are not allowed in any other sport. You let your guys fight it out to get your team going."
While the delay to the Owls' 2020 football season has coincided with the return of the NHL season, Green hopes the personal overlap of his two favorite sports will be brief.
"When you're in season, it's all football all the time, but this is such a weird time," Green noted. "It's kind of nice to be able to take step back and hopefully win a Stanley Cup in the next couple of days."
Football might have held sway earlier in the day, but Wiley Green's Saturday night belonged to the first sport of his youth as the former aspiring hockey player was locked into the return of the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since June of 2000--two months after Green was born.
Normally, the chase for Lord Stanley's Cup begins as spring football practice draws to a close in April and the finals roll into early June where it shares the stage with the NBA Finals while baseball's focus is on the All-Star game and football is looking to the opening of training camps. This year those two sports are sharing airtime with the final days of a truncated major league baseball regular season and the return of football on the collegiate and professional level.
Dallas' 4-1 win over Tampa Bay was a clear winner for Green's attention, who was instantly smitten with Canada's game after attending his first game at the spry age of two.
"I fell in love with the game," Green recalled." A year later, my parents started taking me to skating lessons. When I was about four or five, the Stars had a program for $99 that let you play a season. They gave you a stick, skates, pads and five sessions on the ice. Jumping into hockey was my first sport."
Green took to the game quickly and by age eight he was traveling to Philadelphia to play in a select tournament. Around this same time, he was able to join his NHL heroes on the ice before a game.
"I was selected the Mini Mite Star of the Game and got to skate out on the ice for the National Anthem. I still have the picture of me and Brenden Morrow standing there hanging in my room. I actually was trying to stand by Mike Modano, but he wasn't starting that game. So I wound up standing next to the captain (Morrow). He was one of my favorite players and I loved watching him play," he recalled.
Once, it was a rarity to have multiple American-born players on any NHL roster and even rarer for one to be a top draft pick. Those days are now a distant memory and the dream of one day being the player you youths excitedly stood next to before an NHL game is being realized over and over.
The 2020 Finals feature 11 Americans on the two rosters, including one from the Dallas area (Tampa Bay's Eric Coleman, from Plano). Modano was the second of eight Americans to go first overall in the NHL Draft, with two of those selections coming in the last four years.
The journey to become a prospect in hockey may start anywhere, but eventually will mean a move to play in the more traditional proving grounds for the sport. While recruiting in football means a player will move away from home for college, the decision in hockey comes much earlier.
"We played in a tournament in Canada and did really well and that's when I started getting a lot of interest from these boarding schools in Minnesota, some of whom have links to the development team for the national junior team, which was pretty exciting."
For Green, who was also finding success along a more traditional path in football, the time came for a choice to be made as he approached the start of high school.
"I'd had a couple of injuries and my parents said I had to pick one physical sport: football or hockey. It was a tough decision, because I loved hockey."
That Green decided on football and be at the helm of the offensive attack was in keeping with his preferred role on the ice.
"I liked scoring goals and being in front of the net," he admitted. "A couple coaches wanted me to play defense, but I said no, I wanted to be up front. Even being one of the bigger guys out there, I wanted to stay out of the (penalty) box because I wanted to stay on the ice."
Green's decision also saved his parents from some of the other realities all hockey parents know so well.
"Our garage smelled so bad because I wasn't allowed to bring my hockey bag in the house. You have pads that you've been sweating in all day and then you throw them in a dark bag. The smell in a hockey locker room is something I don't think anyone ever truly gets used to.
"I got out of the sport with a full set of teeth," Green added. "That was big for my mom and I think also big for me."
Green's main connection to the sport these days is as a fan and passionate promoter of the game.
"I still love watching hockey and love watching the Stars. I went to the Winter Classic on New Year's Day….85,000 fans watching hockey in the Cotton Bowl. Coming back from being two goals down to win (over Nashville) was pretty cool," he noted.
"A lot of people don't give hockey a chance. They think it's a game they play in Canada, but they don't know how much great hockey there is in Texas. It's such a physical and demanding sport that I think (more) people in Texas would love if they just gave it a chance. They'd love to see the high flying hits, they'd love to see the fights—which are not allowed in any other sport. You let your guys fight it out to get your team going."
While the delay to the Owls' 2020 football season has coincided with the return of the NHL season, Green hopes the personal overlap of his two favorite sports will be brief.
"When you're in season, it's all football all the time, but this is such a weird time," Green noted. "It's kind of nice to be able to take step back and hopefully win a Stanley Cup in the next couple of days."
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