Ep. 155 - Burt Henderson- Competing at Every Level: Bert's Path Through Professional Hockey - Up My Hockey with Jason Podollan

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, I remember, just at practice, it's just
like some of them just beinglike a war out there, you're
battling for every puck, andthat's how we played.
That's how we played in games,even with the talent that we had
on our team.
You know, we had all thishigh-end talent but our compete
level was so high just from thepractices that we had and I had
a lot to do with the coach,right, that's what he required

(00:28):
from us was our compete level atall times being just just, you
know, and up here every time,every time you're, you're,
you're battling for a puck, um,even our goalies, just just not
quitting on any pucks, and youlook at that going oh shit, wow,
like you know, I'm gonna try toscore here, and you know
they're, they're going, they,you know goalies are, they don't
want anything getting in rightand and the competitiveness of

(00:49):
just that, seeing that from yourgoalies.
And then you know just that,translating the game, that
compete level was so high justfrom, just from the practice,
translating that into the gamesand, and you know, going as far
as we did, playing at that highlevel, yeah, I mean, you'll
never forget that it was such agreat year.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
That was former professional player and current
coach, bert Henderson, and youare listening to the Up my
Hockey podcast with JasonPadolan.
Welcome to Up my Hockey withJason Padolan, where we

(01:37):
deconstruct the NHL journey,discuss what it takes to make it
and have a few laughs along theway.
I'm your host, jason Padolan, a31st overall draft pick who
played 41 NHL games but thoughthe was destined for a thousand.
Learn from my story and thoseof my guests.
This is a hockey podcast aboutreaching your potential.
Hey, hey, hey.
This is Jason Padolan and thisis the Up my Hockey podcast with

(01:59):
Jason Padolan.
So welcome to, or welcome backto, the program.
Today we are going to bespeaking with Bert Henderson.
Bert is a former teammate ofmine with the OG Eagles OG.
You ask where is OG?
Well, og is in Tamakomai, whichis on the northern island of

(02:23):
Hokkaido in Japan, and that isin the Asia League, so it's just
south of Sapporo.
I was there, where I earned mylast professional paycheck for a
couple months, and Berthappened to be on that team.
We did play against each otherin the WHL years and years
previous to that, so we hadcrossed paths, but then we

(02:45):
became teammates for a couplemonths and I went on to other
things.
Bert went on to play hockeyelsewhere.
Newcastle is where he ended hisprofessional career in England,
but he played in places likeCincinnati for the Cyclones in
the IHL.
He played in Birmingham in theEast Coast League.
He was a WHL graduate as wellas a BCJHL.
He played in Birmingham in theEast Coast League.
He was a WHL graduate as wellas a BCJHL graduate, playing for

(03:08):
the Tacoma Rockets and theKelowna Rockets.
He was part of the transitionfrom Tacoma to Kelowna and he
also played for the KelownaSpartans and the Bellina
Micehawks of the BCJHL.
Bert was a captain of theRockets.
He was always a good leader andsomebody that took his craft
seriously, and I enjoyed my timewith him in Oji.

(03:31):
What an experience that was.
By the way, playing in Japan, Ihonestly didn't know that there
was even professional hockey inAsia.
I was retired at the time,going to school, going to
university, actually atUniversity of British Columbia,
okanagan here and my phone keptringing from these more kind of
obscure professional places thatI didn't really knew existed,

(03:55):
and Japan was one of theseplaces, and OG only had one
allotment of an import that theywere allowed and they weren't
happy with their import thatyear and somehow my name came
across their desk as a potentialpickup and, yeah, the money was
good, really good.
I wasn't that interested in theuniversity that I was taking it

(04:16):
was.
It wasn't what I expected it tobe and I'd always been super
interested in Japan and theculture and the food and just a
lot about Japan intrigued me andI was like, well, what a cool
vehicle for hockey to take methere.
So yeah, it was an awesome lifeexperience.
I actually fell in love withthe game a little bit again
while I was over there and thatwas a really, really cool

(04:39):
personal experience for me.
As far as Bert is concerned, hewent on to be a part of the
Langley Rivermen and the LangleyTrappers.
He was GM head coach in theBCHL for a while and now
recently has gotten back in thecoaching game with Burnaby
Winter Club at the U15 varsitylevel.
This upcoming season he's goingto be joining the Burnaby

(05:00):
Winter Club U15 prep team.
He's loving working with thatage group.
As you will find out in thisconversation, bert also has a
16-year-old at the time of thispodcast playing for Kelowna
Rockets, so that's come fullcircle for him, and we touch on
that kind of an emotional pointin the podcast where he talks

(05:22):
about his son playing for theteam that he used to captain,
which is a really coolexperience, I'm sure, for any
father who gets to experiencethat.
So, yeah, really goodconversation.
Like I said, bert has a lot tooffer, not only from the player
standpoint, but also from thecoaching standpoint, also from
the hockey dad standpoint.
Kind of wears gets to wear allthose hats in this interview and

(05:44):
um, and yeah, I really enjoyedreconnecting there with bert.
As far as the podcast isconcerned, last episode I
requested that anyone listeningto the pod download it.
I'm doing a little uh,experiment, analytic experiment
uh, with those who listen.
I know that myself I am notsomebody that that downloads

(06:04):
podcasts, but it is actually agreat way to support the podcast
that you like to listen to.
Downloads is like the mainanalytic factor that anyone goes
by, so if you aren'tdownloading the podcast, you are
doing a disservice to the host,so I'm just kind of being more
curious about the fact of howmany people actually listen.

(06:25):
Uh, because it is quite uh,it's not as unexpected as it
used to be that people will hearmy voice and recognize it from
the podcast and introducethemselves, or recognize me from
the podcast and introducethemselves, and you know emails
come in and with thanks for thepodcast, so it's kind of cool.
There's definitely a lot ofpeople that have chose the

(06:47):
podcast as something that theywant to listen, that they find
value in, and I think that'sfantastic.
The only thing is, though, is itseems like the metrics
necessarily aren't reallychanging too much.
So as out of gratitude to me ora request to me, or a favor to
me, however you want to put it.
I would really appreciate ifyou download this episode and

(07:11):
two episodes from now.
I'm going to take kind of thecross-section of the analytics
and see if there was a bump inmetrics just from having people
download.
I'm very curious to see and Iwill share the results of that.
So again, press pause.
If you haven't, please downloadthis episode and, without
further ado, I bring you myconversation with Bert Henderson

(07:32):
.
All right, here we are withBert Henderson.
This has been a long timecoming.
Hendy, thanks for joining us onthe Up my Hockey Pod.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
I've been wondering when you're going to get me on
here.
So nice to be on here.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I rang your bell a few times, but then we just kind
of couldn't get it worked out.
But you know, now it's workingout, you know.
Yeah, no, I'm happy to be here.
And things got slow enough thatyou finally earned your spot,
you know, on the pod.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, good, good, I'm glad it took a while,
but you know this shows you.
You know, put in some hard workand finally make it.
Things work out.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Man, now you're on the big stage.
But no, in all seriousness,you're going to be awesome to
talk to.
I mean a lot of love, yourstory, love where you went to.
You know, with theinternational involvement, your
involvement in you know thecoaching aspect of BCHL, even
the management side.
Now you're back in from thedevelopment side.

(08:26):
You have boys that are playing,so you probably won't even come
close to covering it all.
But, yeah, I look forward tofurther discussion.
So, yeah, maybe we'll start,maybe we'll start.
You're wearing the Rockets unithere, so that's always a good
place to maybe a good place tostart you.
You were originally with withthe Spartans in the BCHL and

(08:49):
then you went to Tacoma, somaybe let's start with the BCHL
journey at that point.
And where was that thedirection you're headed?
Because you thought you wantedto play NCAA or is that just
where you ended up playing?

Speaker 1 (09:00):
no, that that was, uh , the direction I was going
actually.
So I played, um, you know, myfirst year, 16 year old,
actually played in bellingham,uh, for the ice hawks, got
called up halfway through theyear there, finished off the
year there and then ended upgetting traded to colonna um,
and we had a like a really goodteam.
Obviously we won the centennialcup that year and that was the

(09:22):
direction that I wanted to go.
I was going, you know, I talkedto to schools and and this and
that and um, I wanted, you know,I wanted to go right away.
I wanted to go to school rightaway, you know, and I had a late
birthday, so it was going to bemy draft year.
So, um, you know, talking to afew schools, and they said, oh
well, you know, you want to playanother year in the bchl, and I

(09:44):
was like I don't know if Iwanted to do that.
So well, you know, you want toplay another year in the bchl
and I was like I don't know if Iwanted to do that.
So then, you know, uh, talkingto um at that time, uh,
tri-cities actually had myrights in the whl um, and then
ended up getting traded.
My rights got traded to tacoma,um, who was kind of a new team,
expansion team a few yearsbefore and they had, you know,

(10:08):
something really good going onthere for a younger player.
So I made the decision.
You know it's my draft year,I'm going to take a step here
and give the WHL a shot and youknow I played three years in the
league.
Great for me, I enjoyed everybit of it.
Great organization, um, youknow, still to this day,

(10:30):
obviously, even my son playingup there now I still talk to
bruce and and gavin and hamiltonfamily.
So we're still really close andit's, you know, it's kind of
funny, it's come full circle.
So it's, it's been nice yeah,that's uh, that's wild.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
So yeah.
So the spartans.
Well, let's maybe stop on thatfor a second.
So you guys won the CentennialCup that year and you were there
as a 16-year-old.
So talk to me about Kelowna,talk to me about what that
league was like for you steppingin there at 16 and how that
went.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, so actually it was my 17-year-old year that I
went up there.
I went up there when I was 16because I was a late birthday.
So my grade 12 year, my grade12 year, so it was my second
year actually in the league andthe coach there at the time,
john Oliver, he recruited justas a monster team we had some

(11:18):
Americans on the team, kids fromAlberta, so I had that half a
year experience already.
So, going in, I felt prettycomfortable going in there and
you know I got partnered upactually with a really good
defenseman named Brendan Kenny.

(11:39):
He ended up going to WesternMichigan, I believe it was, and
you know we had a lot ofchemistry and you know, for me,
for the growth for me at thattime, first time away from home
in a new school, you know youhave to kind of grow up pretty

(12:00):
quick, right?
So, and that's what I needed, Ineeded that I need to get away
from home, I needed to kind ofgrow up and just live the life.
You know, have the experienceof a junior hockey player and
once you get a taste of that,well you know like it's, you
know it's what you want to do,right.
So you know it was.
We had a great year.

