Constructing A Junior Hockey Team/Part Two

THE PLAYER/PARENT VIEW

Tom Zajac has four sons that play hockey.

His oldest, Travis, just finished a 20-goal season for the NHL's New Jersey Devils. Then there's Darcy, who is at the University of North Dakota. Kelly plays at Union College.

The youngest Zajac boy is 16-year-old Nolan. He's the only defenseman of the hockey Zajacs, and the only one who will leave their native Canada at a young age to play junior hockey in the United States Hockey League.

Nolan Zajac was the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders' top pick in the recent 2009 USHL Entry Draft. He wants to play college hockey and figures this is the best way to prepare for it.

"Nolan comes from a great family," said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson.

"We've heard nothing but good things about the organization," countered Tom Zajac. "And both coaches."

That doesn't make Nolan's impending move any easier. Tom and Nolan made the 11-hour car drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Cedar Rapids for this weekend's RoughRiders' tryout camp.

Imagine being in their shoes. You're 16 and about to leave home for the first time, to a foreign country, no less. Your 16-year-old son is leaving home for a foreign country, to live with people you haven't met, yet, to go to a high school you don't even know the name of, in a city you know very little about.

Welcome to elite-level junior hockey.

"I worry about it a little bit," Nolan Zajac said. "It's going to be a change. But I figure you are eventually going to do it anyway, so you might as well do it now.

"I feel pretty good about it. It was great to get drafted that high ... This league is going to be faster, a big step up. That's probably the main thing."

The main thing? Try telling that to Tom.

"You do worry about (him leaving home)," Tom Zajac said. "It's your child.

"There is somewhat of a comfort level because of what we know about the organization. But you still have concerns with your boy leaving the house."

Tom Zajac said he had at least a half-dozen phone and e-mail conversations with Carlson leading up to the draft. Zajac was trying to gauge if Cedar Rapids was a good place for his son, Carlson was trying to figure out exactly how serious the Zajacs were about coming to the league and potentially the RoughRiders.

"Obviously he wants to do his homework," Tom Zajac said. "He wants to make sure Nolan fits with their organization. They don't want to waste a draft pick."

To that end, Carlson made two trips recently to the Detroit area for in-home visits with the family of Cason Hohmann. He's a 16-year-old forward the RoughRiders took with their first pick in the USHL Futures Draft.

Hohmann has a tremendous amount of upside, as they say, evidenced by him being drafted by Portland of the Canadian Major Junior Western Hockey League. There also has been talk of him hooking up with the United States National Team Developmental Program.

"The USHL is Cason's best route," said his father, Chris Hohmann. "The U.S. team was our big goal. But as we explored it a little bit, we felt this is Cason's best opportunity at this time."

Hockey is serious stuff for the Hohmann family. Chris moved from the Dallas area to hockey hotbed Detroit in part to help Cason's career. The boy has gone through personal training workouts (weights, sprints, plyometrics) an hour a day three to four times a week since he was 8.

He is highly committed to the game, which probably made him all the more appealing to Carlson. The coach worked hard to recruit Hohmann to Cedar Rapids, though he thinks his program more or less sells itself.

"I just think we work hard at it, and we're honest with people," Carlson said. "An awful lot of what we have here can really sell itself. You know, a beautiful arena, a beautiful community, great support, the league itself. All of those things are pretty easy to sell.

"We don't promise anybody anything. Sometimes kids don't like that, but we're not a team that promises you power-play time or this many games. I think those things can get you in trouble. We do certainly talk about opportunities and things like that, however."