(12:21):
Actually, that year we ended upour coach who recruited this
monster team I guess westruggled at the start a bit and
they ended up letting him go.
So the assistant coach at thetime, jim Hammett, came in.
He went on to, I think he wenton to WHL and he ended up

(12:41):
scouting the NHL.
But he just came in and theguys just just were like, just
loved him.
So you know, we wanted to playfor him.
They were talking about bringingin a new coach.
Possibly we're like no, no, no,we want this guy taking the
helm and going and we just hadan unreal season.
Like we had some of the playersthat you know played on that

(13:02):
team.
Our goalie ended up playing inthe NHL.
Dieter Kocking played inappafor a bit, minnesota, I think,
for a little bit.
But yeah, we had, you know,after that D core, six of us.
None of them returned.
They all I went to WHL and fiveof them got scholarships.
Like it was just crazy how youknow that team, how many

(13:24):
scholarships came out of thatteam.
But honestly, one of the bestyears of my life living up there
.
I mean living in Kelowna playingjunior hockey is not too bad On
a good team.
It's not too bad right.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Any lessons from that year?
I mean, you know now, afterbeing involved in the game for
20 years, that it's hard to wina championship, even with good
players and really good players.
So you know to be actually getit done and to get out of the
BCJ and then to go win thecentennial is is probably one of
your, you know, biggestmemories and biggest
accomplishments, I would assume.
Uh, anything that you take awayfrom from that, from that
season I mean so much right andjust the like.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Our practices were just so intense.
Like you know, coming frombasically, you know I had half a
year of junior experience, butyou know I remember just our
practices just being like someof them just being like a war
out there.
You're battling for every puckand that's how we played, that's

(14:23):
how we played in games, evenwith the talent that we had on
our team.
You know we had all thishigh-end talent but our compete
level was so high just from thepractices that we had and that
had a lot to do with the coach,right, that's what he required
from us was our compete level atall times being just, you know,
up here every time, every timeyou're battling for a puck, even

(14:47):
our goalies, just not quittingon any puck, and you look at
that going oh shit, like, wow,like you know I'm going to try
to score here and you knowthey're going.
You know goalies, they don'twant anything getting in right
and the competitiveness of justthat, seeing that from your
goalies and then, um, you knowjust that, translating the game,

(15:10):
that compete level was so highjust from, just from the
practices, translating that intothe games and, and you know,
going as far as we did umplaying at that high level.
Um, yeah, I mean that you'llnever forget that like it was
such a such a great year.
I love you and I still talk tosome of the guys too you know
from that team, right?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
so that's one of the best bonding experiences ever.
You'll never take away that.
You know that connection fromwinning, uh, and you bring up
two awesome points.
So now, from a playerperspective, those listening, uh
, and you, you I mean you'restill involved in the game.
You're working with youngathletes.
I'm doing the same thing.
I talk about compete all thetime, and when you get, when you
get the culture right and whenit works, you're actually

(15:52):
letting the guy down next to you.
In practice, if you're notgiving your 100, but there's
like a social like there's aweird social kind of pressure
there, right, because if thatisn't received that way by the
guy you're battling against, youknow you can be looked at as
you know whatever mean rude, uh,trying too hard, you mean
whatever.
These things are right.
So what's the message to that?

(16:14):
Like, how do you, how do youbring that to an environment, uh
, as a player, or or how do wetalk to them about allowing this
to actually happen?
That this is a really goodthing?
You should bring this.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I mean, it's tough, as you know.
It's a lot different today.
You know and it's funny youbring that up I remember we had
a saying in our dressing room onthat team like you, never let
the brother beside you down, andthat's exactly how we played
and how we practiced, right,that's just the culture of our
team, right, and I think thatthat's how you kind of have to

(16:48):
to to build, I guess, from thebeginning.
Um, you know, from the start ofthe season, when you, when
you're, you know, when you'rebuilding teams, you, you look at
character.
Obviously, obviously you, youwant to build a team that that
has.
You know, you want to play fast, everybody wants to play fast
these days, right, but I thinkyou have to look within and you
got to build.

(17:09):
The culture that you want tobuild is, to me, is the
character of the players you gotto have.
You want character kids, right.
You want character kids who buyin.
Once you have that buy in, thenit's a lot easier to build that
compete, you know, in practicesand games, whatever it is.
But you need the buy-in rightand you've got to establish that
right away, like right at thestart of the season.

(17:29):
You know from the first meeting.
You know you just got to.
You know, explain, you guys arehere.
This is the reason why you'rehere.
You know we want you knowcharacter kids who buy in, why
you're here.
You know, and we want you knowcharacter kids who who buy in
and and at our and at this agenow, uh, what?
What I'm coaching now, obviously, is that younger kids, um, yeah

(17:52):
, you know you need to buy infrom the kids at my level, at
the varsity level last year, Ithink it was a lot easier
because, um, you know they, theywant to all play prep the next
year, right, so they're going tobuy into whatever is your
teaching right to what kind ofculture you want to build.
They're going to buy in.

(18:12):
For the most part, you're goingto have a couple that maybe are
unsure of what their role mightbe or not accepting roles, and
that's a whole different story.
But for the most part, um, thelevel that I coach, like for for
my team this year, uh, we had agreat group of kids.
You know that all bought in.
And another thing that you need,obviously, is the parents.

(18:34):
You need the parents to buy,and that's a whole different
story as well, right, but if youhave that, if you have the kids
buying in, the parents buyingin, then you know that's a
recipe for success to start outright and then you can start
building your culture aroundthat.
But the compete level, you know, is to me that's number one.
You get you, you know, you wantguys that have good character

(18:54):
and are willing to compete everyday, not only in the game but
but in practice, especially inpractice, because that's going
to translate in the games yeahand in the gym.
Yeah, oh, absolutely yeah.
I mean, we do our workouts.
You know it seemed.
You know we got a really goodstrength and conditioning coach
and you know I don't even haveto go in there and like he's on

(19:14):
them, they, you know these kidsknow that they have to put the
work in in the gym as well, youknow yeah, the um, and I think
where the coach comes in, atleast in my opinion, is you know
you get those good kids.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, your recruiting has to
matter and, by the way, forthose listening, like you know
we're talking, bert's talkingabout you 15 right now.
I mean recruiting for that,like this doesn't stop, like the
nhl draft.
They're recruiting for thatjunior level.
They're recruiting for that nhlteams once they're in the
minors, they're're still lookingfor that From the guys that
they've selected.
The establishment of characteras a high-priority piece just

(19:49):
doesn't change.
Get your head around that outthere.
Parents, players, this is a bigpiece.
The character piece really, atthe end of the day, means how
good of a freaking teammate areyou If?
you can be a great teammate,then you got a big checkmark
beside your name.
So, besides that, so like,let's just say, okay, that's a
requirement.
But even in that group of goodkids, I think that the standard

(20:11):
of compete has to come from us,right, the guys with the whistle
.
Because if we ever notice it ina practice where it's not there
, right, or if there's anexample where it doesn't show up
, whether we, whether weacknowledge, like where it isn't
happening, or whether we'recelebrating where it is, I think
that's where we can come inright, like positive and
negative, and if we let theguard down on that, then all of
a sudden it can slip.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Right now it's recognized as being okay not to
compete yeah, I mean that that'saccountability, right, you, the
kids need to be accountable,right.
So, and then coaches too, likeyou, you know you, just like I'm
pretty demanding when, when,when I run my practices or or my
bench, you know, um, and kids,that, the ones that that want to

(20:51):
get better, accept that and andthey can accept the, the, the,
you know the, the criticism,when, when it's time to do that.
But some kids you have to be,you know, you have to talk to
them a little different, right,but, um, that's just how kids
are today, right, but for me, um, yeah, you, you got to be, you

(21:12):
got to demand that compete, Ithink, from, from, from the kids
in practice, and you got to setthat, uh, pretty early in the
season.
So they know, um, that, hey,you know, if I'm, know, if I
want to move up or I want toplay, or I got to compete and I
got to compete in practice, Ihave to do the little things

(21:32):
that matter.
You know, in games, whetherit's blocking a shot, my play
away from the puck has to be,you know, has to be good.
I got to be hard on the backcheck, you know, I got to finish
my check when I, when I can, umand and just play.
You know, play on top, get.
There's a whole, there's a wholebunch of things that that you

(21:52):
know we're teaching these kidsthese days, right, and and
compete is one of them, right,yeah, so you know, like, like
some kids you know came into,they'll come into, the season
because, let's be honest, we'retalking at academy levels.
We're talking about high-endguys, right, high-end players
that are coming to play academy.
So you're recruiting high-endplayers that probably were the

(22:14):
best players on their team,right?
So they didn't really, you know, they can get away with with,
you know, taking a shift offhere or there and not coming
hard on a back check every oncein a while.
Well, that's not acceptable,you know, on the academy, well,
on my team, it's not acceptable.
If you do that, you're going toget talked to and you know it
better not happen again, or elseyou probably will be sitting

(22:36):
next to me, you know, until youget it right.
You know so.
But you know like it comes downto for me and for for our level
, you know you're going to rollyour lines like you want.
You want to get all the kidsbetter, right?
So for me at my level.
I, you know I was fortunateenough to have four lines.

(22:59):
I could play anyways.
But you roll your lines.
You want.
You want the kids to get better, you want everybody to get
better.
So you give everybody a chance.
And you know, but if you're notgoing to compete and you're not
going to, you know, like I said, you're not going to come hard
on a back check.
You're going to take that shiftoff.
You know you're probably notgoing to see the next shift and

(23:20):
if it happens again, you knowyou're going to sit along.
But I don't like to sit kids.
But sometimes the message isn'tgetting through.
That's the only way to do it.
Sometimes you have to, but Idon't like doing it.
But you know that's part of ittoo.
You got to teach kids.
They got to be accountable atsome point, right?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love it.
The other thing that I justwant to highlight that you
talked about was the the competefrom the goalies.
It's like, yeah, that is such acore facet of any good team is
goalies that give a crap aboutfucks going in the net, like for
real care, right.
Um, I said that to any goaliethat I ever work with, right
that I'm doing spring teamsright now.

(23:58):
You know, and it's like you, ifyou guys are the most
competitive players in practice,like our team's going to be
amazingly better, because Icompletely remember that every
team I played for the goaliesthat made it hard for me to
score in practice especially forwhat I did as a job like it
made it way more fun, like itmade it way more fun and um, and
made everyone better, right,like.

(24:18):
So I think that for any of thosegoalies out there listening
like, oh my gosh, like from aplayer perspective, from a team
cohesion perspective andchemistry perspective, and you
want to get a coach in yourcorner, like be hard to score
against, like all the time, anduh, and you're going to be loved
for a long time too absolutely.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
I mean defenseman, right, I'm a defenseman.
So when, when I see my goalieyou know battling for every puck
, you know let me, hey, I'm notgonna let this guy down.
You know I battling for everypuck, you know that made me, hey
, I'm not going to let this guydown.
You know I'm going to do, I'mgoing to block this shot, I'm
going to do this, I'm going todo whatever it takes to to help
this guy out behind me, right?
So, yeah, I mean I've beenfortunate.

(24:58):
You know, I played with a lot,of, a lot of really good goalies
and I what?
The one?
The one?
Um, when I played in the ihl incincinnati, joff sergeant man,
that guy competed for like everypuck in practice.
I was like, oh geez, he doesn'tlike getting scored on at all.
And I was like, oh yeah, I'venever seen anything like it,

(25:18):
like it was.
It was pretty special, right.
And you know, like, like I said,that team that we had in
colonna was like everybody andthat's really where I learned
how to, how to play.
Really, you know how to compete.
You know this is, this is whatit takes to win a championship.
You needed, like, this band ofbrothers coming together doing

(25:40):
whatever.
Whatever it is that that needed.
You know, I remember when wewere playing in the playoffs we
were in Penticton playing andone of our players Silverio Miro
is his name, he was a20-year-old and he dove to block

(26:02):
a shot with his face, like thisis the kind of like buy-in that
we had.
We would do anything to win thegame right.
And he I still remember he justdove with like head first to
try to block a shot.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Like it lasted the game, by the way.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, like you know, we had visors, but this guy
wanted to win so bad, you know,20-, 20 year old last year, like
he was willing to take a, aslap shot in the face to buck,
so to win the game, basically,and I was, like you know, I was
a 17 year old kid going holyjeez, okay, this is you know,
this is what it takes.
this is this is what winning,this is what winning is right.

(26:41):
You know, this is this is whatyou need to to be successful.
You got to compete and you gotto do whatever it takes to win.
Yeah, and we won thechampionship that year, so
that's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, back to the I mean just the goalies, like
Derek.
So Derek Plant was on.
I mean you played against himin Asia there for a while,
Helvin NH Eller, but he playedwith Hasek, right, and he told
Hasek's story on his interviewlike how crazy competitive he
was, like psycho almost, withhow competitive he was and what
a great athlete he was.
And then, like my, I mean Iplayed with a lot of good

(27:14):
goalies too and a lot ofcompetitive guys.
But the one that really stoodout for me, which I've told in
this show before and who's beena guest, but was Cristobal Huey.
So it was the lockout year inwhatever it was 06, I think.
The NHL had a lockout and so alot of these NHLers were coming
over to the different Europeanleagues, right.
So Cristobal came to us inMannheim.

(27:34):
This is an NHLer, right?
This is why it still blows mymind.
Right, this is an NHLer who hadimmense amount of success in
the NHL too at the time as oneof the top goalies.
He came to us which could havebeen just like uh, you know, a
European party kind of rightlike let's go, I'm just gonna
get some ice time in and getsome games in.
And he was the freaking hardestworking guy on the ice, like

(27:57):
every time, and like I and Iwould watch him like there'd be
practices where I legitimatelythought nobody scored, like the
entire time.
You know like he was so good andhe was so competitive and he
did it with a smile on his faceand he made it so much fun for
everybody around.
I was just like wow, like youknow shit, I played on so many
freaking teams dude, like that.
It was so memorable how heshowed up and how he did his

(28:20):
thing that it was likeimpossible not to make the
connection of like oh, that'sprobably why he's pretty
freaking good too.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Like yeah, yeah, um, so anyways, I just, I just love
those stories when you see, likepros that are really taken
being a pro to like that nextlevel and uh, and you and you
get it right and and again forthose goalies out there.
If I put it in your toolbox,it's, it's such a, such a cool
thing to be just want to take ashort break from the

(28:54):
conversation with Bert to uhshare some new news in the up my
hockey world.
Uh, and that news is that Iwill be joining Coeur d'Alene
Hockey Academy in Coeur d'Alene,idaho, for the upcoming season
as the U18 co-coach, along withJeremy Milmock, and I will be
relocating my family down therefor the hockey season.
All three of my boys will beplaying for Coeur d'Alene Hockey

(29:16):
Academy and, yeah, I'm reallyexcited about the opportunity.
Now I'm going to have Jeremy on.
We're going to talk about Coeurd'Alene and you know the my
choice for for going there andand and why I'm excited about it
.
Uh, but as far as up my hockeyand what that means to up my
hockey, it doesn't change muchof anything, uh, of what is

(29:37):
happening with up my hockey.
Uh, up my hockey mindsetprograms will still be being
delivered by me and through myassociate coaches, I will be
working with my inner circle.
Still, I will be running teamsessions and, yeah, life will
move on in my hockey capacity,as will the UMH 68 Invitational

(29:58):
in 2026.
So what this is is this is amove.
So what this is is this is amove.
I mean we're taking it as ashort-term move.
I guess, like we are not buyinga house or selling our house.
We are moving down there forthe hockey season.
Uh, my family and my boys andand I'm really looking forward
to pouring my heart and soulinto the players there at the

(30:19):
cordelaine academy and we'rereally excited about, uh, about
the new adventure.
But again, it does not change.
Again, it does not change thepodcast, it does not change the
mindset programs, it does notchange the UMH 68 Invitational,
it doesn't change my innercircle or the players that I'm
working with on a mindset side.
All it means is that my daytimehours will be invested with the

(30:41):
team that I will be coachingand the players that will be
coaching there.
So, really exciting times.
If you happen to be somebodythat is in the Western
Hemisphere here and is trying tothink of a place to play, coeur
d'Alene is offering a U15, abrand new U15 AAA team or a
varsity team that will beentering the CSSHL.
That's where my youngest TJwill be playing for that team.

(31:03):
They also offer U17 AAA, u17Prep and U18 Prep, so there is a
team there that might beavailable to you.
We are looking to fill the lastfew spots with some quality
individuals and some qualityhockey players.
So if that is something thatinterests you, if me being there
interests you and you wouldlike to be coached by me you're

(31:25):
at that U18 level and you're notsure where to go I would love
to entertain a call, as wouldJeremy Milmock, my co-coach
there.
So reach out to me, let me knowif that's something you're
interested in.
I will say that the facilitiesdown there are absolutely
fantastic what they call thefield house, where you can train
, or it's right next to theirclassrooms shoot pucks, work out

(31:50):
, throw the ball around, playsome ping pong, you name it.
They got it there.
The players have access to thatfacility.
The rink is right across theparking lot.
It's a one-stop shop.
It is a place for players whowant to improve, who want to get
better stop shop.
It is a place for players whowant to improve, who want to get
better, and the coaching staffthere the family of coaches is

(32:10):
quite phenomenal, from what Ihave got to know so far.
So, yeah, we're really excitedThat'll be a move that we've
been making in the fall here of2025, 26.
I just wanted to make thatannouncement here and just to
let everyone know that, up myHockey will continue as usual.
Now let's get back to theconversation with Bert Henderson
.
Let's go back to you.

(32:36):
So colonists.
Okay, so you keep talking, butyou were talking about your
draft year earlier, so yourdraft year was technically in
the bcj and then you went.
So it was like your second yearof eligibility, where you're
like, hey, I want some moreexposure, I think, I think
something might happen here forme.
So we decided to go to tacomayeah, so um so actually.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
So I'm a november birthday, so um late birthday.
So going into Tacoma was mydraft year, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Now I got you.
You're like my kid, he'sNovember 29th.
You get that extra year of like.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Get that extra year, so after September 15th, right?
You're going to the next year'sdraft, right?

Speaker 2 (33:10):
So I'm taking it over , so you walk into there with
some expectations, and you havea good year too, like so and
then I noticed you didn't getdrafted, so walk me through that
year you walk in there, you'reexpecting things, you have a
good season and then your namedoesn't get called.
How did that whole season goRight?

Speaker 1 (33:28):
So going into that year I was kind of you know, I
would say probably a two-waygood, two-way guy.
I was, I would say, probably atwo-way good two-way guy Just
moved the puck, played powerplay like second unit on that
Kelowna team, which I was nevergoing to be on that first unit

(33:49):
because it was stacked, so I gotsecond unit minutes on the
power play.
I had a pretty good year.
I think I had something like30-something points or something
like that, which wasn't bad fora 17-year-old D-man at the time
.
So I knew I had offensiveabilities right and at that time
that's what I wanted to be, Iguess, was I wanted to be more

(34:12):
offensive and at that time, youknow, there wasn't a lot of guys
doing that.
Like it is today, like you know, everybody kind of has a lot of
offense.
The games just changed so muchwhere d-men so involved in the
offense.
Now, back then it really itreally wasn't.
Like you know, you had your big, big, strong, tough d-men that
everybody wanted.
Uh, no one was really looking Iwas undersized.

(34:35):
you know 511, you know um.
But I wanted to be moreoffensive.
I figured if I put up somepoints, um, you know I'll get
noticed, uh, possibly getdrafted.
So um ended up working my wayum into the, the top power play
that year, um, which you know I,I I worked on, you know I

(34:58):
worked hard.
You know I had a good offseason coming into camp.
I had a really good exhibitionseason Started out.
You know the learning curve,obviously different league,
bigger, stronger guys, tougherguys League was tough back then,
right as you know so, and Ijust kind of wanted to establish

(35:20):
myself as maybe a power playguy and hopefully teams would be
looking at that Um.
So I had a pretty good year.
That year Um ended up 50something points or something,
52 points or something like thatUm and I thought, okay, that's
pretty good year, Hopefullysomeone's going to notice Um.
and ended up ended up notgetting drafted that I talked to

(35:41):
a few teams and um anywaysdidn't, didn't end up getting
drafted, so um, you know, it'sfine, it's no big deal was it
well well, yeah, it was.
It was because.
You know, was I expecting toget drafted?
Probably I was at the end ofthe world?
No, because I had another,another year right to to get, to
get drafted, probably.
Oh, is it the end of the world?

(36:01):
No, cause I had another,another year right To to, to get
to get drafted.
Right.
So I'm like, okay, I gotta comeback a little, you know,
probably a big, a littlestronger, bigger, stronger.
So I hit the weights prettyhard.
Uh, I think I came in campprobably maybe 10, 10 pounds
heavier, stronger, probablymaybe 10, 10 pounds heavier,
stronger, right, um, and, andyou know, at that time you know

(36:23):
you get your whatever it isthree, four fights a year,
whatever it was.
You know, back then that's justwhat, what you did, um, right.
So, um, you know, I got itstarted out, start, you know,
gotten a couple of fights, um,but still I I'm like, do I

(36:43):
really want to do this?
Not really, you know.
Uh, you know I'd rather playthe game, right.
So I'm like, okay, maybe, maybe, you know, I just try again.
So, obviously, still, you know,power play guy, offensive guy.
Um had another pretty good year,um, you know.
So, so, figured, I was going toget drafted that year.
I think I got 60-somethingpoints that year up, my point

(37:06):
total 61 or something like that.
I think it was 61, 62 points.
Pretty good year I thought Ihad.
We had a pretty good team thatyear.
I think we finished second.
I think we lost to you guys inthe.
They had that funny round-robinplayoff format that year, I
think it was, and you guys beatus in overtime maybe, I think

(37:27):
and eliminated us, but we had apretty good team that year.
I think we finished secondplace that year I think it was
second, but we had a really goodyear, a really good team that
year.
Um, I think it was second, butwe had a really good year, a
really good team that year um.
So I figured, you know, thisyear it could possibly happen.
I was hopeful, um, my agent washopeful.

(37:50):
He.
He said, yeah, you're, this isthe year um.
And he actually called me fromthe draft um said sorry, it
didn't happen.
And he was shocked and I waslike that that I was that that
hurt, because I thought thatyear I I did everything that I
possibly did individual successindividual success.

(38:10):
you know I was playing a morephysical role still putting up
points, but yeah, so that was,that was that one.
That one hurt a bit um,surprising a little bit um,
because you know how it is.
You see these guys gettingdrafted and oh okay, hey, you
know okay, but you know so, butthat was tough.

(38:36):
And then so, after that, youknow, the big move happened.
So we went from Tacoma and then, you know, you heard the rumors
that were happening, we'regoing to move, we're going to
move to Kelowna.
I was like, oh, that would beawesome, you know, if we go back
.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
If we're moving anywhere.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Kelowna would be the best spot Because we've
obviously been there before, wonthere, Comfortable there spot,
because I've obviously beenthere before.
One there, comfortable there,had the same billets, went back,
lived with my same billets.
Um, you know, um, and again youknow, had a pretty good year
that year as well.
Um, and finally, no, actuallygoing into that year.

(39:15):
So sorry, going into that year.
I went to ottawa's camp.
So I got a camp invite.
At least didn't get drafted,but I got a camp invite.
Uh, so about that year I wentinto ottawa.
That was uh.
So I went to rookie camp.
Um, pretty good players werethere.
Daniel alfredson, that was hisrookie camp too, so I remember
being at rookie camp with him.

(39:36):
Um, and my roommate was andydelmore, who ended up playing
yeah, yeah so we were roommatesin rookie camp small world man,
yeah yeah, so uh, yeah he, heended up playing for quite a
while, but um dude that was agood experience.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
So deli and I were really good buddies in uh in
manheim because we played thereokay, uh together.
And we still talk, like I mean,I'm still buddies with him but
like, looking at like his career, like when he was in the show
he had like two or three, maybeeven one one year in like
defenseman goals scored in theentire NHL, like the whole thing

(40:14):
I know Like so underrated, likeand off the radar as radar, as
far as like what he was able toaccomplish, and then, like still
being an up and down guy forsome unknown reason, right, like
yeah, anyways, but yeah, likethat's wild that you were your
roommates with a

Speaker 1 (40:27):
great, great dude, but uh even even in that camp
you can just see oh this, youknow, kind of he's really good,
this guy, like you know, he'sgonna, he's gonna do something,
like you can tell right and theend of the like he ended up
doing it like, but, yeah, sothat was a great experience for
me.
Um, just kind of seeing what ittook.

(40:47):
You know what it said.
I remember, uh, alphason doingthe vo2 max, just crushing it,
going holy cow, like you know.
Okay, I gotta step up, like Ithought I was in good shape,
right.
But then you see this guybreaking records, basically and
I'm going, okay, yeah, I gottachange my workouts somehow, like

(41:09):
, because I was you know howback then I was, I was more
about lifting heavy, heavyweights, heavy weights, heavy
weights.
That's all I did was lift heavy, because I thought you had to
be big and strong.
But you know, in reality Ishould have been doing more core
stuff, more legs, you know,more power skating, right.

(41:31):
But coming out of that camp wasan eye-opener going, okay, you
know you need some work to do,like, it's not easy playing at
this level, right.
So came back, um, got namedcaptain of the team that year,
um, and we had a pretty goodteam that year as well.

(41:54):
Um, we got rob gordon back frommichigan.
He he was a good buddy that Igrew up with playing minor
hockey with, and we convincedhim to leave Michigan after a
year.
So he came and joined our team.
We ended up making a few tradesthat year, brought in Surrey
from Prince George.
So we had a pretty good team tomake.

(42:18):
I thought to make a pretty goodrun and again we just kind of
crashed out in the playoffsagain.
But it was a good year for meagain, points-wise.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
That was a really good year.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, put up a bunch of points, and then yeah, same
kind of points, and then yeah,same kind of thing.
I don't know if you rememberplaying in that old barn up in
Kelowna.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
You ever play in that memorial, so playing dub games
in there.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
it was like I go back there and I go just take a peek
in there.
I'm wondering how the hell didwe play dub games in here?
Like it's crazy, the atmosphereis great, not.
And that team that we probablyhad the toughest team, like I
mean we had scott parker, uh,todd fedorik, uh, and then we

(43:14):
traded for sheldon surrey, likewe had these heavyweights, just
nobody wanted to become players.
Purrington yeah, we had him,but then we ended up trading him
to Lethbridge that year,brought in Hamilton Lee Hamilton
, who was another pretty toughguy, would fight anybody.
And we had guys that just, youknow, just would.
Yeah, like we had Jason DeLorme, he'd fight any like little guy

(43:36):
but he'd fight anybody.
You know we just had a handfulof guys that just would fight at
the drop of a hat and you knownobody would come.
And you know there's so manybattles with, like Jamie Butt
was tough too.
Jamie Butt, yeah, butter wastough man.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
You know what, though , Like you said already but not
that your team, but every teamhad like three, yeah, at least,
yeah right and like and again,even like your second liners
were tough, would fight, youknow like it was just a tough
league for sure.
It was a tough league and forthose listening so, I mean so
sheldon surrey, who we both know, obviously you played with them
.
He was my age, my draft year,yeah, um, I mean nhl all-star

(44:18):
right8 million like led theleague in goals Like.
He went on to have this awesome, awesome, awesome NHL career
and you essentially outshone himthat year.
Right Like you had 74.69 games,surrey, when he came over at 27
and 27, you had set more goalsthan him.
Kind of one of those things.
Right, when you look back on it.

(44:38):
Right, like, so there's thisguy like, there's you, you in in
that point in time right like,relatively your peers.
Right, and you're maybe evenoutperforming him in some ways.
He had been drafted.
You hadn't been.
What would you say like lookingback on that now?
Or even the player he became,or you know the career you had.
I've done that with my own selftoo right like do you, do you
see any differences there?

(44:58):
What was the difference betweenyou and him at the time?
Why was he able to maybe dowhat he did at the NHL level, if
you know what I mean by thatquestion.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah, you know what man?
He was just such a great guy.
We really hit it off when hecame in.
He didn't have an ego oranything.
You know, he had the, the bigcontract, I think, with new
jersey, um.
But man, we, we hung out everyday, just the down earth.

(45:29):
Real nice guy, um, but he wassuch a specimen, you know, like
he was just like we were likeboys and he was like a man.
You know, and you know thatshot that he had, imagine that
shot in the little MemorialArena, right.
So you know, I try to send hima one tease all the time, but
you know, you're like, like that.

(45:50):
But you know Definitely giftedphysically, eh, Like from that
side, like big, broad shoulders,like put together right Like
Just, you know, like like a mana man playing with boys right um
, and you know, not necessarily,you know, offensive defenseman,
I guess you'd say you had thebig shot right, you had the big

(46:11):
shot, um, but but it was just areal tough.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
You know, nobody wanted to mess with the guy, um,
but you know it put up pointsjust because he was such a uh,
uh, you know such a such a managainst boys right and, and that
translated to to you know, whenhe went at the nhl right um, he
was still like a man there, youknow, like when you were

(46:36):
talking earlier kind of aboutwhat you wanted to be, right,
like meaning you wanted to be anoffensive defenseman, right,
yeah, um, one of the things Imean, I don't know what you do,
what the hell hold on you, okay,yeah, so when it comes to
player identity, right, likewhat you want to be sometimes

(46:57):
isn't maybe what you can be orshould be, right, or really
understanding what that is.
And I think when I'm workingwith players now, it's one of
those things that I want them tounderstand.
Hey, what are your gifts, whatare your strengths?
How do you become valuable?
Sheldon Suray's case I thinkthat maybe he had an advantage,
obviously on both of us, wasthat he didn't have to be
offensive originally at the NHLlevel, right, like he was big
enough and strong enough andcould defend well enough.

(47:18):
That that's probably how he gothis foot in the door and then
he the rest of his game evolved.
He was able to use that bigshot and then be an offensive
you know force really at thatlevel?
When you look back on you like,do you feel that there, like if
you would have reconstructed itnow and understood maybe how to
get your foot in the door or whoyou could have been as a player
, Would you have changedanything when it comes to that?

Speaker 1 (47:41):
That's tough, you know, I don't know, like, I
guess my game back then was moresuited for the game now, you
know.
So when I look back, what couldI have done different?
I mean probably nothing.
Nothing really, because I wasundersized right at that time.

(48:03):
Um, to be a d-man, you know,you had to be six, two, six,
three, six, four.
That's what they wanted, allteams wanted, they wanted big
guys, right, and you had acouple guys that were, that were
undersized, under six feet um,that could play, but you had to
be like spectacular, like youknow.
Six feet um, that could play,but you had to be like
spectacular, like you know.
Yeah, you had to be really good, um, and you know, I, I, I

(48:25):
think I guess I did everythinggood and you know, and never,
never really had that one thingthat set me apart from from
other guys, um, I guess.
So I mean that's a toughquestion because you know, yeah,
at that time my game, I, youknow, there there was, there was
, um, I guess there there was aspot for somebody like me in the

(48:47):
game back then.
Obviously you know there was.
But to the next level, my game,you know it would have been
hard to translate to NHL becauseyou had to be, you know, really
good to play my role that I hadto play in the nhl at that time
.
Yeah right, whereas now in thenhl, you gotta, you got most of

(49:08):
your d are all mobile d thatthat are involved in the offense
.
You know, even on my team I Iwant my d involved in the
offense.
Right you go we have the puck.
We got five guys thinkingoffense.
I don't care what position youare, we're thinking offense,
right.
And then you know when you turnthe puck over it's different.
Then you defend right.
But um, yeah, you know, it's itwould have been tough.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
It would have been tough, tough yeah, reason I
asked that is like because mepersonally, like I always took
so much pride and value inscoring right like I, I was a
goal scorer and I love being agoal scorer, and I just thought
I mean, if you scored enoughgoals, you're going to end up
wherever, wherever you need tobe, you know the rest will kind
of take care of itself.
And and you know we were froman era we already talked about

(49:52):
that.
It was a tough era.
I mean, I wasn't afraid to dropthe gloves.
I felt that I did that morethan enough for how many points
I was putting up.
But the other side of that is islike finding more value in
things that aren't scoring, youknow, and maybe in my case,
right, because like with allyour eggs in that basket, you

(50:13):
know if you do get called, up ina third line role or a fourth
line role or wherever right,like if you're not really taking
value in what that roleprovides value with for the team
, then maybe you're missing anopportunity there, right,
because you haven't reallythought about it that way.
Um, another example that comesto mind is dennis holland, who's
been on the pod before.
Like he was a little bit beforeour time but played in portland
with troy mick.
He was a vernon guy like 160point kind of guy in the whl,

(50:36):
right like lit it up there anduh and never, ever played an nhl
game and he said he's like Ijust wasn't a good enough skater
but I didn't realize it.
Right, he's like I didn'trealize it and I didn't work on
it, because I was gettingsuccess by doing what I was good
at and I practiced what I wasgood at.
I didn't practice what I youknow what I should have been

(50:56):
practicing should have beenpracticing right um, so anyway,
I been practicing right, soanyway I just think there's like
there's kind of those littlemicro examples sometimes that
show up, where it's like youknow, oh well, maybe you know,
and it's not like looking backwith grief or remorse, but it's
just like hey you know, maybe,maybe I could have done this.
You know like, maybe I couldhave had this sort of
perspective and I try, try andencourage players that now to be

(51:16):
like you know, to be goodwherever you're going to be like
everybody wants to be a pointguy and that's kind of where I
got in my head thinking aboutyou right, like no one is
playing hockey.
You know, you 13 or you 15thinking geez, I want to be a
checker my whole life right andI get that.
I don't think players shouldwant to, but there is still
value in doing this, still valuein that, absolutely absolutely

(51:37):
that's part of building a team.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
You need, you know you need your point guys.
Obviously you know you haveyour point guys, but you need
other guys that do the otherthings.
Yeah, you know that are just asimportant.
You know, like I'm really bigon play away from the puck,
right, your play away from thepuck has to that's what we do.
We do video.
Your play away from the puckhas to be, that's what we do.
We do video.

(51:58):
We do a lot of video andteaching the kids, you know,
what to do, because they haven'treally been taught.
They're coming out of Pee Weeand that, you know it's a lot of
skill development in thoseyears, right, so they don't
really learn how to play awayfrom the puck.
In Adam and Pee Wee you know,maybe a little bit, but not at

(52:21):
the level now where you'reacademy, and then at the prep
level when you enter your WHLdraft year.
You know scouts are looking forthat, right.
So I try to teach the kids youknow, like, when you don't have
the puck, where should you go,what should you do, what's my
responsibility, you know.
And then in the offensive zone,in the neutral zone and also in

(52:43):
the d zone, like all zones.
We've got to teach kids.
You know, I guess you can sayhow to play the right way.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Right, that's the big thing, but you know so, and
those are the, those are thedetails of the game, for sure
that that do end up mattering,right, like they matter, they
matter a lot.
Um, as, as that final titansand I guess I mean back to my
point about like player identityis is like the ability to
self-assess, what you are is avery, very good tool to have

(53:08):
right and and like I've had alot of players that have come up
and you know, you know, I am agoal scorer oh, oh, really, the
goals you had last year?
oh, 12.
You know, like really well, howmany goals do you?
You know 15, I'm like.
Well, are you?
I mean, is that an accurateassessment?
Like you might like scoringgoals but like you haven't
really ever done it in any kindof capacity.
Right and if and if that's theway you see yourself, like

(53:29):
you're gonna have a really hardtime fitting yourself into a
puzzle piece somewhere becauseyou're not maybe as or what you
think you are maybe as good atwhat you think you are good at
right, like that's a toughconversation sometimes as a
coach to have, because you don'twant to put a ceiling on guys
but you also need to like bereal I think, truthful.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, absolutely those are.
Those are tough conversations,you know, especially kids kids,
uh, that are, you know, the agethat we coach, right, those are
tough conversations becauseeverybody, you know, with, with
all the social media out there,everybody wants to be goals for
everybody.
That's what they see right andthat's what they want to do.
And sometimes it's tough tohave that conversation with,

(54:08):
with kids, like, hey, man, likeyou know, let's let's talk about
your play away from the puck,let's hone in on that.
Let's let's get that first.
You know, before we're talkingabout goals, I always told the
kids like I don't care how manygoals they score, I don't care
how many points they get, let'shave.

(54:31):
Let's look at the video afterthe game and see how we did when
we didn't have the puck.
Let's look at that.
You know, and we did, andthat's how the kids learned by
the end of it.
You know the kids were alldialed Like we had a pretty good
run in playoffs and that's justbuy-in from the kids, you know.
And it's tough to get right, asyou know, it's tough to get,

(54:51):
but once you get it, you knowyou can do something special,
like the kids are willing tolearn right, and that's big, a
lot of classroom work, right,they're really the learning
there.
It's going to translate on theice.
That's the best teaching tool,right?
It's just a lot of classroomstuff too.
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Well, I think I mean it's nice when they, when they
do understand like that oneprinciple.
You're talking about beingabove the puck like I don't want
to get into a coaching seminarright now, but I I call
reloading in the offensive zoneto keep trying to attack from
above and from above, like youget the puck more right, like
when they, when they do it youhave the puck, more so now
you're getting more offensive,getting more scoring chances.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
So like that, that reward for playing that way is a
nice you know motivator forthem to you know to buy in right
, yeah, yeah, and it took us awhile to figure that out because
, like I said, they don't learnthat, right, coming from peewee
or whatever, they're just toldgo go get the puck, go get the
puck.
Well, there's a certain way,you've got to go get the puck.

(55:50):
It's like playing chess, right,I always told them we play
chess, we don't play chess, butwe play chess, you know.
And then we, and then we, youshow them the video.
Okay, this is how it's done,this is what works.
Okay, you see how it works.
Oh, then they say, oh, okay,yeah, we get it now.
And then, like, by the end ofit, we were like on top, we're
on getting it, like it was funto watch.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
It's really fun to watch yeah, that's fun as a
coach to see that come, comeinto fruition too.
That's great.
Uh, I think I think it is kindof the new dawning, though, of
like, the power forward I, Ithink you know, like, because
back when we played likeeveryone, we, we talked like
everyone had some element ofgrit, right, and toughness.
You just couldn't play if youdidn't.
You know, I don't care who youwere, um, but now it is like

(56:34):
there's there is more skill andthere's more emphasis on skill,
and it's the highlight reel era,and everything on ig is, you
know, a toe dragon of this andof that, like that.
That's what all these kids wantto be, but they're not all as
good at it as they think theyare.
I mean, and and and I thinkthat we kind of agree on that.
And the the unicorn now is isthe power forward, the guy that
does take pride in the blockingshots and the guy that wants to

(56:57):
go to the net and knock the netoff the moorings and, you know,
maybe get the odd scuffle.
So, like I, I just think thatwhen I do see a player like that
now, like a little bit of athrowback, it's like, oh my gosh
, you have no idea how valuableyou are right, no idea what
you're doing.
So like I think it's kind ofcool, right, the stuff that
we're talking about is actuallyin really high demand because
less guys are willing or wantingto do it, or maybe our coach to

(57:19):
do it right.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
So for anyone out there, yeah, you know, go ahead
no, I was just saying like wejust got done with our id camp,
right and and our exit meetings.
It's actually it was.
We had a couple kids, um, whowere like yeah, I'm you know,
like so asked what's youridentity as a player?
What kind of player?
Well, I'm a power forward.

(57:40):
I want to.
You know, I'm a grinder.
I was like really, that'sawesome, like you know, like you
usually don't hear that you say, oh, I want to score goals.
You know, you know, I want thepuck.
I need the puck, you know, okay, but we had a couple kids that

(58:06):
came, good players too, and theyand they actually they're on
our going to be on their prepteam next year.
That just said, um, you knowwhat I'm?
I'm a power forward.
I want to be a power forward.
I want to be the guy taking thepuck to the net, you know,
causing chaos.
Um, you know, I'm a grinder.
One kid just said I'm a grinder.
You know I'm gonna grind it out.
You know if I score, great, youknow, but you know, I want to
be a grinder.
We're like this is awesome.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Yeah, so refreshing to hear that.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Yeah, you know so there are some out there that
that that know their you knowtheir value Right.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
No, and I'm, and they're ahead of, they're ahead
of the game.
That's all I'm saying.
Right, like if you, if you arein that scenario and you like
doing that and you self-identifywith that and you're like, yeah
, let's go throw a puck in acorner.
I want to go get it likeawesome, right, like there's,
there's a place for you to playfor a long time probably, with
that mentality, right,absolutely, absolutely there

(58:50):
always be, you know, alwaysalways yeah.
So when it comes back to to you,um, to pull the, to pull it
back in, you ended up making the, making the jump to the
international hockey, and it'sspecifically Japan.
Yeah, I don't want to jumpthrough, but I mean, obviously
you had some pro time too, soyou were, you were playing pro
over here in North America.

(59:10):
You know from my I'm guessingyou didn't get the look that you
wanted or the opportunity thatyou're getting there and you're
like you know what this mightsound like a good opportunity,
let's go, let's go to japan.
So maybe walk us through, likethe like, the decision to go
there and then we'll get intoyour time in japan sure, yeah,
no, um, so, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
So getting back after colona had pretty good year.
Um ended up going to actuallyeast coast league.
Played one year in the eastcoast league, um in birmingham,
one of the best years of my life.
Had so much fun.
Went down there.
A couple of buddies that Iplayed with in junior we went
down there living on our own forthe first time.
I was 20 years old, just turned21 in November.

(59:52):
Anyways, great year.
Had so much fun, developed, hada pretty good year there as
well, and then got signed by theaffiliate.
So since cincinnati wasaffiliated with birmingham, so
they liked what they saw out ofme, I guess, and so I ended up
signing a contract with them,went up there for for.
Ended up there for two years.
Um played for ron smith, um,great coach, you know, taught me

(01:00:15):
a lot.
Um and my second year, duringmy second year, um.
So the the olympics were comingup in japan, um, so actually
willie desjardins, who wascoaching over there at the time,
um, he found out that that Iwas half japanese, that my mom

(01:00:39):
was Japanese and they weretrying to get all these heritage
.
You know, players with Japaneseheritage come over to Japan to,
to to play for the nationalteam, to play in the Olympics,
um.
So I remember Willie calling meand I was like, no, like you
know, I got this dream right.
I got this dream playing theNHL.

(01:01:00):
You know I'm only 20.
At that time I was 23.
So you know, and you know, youhear, you know, at that time,
for defensemen, 25 is kind ofthe age where you really take
the step and you develop into anNHL player after you know,
playing in the minor.

(01:01:21):
So I'm like I got a coupleyears to kind of develop um and
see what I'm doing.
So I said I'm not ready forthat yet, um, but um.
So, willie, he kept in touchwith me, um, throughout the year
.
Um year comes to an end.
I had a pretty good year,pretty good year that year and

(01:01:51):
then ends up.
Our team now is going to beaffiliated with Carolina in NHL.
So they're going to sign someplayers off of our Cincinnati
team and I was one of them.
So I'm like, okay, here's mychance here.
So they're going to sign someplayers off of our Cincinnati
team and I was one of them.
So I'm like, okay, here's mychance here.
So you know, you're excited,you know, okay, they want to
sign you to an NHL contract.

(01:02:11):
You know, it was obviously atwo-way contract, more for me
playing in the minors at thetime, which you know.
That's what I asked.
That's what I want.
I want a chance to prove myselfright.
But Willie kept calling, keptcalling, and you know Japan,
like it's pretty good money overthere that they were throwing

(01:02:36):
around at the time.
So I didn't want to go, honestto God, I didn't want to go.
It took my dad, my dad, who's amoney guy, numbers guy.
He kind of sat me down and saidyou know, son, you're going to

(01:02:58):
have to go over there.
This is a pretty good contract.
You know, are you going to makethe NHL?
Like?
He had to just give it to mestraight.
Are you going to be in the NHL?
Probably not, right, but if yougo over to Japan and you play,
however many years it is, youcan come back.

(01:03:19):
You'll have a nice little nestegg, um, and you can start your
life after you.
You finish in japan, becausethis is a really good
opportunity, um, just to, to, tomake you know your life a
little easier, right, um, after,after hockey, right, and I was
like I don't want to go.
Man, I have this dream stilland I finally realized that you

(01:03:45):
know what it's probably, youknow.
Well, I was thinking at the timeI'll go over there for a couple
years and then come back, right, just, you know, okay, I got
Willie coaching me, you knowgreat, you know he's an NHL
coach, you, you know he's agreat coach.
Um, so I'll go over there, youknow, I'll play a couple years

(01:04:05):
and then and then come back andand give it a shot again and
then have a little, you know,save up a little money, right,
um, but I ended up staying there.
What was I there?
God?
Uh, seven years, seven, eight,eight years, I think.
I ended up staying there.
You know, it was just like.
You know, it's not bad.
Well, I played the two years forWillie in Sapporo and then our

(01:04:29):
team folded, ended up foldingbecause they had some scandal
with the company that owned theteam or something.
So they ended up folding theteam.
So OG, the team that we playedon together, called me and said
it was about 45 minutes fromSapporo.
So I said, yeah, come play forus.
You know, signed this contract.

(01:04:52):
So I was like you know, it'spretty good, too pretty good.
So ended up going there.
I played there for six yearsand then, um, yeah, I had a
pretty good run there.
So, uh, loved it there, you knowloved it there.
Uh, different, obviouslydifferent, as you know, it's a
lot different.
Um, hockey's not huge there,right, but pretty good living.

(01:05:18):
You made, uh, short season, soyou get come home early, you
know, but uh, no, I loved itthere, met a lot of good, good
people, a lot of friends there.
Um, I'm my mom got to comevisit you know quite a bit, and
she loved you know quite a bitand she loved, you know, going
back.
She was born there, so that wasnice for her to have her give

(01:05:39):
her that, you know, thatopportunity to go back to her
country and visit she loved it.
So a lot of good memories there, a lot of good memories there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Did you end up playing in the Olympics that
year?

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
No, no.
So I actually didn't want toleave, so I had to.
I would have had to left thatyear, um, and they were, so they
were given um, yeah, so theywere basically trying to to
recruit that year before um, mysecond year in cincinnati.
So they recruited a bunch ofguys like, uh, dusty dusty went

(01:06:15):
over there.
Um, guy ryan kubara went overthere.
A bunch of guys like DustyDusty went over there, ryan
Kubara went over there.
A bunch of guys went over there,got their passports played in
the Olympics.
I didn't want to leave.
I figured I was still young,young enough where I still
wanted to give it a go.
Right, and yeah so I didn't getto play in the Olympics but went
there the year after I think itwas the year after the Olympics

(01:06:39):
and then, yeah, stayed therefor eight years.
So I had a pretty good runthere and a lot of good memories
.
So it was a lot of goodmemories, a lot of good people.
Like you know, the imports justkind of hang out, but you know
Japanese players all want tohang out.
You know it was, but you knowjapanese players all want to
learn.
You know the north americanstyle or the north american way,

(01:07:01):
and then you know the northamerican way of living.
They want to all want to learnenglish.
So you know, and everybody's sopolite, they're so nice.
Um, the food is fantastic.
Like the food is unreal there.
So, yeah, I miss it.
I'd like to go back there andvisit, uh, one day.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
so yeah, that was fun , that was a really neat
experience for me, for sure, anduh, and that team was cool and
um, yeah, I mean six years.
I mean I was there for I thinktwo months or something.
Right, I couldn't imagine yeahsix years would be.
Obviously that's a wholedifferent experience.
But uh, but even even myexperience there, experience
there, it was just awesome.
Imagine hockey right Like youwould never have thought that at

(01:07:41):
16 years old playing for theRockets right that you're going
to be a professional in Japan,right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
I didn't even know they had hockey over there.
To tell you the truth, I had noidea until Willie called me and
said, yeah, I coach a team.
You know coaching team here andyou know, want to get you over
here.
You know, I know your mom'sJapanese.
I don't know, like this is howgood Willie was recruited.
I had, like nobody knew that mymom was Japanese.
Like like you know what I meanand and he knew, somehow he

(01:08:09):
found out, like that's how gooda recruiter he is.
Like he found out that I was,that my mom was Japanese, and
called me in Cincinnati the oneyear saying, hey, come to Japan
and play for me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
That's wild and you know what Small world again.
But my first ever pro game wasplayed for the Cincinnati
Cyclones.
They called me up from Spokanefor the playoffs.
That was when, when there waslike a maybe a full affiliation,
but Florida's affiliate was was, yeah, cincinnati at the time
so they yeah, they called me upthere I think I was 19 years old

(01:08:43):
, like, and that was an IHL, wasan old league then, right?
it was an old league yeah, so Iwas like most of the guys were
late 20s, in their 30s, rightand there I am running around,
you know, you know, playing mygames, or whatever it was a
little bit of a fish out ofwater but I mean, yeah, that's
cool.
So I got the.
I got the cincinnati cyclonejersey in the in the closet
right oh yeah yeah, awesome yeahI love my time there too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
I had two years there .
I loved it there still havefriends here.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
Still have friends there that's cool, the um, let's
switch.
So I mean you, you play outyour time there in japan.
You end up going to england.
But I want to talk about thebcj, uh, and even where it is
now I mean.
So just for the record, youwere, you were part of the
langley riverman langley youknow trappers before that um,

(01:09:31):
but with the rivermen and thebcj and and like the landscape
of junior hockey now is frickingwild.
But like what was your?
What's your memory of your timethere as GM and head coach and
and being a part of that, that,that piece of of the hockey?
You know tapestry there in inWestern Canada here.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Yeah, so my so family owned Rivermen.
Dad and uncle owned it from Ibelieve it was 2011, um, so I
had just finished playing.
You know how it is after you're, you're, you're done playing
hockey, you kind of just need abreak, right.

(01:10:08):
So took a little bit of a breakfrom hockey.
Um, wanted to try just otherthings and and this and that, so
took a, took a break fromhockey.
Then obviously, my kids startplaying.
So you get back involved.
So start coaching, coaching thekids, kids, younger kids, you
know hockey two, three, four,whatever it is.

(01:10:30):
So start doing that.
And then it comes up okay, mydad's wanted to.
You know, we wanted to get anaffiliate Junior B team for the
Rivermen.
So I'm like, oh, that's a goodidea.
So we ended up buying anexpansion team in PGHL, which

(01:10:51):
were the Langley Trappers.
So, expansion team, we're goingto affiliate.
So I ran that for four years,um, so I was head coach gm there
for four years.
So ran, uh, so basically theplan was uh, I'll get all the
young players to come, you know,play for the trappers and we'll
move them up to the rivermen.
So we had quite a success doingthat, um, and then it came up

(01:11:15):
where now the job's going tocome up for the Rivermen.
So you know, at the time I wasstill heavily involved with my
kids hockey, coaching them andmy dad's like, well, here's an
opportunity now Is it time tomove up?
So I had to really think aboutit, because there would be less
time with, you know, coaching mykids and being involved with

(01:11:38):
the kids, so that I now I hadthe younger boy coming up doing
the same thing, chase was comingup, jake was kind of getting
older now, um, but still I stillwanted to.
You know, not just being aboutgo watch his games and just be,
you know, you know what I meanum, just just still be able to
go and and and watch games, um,the very least, right, and and

(01:12:01):
coaching junior b, run thejunior b.
Everything was local, so, uh,no travel.
So I was able to do that.
It was pretty good, just a goodlifestyle where I can run, run
the trappers, I can help coach,uh, the kids, um, and be around
to watch them play.
So, so when the opportunity cameup at this time, I wanted to
move up.
I wanted to move up.
I felt I was ready.

(01:12:21):
I wanted to coach at a higherlevel you know, put in some good
years.
And even before that I spentwhile I was coaching before the
Trappers.
Actually, I spent three yearscoaching with John Batchelor
with the Burning Winter ClubBantam team, which was the
premier Bantam team Well, nowit's U15, but U15 team in the

(01:12:47):
lower mainland, right.
So a lot of good players.
I was able to coach a lot ofgood players those three years
and I learned a lot from JohnBatchelor who was, you know,
he's coached guys like, you know, nugent Hopkins, barzell,
fabbro All these guys camethrough Bernie Winter Club that

(01:13:07):
Batchelor coached, right.
So I was fortunate enough tolearn a lot those three years
coaching with him.
So that now and then that wasbefore the opportunity came for
the trappers.
So now I thought, okay, I'mready for the trappers, had four
, four really good yearsdeveloped a lot of guys moved,
moved them up to junior a.
So I figured, okay, now I'mready, ready, I wanted to take

(01:13:30):
the step, I wanted the newchallenge.
Um, so the opportunity came upthat Riverman's going to need a
new head coach, gm.
So I was like, okay, I'm ready,it's time, let's do it.
And so we did.
And first year we had a greatrun, you know, went all the way
to the semis.

(01:13:50):
You know at the start of theyear.
That year we didn't have onecommitted um hockey player like
college commit on it.
We were the only team in theleague didn't have any college
commits.
I think by the end of the yearwe had 10 or something like that
.
So we had just a great again.
That's a great group of kids,yeah, great group of kids, uh,

(01:14:11):
who bought in right away, wantedto play for each other.
You know, competed like hell inpractice translates the games
right.
So we went on a really good runthat year, ended up losing in
the semifinals.
But, like I said, part ofthat's moving kids on, right.
So move kids on.

(01:14:36):
You know, 20-year-olds for forthe most part all their 20s got
scholarships, um, I think alldivision one, maybe one division
three, um, but pretty good.
And then our younger guys got alot of looks, got um
scholarships as well.
And then, yeah, the second yearwas more of a rebuild because
we lost a lot of guys after thatyear.
Yeah, right.

(01:14:57):
So the rebuild Again.
You know, pretty good team.
It was about moving kids on.
We moved kids on that year andthen the year after again After
that, we sold the team, ended upleaving my last year and then

(01:15:17):
headed back Burner Winter Clubwhere it all started to coach my
younger boy.
So back where it all started,which is nice, and this year was
one of the most fun I've hadcoaching.
Again, going back to that age,I really like that age, the U15
age, where you know, kids arereally starting to figure out
how to play, and that's what Ilike.
I like teaching this age and onhow to play, and and and that.

(01:15:41):
So I had, I had a.
You know, like I said, we had agreat group of kids and I had
probably one of the most funyears of coaching this year.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
Awesome, yeah, yeah.
I know it's kind of like I'vebeen asked that too.
You know like well why.
You know why aren't youcoaching like wherever right,
bcj or the Vipers or, and theoffer I mean the odd offer comes
here and there, but it's likefor me, I think my biggest
decision was being around mykids, like you just said, right,
like they're still they'restill in it, like my oldest, is

(01:16:09):
an 09.
He's now eligible for for majorjunior this year for the first
season.
He probably won't go.
He's a Blazer draft pick.
I think that he probably needsanother year, but we'll see what
his winter or summer looks likeand how that all pans out.
My youngest is just steppinginto U15, and my middle boy's a
goalie who's just stepping intoU18.

(01:16:31):
You have a job anywhere else.
That's outside of that age,realm right, like you never see
them, ever right.
So it's like yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I don't, I'm just in aspot where, hey, I want to be
dad, you know, and I want to bearound and I want to be involved
, and, uh, and I think that theystill want to be involved.
Have me be involved, which isnice, you know, and, and

(01:16:52):
whatever capacity, whether it'sa dad role or whether that's
just a skills dad role, orwhether that's maybe even behind
the fence right like, um, it'snice to be able to do that, so
you know to to do these otherlevels.
It can get a little bit much andplus it becomes a little bit I
don't know, maybe tooprofessional, if that's the word
like too much about winning.
You know too much about notnecessarily development, you

(01:17:14):
know yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
I like the development aspect.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
I think that's a good spot to be in.
Yeah, no, that's that's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
That's exactly like what I'm saying.
I love this is my favorite ageto coach, right?
This is kind of I think this iswhere I should be really you
know.
I but I enjoyed coaching junior,don't get me wrong.
Um, I enjoyed it um three years.
You know, if you count trappers, seven years, right.

(01:17:45):
So I did it for seven years.
Um, I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it.
I enjoy coaching the older kidstoo, right, because they're
still developing, they, but it'smore, it's it's more, not more,
but a lot of it's life too,like you got to teach them about
life too, right and and I don'tmind doing that, that playing
that role as well.

(01:18:06):
But I really enjoy the u15 age,where, where they're just
starting to figure out how toplay right and and they need
some guidance on on how to play,like I said, the right way, you
know how to how to play withoutthe puck.
You know they're just startingto figure out, uh, how to learn
from watching video, um, andjust just to get them ready for

(01:18:30):
for the next step, right welland contact bro like and contact
exactly and contact.
Yeah, we haven't even talkedabout that, yeah, it's the
biggest step, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
I mean people always ask me.
I mean I'm like that's thebiggest step and it's, and it's
because the game changes.
You're now playing a differentgame again.
And then there's also that hugewell one out west here they're
going into high school for themost part, right.
So they're going fromelementary school to high school
.
They're going from no contactto contact.
Some guys have hair on theirballs, some guys don't.

(01:19:00):
You know what I mean, right,like it's like there's so much
happening at that age group thatthat it really is like they're
just getting hit with a waterhose, you know, like it, like
holy smokes.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
A lot.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
And to be a of that development aspect in all areas,
right like life areas, schoolareas, social areas, hockey
areas, like it's a big move andand I always say to parents,
like, don't underestimate it,right like there's a lot going
on for these kids at that age.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
Oh, it's, it's huge, like it's it's.
You know they're we'retraveling for the first.
They're on their own, for thefirst time traveling in a hotel
room, right.
A lot of responsibilities,right, like keeping keeping your
room clean, like you know,don't you know even small things
like packing your bag properly,right, bringing enough snacks.

(01:19:46):
Bringing, you know, calling momor dad, right, like some kids.
Just don't they forget, youknow.
So we gotta remind them.
Okay, you know we're takingtheir phones at night, but
during the day, you know, aftera game, okay, here's your phone.
Call mom or dad, let them knowhow you're doing, right.

(01:20:06):
But they're growing up.
They gotta grow up fast now,right.
So a lot of new things thatthey're going through.
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
I want to take another short break to talk
about the UMH 68.
The 2012 BC event is full.
The 2011 BC event has somespots available on D and on
forward.
There are some invitations thatare outstanding, but if you are

(01:20:40):
someone who deems you areworthy of coming to this event
and you have not applied yet,the watch list is how you do it.
That is, at upmyhockeycom.
If you would like to nominatesomebody, that is also where you
do it at upmyhockeycom.
If you would like to nominatesomebody, that is also where you
do it at upmyhockeycom.
The watch list for the 2011division is available.

(01:21:01):
And when we move east to theSaskatchewan event, the 2012
event, we are full, except fordefensemen.
So again, there are someinvitations outstanding.
I believe we're down to a halfdozen spots available, but if
you are a 2012 defenseman ineither Alberta or Saskatchewan
and you would like to attend theevent, check it out at Up my

(01:21:21):
Hockey.
Moving farther east, we have ourManitoba 2011 event.
That is the first one comingdown the pipe and we do have
some room available at Forwardand at D Boy.
We want this to be anoutstanding event.
So, by all means, because weare new to the area.
We do not know all of theplayers who are worthy.

(01:21:43):
So there have definitely beeninvites going out, but don't
feel like you are being ignored.
We just may not know how to geta hold of you.
Finding the emails and gettingthe emails delivered without
being filtered out into spam andall these other things that
happen in the email age is quitedifficult.
It actually is a way that Ispend a lot of time that I wish

(01:22:06):
I didn't have to spend inreaching out and reaching back
out and trying different ways ofcommunication.
So if you are one of thoseplayers in Alberta or
Saskatchewan as a 2012, or ifyou are a 2011 elite player in
Saskatchewan or Manitoba, pleaselet yourself be known on the
website upmyhockeycom, fill outthe watch list, let us know

(01:22:29):
where you played, let us knowthat you are interested in
coming to the event.
We verify all watchlistapplications with a call to the
coach or somebody in the hockeynetwork and we will get you your
invite.
So, yes, getting into crunchtime with the Manitoba event.
So, by all means, that's at theend of what are we in now?

(01:22:50):
April, that's at the end of May.
First weekend of June is whenthat event happens.
So we want to fill up theregistration list as soon as
possible.
Get your names in.
We want you there.
It's going to be fantastic.
Now let's get back to theconversation with Bert Henderson
.

(01:23:13):
When you talk about your kids soyour oldest is an 08, just had
his first year with the rocketsuh, how has it been through that
lens, like for me, it's been acompletely rebirth for me and
like and me falling in loveagain with hockey.
You know, like I definitely hadit as a kid, definitely had it
as a junior, kind of got alittle bit jaded as a pro at
different times, right, and thenwhen I was done, like you said,

(01:23:34):
you kind of need a break I wasone of those guys that needed a
break and my break was fairlyextended and then my boys
started to play, brought me backin, started to see the game
through a different lens again,like what opportunities that
brought for me to help, you know, for me to be able to serve and
and, um, and yeah, I completelyloved the sport again.
You know, I mean from acompletely different level, on a
personal level, um, how, howthat been with you, and now you

(01:23:57):
know, using your experience,using your knowledge, to support
the kids that are yours thatwant to play this game, and how
have you been able to navigatethat?

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
Yeah, you know it's been awesome.
So when he got drafted, whenKelowna obviously I talked to
Kelowna before the draft andeverything I was like this would
be ideal.
You know if you guys can gethim and they ended up drafting
him so you know that was aspecial moment.

(01:24:29):
He was third, third round.
So he's 50th pick yeah, 50thpick.
So that was pretty specialbecause we weren't sure they
didn't have.
I think they had twothird-round picks because they
traded away all their high picksfrom the previous years, right,
because they were hosting theMemorial Cup in 2020 before

(01:24:51):
COVID and all that, right.
So we're hoping that Kelownawould get a chance at him.
And they did, and they draftedhim.
It was awesome, super cool.
Yeah, so it was.
But at the same time, you know,like the rules hadn't changed

(01:25:11):
yet.
So, you know, jake, he waspretty good in school changed
yet.
So, um, you know, jake, he waspretty good in school.
You know he, he actually wantedto go to to school, um,
originally, right, but we'rejust like, okay, well, clone, if
they get you, you know, we'llhave to have the conversation
right, just right, just justbecause you know.
So we did.
So, you know, after he gotdrafted, he still was like, oh,

(01:25:34):
yeah, it great, you know, but Ithink I still want to go to
school.
So that's okay.
Yeah, that's great too, right.
And then you start.
So he went out.
He played his U18 year at Yale.
He's a 15-year-old.
After the draft, had a reallygood year.
Real good coaching there.
Adam Neutron-Hopkins um, um,real good coaching there.

(01:26:01):
Uh, newton hopkins was coachedthere.
Um, had a really good year.
They had a pretty good team.
Um, uh, they they playoffs, uh,different story, but they had a
pretty good team.
Didn't do well in playoffs, but, um, so they came up and
watched in the playoffs and wehad a nice conversation, um,
leading up to to the playoffs.
I was had a nice conversationleading up to the playoffs.
I was talking to Bruce here andthere, and we actually met with

(01:26:24):
a couple of BCHL teams at thetime too, because Jake still
wasn't sure what he wanted to do.
And then you hear the rumblingsabout, okay, there's going to be
a rule change.
I think it's coming, it'scoming.
We don't know when, could benext year, but but we're pretty
sure that it'll come.

(01:26:46):
If you're you know in your timein the WHL, whether it be next
year or the year after, it'scoming, it's going to be coming.
So we kind of took that intoconsideration and we're like,
hey, you got the best, you knowto me, the best organization
that you know I, I know willtake care of you, I trust them.
Um, you know.

(01:27:07):
So we ended up making thedecision to to sign there.
Well, actually, right afterplayoffs in penticton, we drove
up to to Kelowna and signed thecontract and you know, for me
that was a special moment, right, just seeing your kid sign with
the team that you played for,right.
But again, like you still gotto put the work in, you still

(01:27:30):
got to make the team right.
So I had a good summer traininglast year.
I got to give him credit.
He, he worked his ass off, um.
And then you know specialmoments going up there actually
seeing, you know I went up therein an exhibition game in camels
first, seeing him come out onthe ice with my number two 27

(01:27:53):
right, wearing my numberhenderson on the back, wearing
my number Henderson on the backPretty special, pretty special
moment, right.
So yeah, and then you know, Iwent up there, me and my wife
would go up there every chancethat we could.
You know Everett's pretty closeto us so we go down to Everett
if he played there.
But every weekend that I hadoff we'd go up to Kelowna and

(01:28:16):
watch.
So we were able to watch themquite a bit here and there up in
Kalamooks, up, you know, inKelowna.
When they played in Kalamookswe got to check.
Now, obviously, when they playthe Giants in Vancouver, we had,
you know, my God, we had 40, 50people come to those games.
A lot of families and friendscome watch them.

(01:28:38):
So pretty, pretty cool, pretty,pretty special for me to see
that and go through that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Yeah, I wanted to share in that with you.
I was rattling Spokane's chainsa little bit with Hudson, yeah
yeah, yeah.
Because he actually wanted togo there too right, it was more
kind of originated from himbeing like that'd be so cool to
play there.
You know, like where you playedand you know where your
picture's on the wall in thedressing room and blah, blah,

(01:29:08):
blah.
But anyways they ended up takingthem and Kamloops did.
Well, you know, aaron, it's sofunny, like our triangle.
So like Aaron Keller, who Bertand I played with in OG, is the
head scout there in Kamloops nowand they ended up taking him.
And I mean fantastic, right,like super grateful, like what

(01:29:28):
an awesome organization, and Iknow they're close to home yeah,
close to home, like there's somany check marks when it comes
to that.
But there was a little piece ofme that was like, oh, he's not
going to play with the Chiefsbut anyways, it's kind of fun
when we have our own historythere.
But thinking about you, talkingabout Jake, we talked about U15

(01:29:49):
being what I think is maybe thebiggest transition.
But then I was just like youknow what that 16-year-old year
going, going from minor hockey Idon't care if it's academy
hockey, whatever it is to thewhl and inability and
responsible in a whole new way,and playing with 20 year olds
like that's got to be.
I think that I mean that's gotto be a tie for first,
potentially, like I think thatwas a bigger move for me than it

(01:30:12):
was even going pro, right, likeonce I've lived on my own and
you know me, finding anapartment.
Like, yeah, there was some newthings about being a
professional that were different, but it wasn't as big of a
transition as going to a newcountry, new billets like this
league, 72 games on the bus allthe time, right, like managing
school, managing, like all thisother stuff that you have to do.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
How was it for Jake this year and being a WHLer at
16 years old?
Yeah, so, you know, at thestart, um, well, I think it
helped him that that he went.
He went up there.
He lived with two other guys onthe team one one was a friend
from here um, so that helpedwith the transition of of living
away from home.
Right, because he had two otherguys that you're living with.
You know it's, it's Pogs,players are, they hang out,

(01:30:59):
everything's good.
So I think that helped.
As far as the playing, you knowyou go from playing, you know
top minutes to now, okay, you'rea 16-year-old in the league
you're going to have to slowly,kind of, you know, earn your,
earn your spot, earn yourminutes.

(01:31:19):
Sure, you have to play 40 games, but you know that's the rule
that 16 year olds have to dressfor 40 games, right, but you
know you have to put in the timeand the effort and and um,
mentally, you got to stick withit.
It's there.
There were times cause you'regoing to sit out goals too.
Right, that's just how it is a16 year old, you're going to sit

(01:31:39):
games.
These kids have never had tosit games, right, these 16 year
olds coming into the whl.
They all been top playerswherever they're coming from,
right.
So cologne had four of themthis year, right, top players
wherever they played, never hadto sit a game.
So there would be times where,you know, I'd get a text like

(01:32:01):
after a game.
He's like, can I call you later?
I'm like, of course you cancall me later, you know.
And then we'd get into theconversation Well, how come I'm
not playing, like I don'tunderstand.
Well, son, this is the WHL.
It's a tough league and being a16-year-old in this league is

(01:32:22):
tough, especially at the startof the year where you're just
starting to figure things out,right, so there's a learning
curve here.
So you need to just, you know,put your head down, go to work,
listen to your coaches andthat's it.
And don't never complain aboutyou know anything.

(01:32:43):
Okay, you always just listenAnything.
You don't complain aboutanything.
You just do what you're told,okay, if you know, if a vet
tells you to go pick up thepucks, go pick up the puck.
If he tells you, you know,you've got to do your rookie

(01:33:04):
duties too, right, you know howit is.
You know, like, pick up thepucks.
No one should even have to tellyou that you just go do it
right.
The trainer needs help withsomething.
You do it Like you knowunpacking the bus.
Do it, help the trainer, doeverything, like you know.
There's certain things that yougot to do as a rookie, as a 16

(01:33:25):
year old, and there's a learningcurve.
You're gonna have to sit games.
That's just the reality of it,unless you know you're you know
landed dupont or you know theseguys were.
You know you're, you knowLandon DuPont or you know these
guys were.
You know high-end guys that youknow they're not going to sit.
But if you're, you know you'rea player coming into this league
who's got to earn it.
Hey, you got to earn it rightand there's no excuses.

(01:33:48):
You got to do, you got to putthe work in right.
So stay up to practice, work onyour shot.
You know work on your skating,work on your shot.
You know work on your skating,work on your transitions.
Just, you know, if coach isfree, ask him to to go over some
video with you, whatever it is.
You know you just got to doeverything you can to develop.
You know at that.
At that you know first threemonths I would say it's really

(01:34:11):
tough because that's thelearning curve.
That's when you got to kind ofearn the trust of the coaches,
right.
So you know, he, he wasfortunate that he did that and
he, he, he got a lot of timeplaying with Caden Price, which
was helped helped him out a lot.
You know, I think Pricer helpedhim out just just by, you know,

(01:34:34):
being able to play with himwhen, when, when Pricer was in
Kelowna, right, so he got thatopportunity to play with him and
he learned a lot off of thatand he really, you know, he
really did develop and by theend of it was playing pretty
regular.
So you know, it was nice tonice to see, because you know

(01:34:57):
those first three months weretough.
It'd be like phone calls, likeyou know, like quite often you
know it's the talk about, likefor most, for most, guys, it's
the toughest time uh oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
And then I mean I know you trust where he's at,
you trust your organization, youknow.
You know from a hockey playerstandpoint that it is part of
the process.
I mean, there is the argumentfrom other sides.
Maybe we won't use your son asthe example in this case, but
some people can't handle that,you know, whether it be from an

(01:35:33):
emotional standpoint or maturitystandpoint, and maybe more
minutes and playing another yearof u18 might be better for some
players.
Like, how do you speak to tothat side of it?
And, and you know, do you thinklike if you can play at a
certain level, you should playat a certain level, or is there
maybe some gray area?

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
no, I think, I think there's an argument definitely
for to.
You know, you say um the termoverc.
Like you go, you play, maybeyou're you're, you're ready to,
to make the step, but why notstay at U18 for a year and
dominate right, help your gamedevelop and there's that

(01:36:09):
argument as well.
Like you know, like I've hadthat conversation with players
when, when I was coaching junioras well right, like, are you
ready?
Probably, um, you'd probably bein and out of the lineup
playing a lesser role.
I'd rather have you go playanother year u18, dominate right

(01:36:29):
, and then come in the next yearand play a bigger role yeah
right.
So, um, so, and that goes.
It depends, obviously, like yousaid, some kids can't handle
doing, you know, sitting outgames, not playing.
You know what they're used toLike.

(01:36:50):
You have these high-end guys,you see it all the time, these
high-end guys that come playjunior expecting to okay, I've
been the guy, everywhere I went,I've been the guy, I'm gonna be
the guy here, or you're notplaying tonight, what, what,
what?
You mean I'm not playingtonight, what, what, like, why
you know, like you see it allthe time.

(01:37:13):
It it's just like well, yeah,you're not playing tonight,
you're scratched.
I want you to watch the gameright, watch the little details
of watch how you know so-and-sois your captain, watch what he
does, watch him right.
So I mean you see that.
So I think there is an argumentdefinitely to keep kids you

(01:37:38):
know, to overcook you call itright and play U18 another year,
right, just to develop theconfidence right.
Some kids can't deal with thatplaying that role.
You know and you see it quite abit right and it's unfortunate,
right.
But other kids can, they canand they thrive after it.

(01:37:58):
You know and you see it.
You see it quite a bit rightand it's unfortunate, right, but
?
But other kids can, they canand they thrive after it.
You know it's good learning,it's good learning.
You know that adversity, right?
They?
go through it, and then theycome out on the other side and
that always makes you better,right?

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
so yeah, I couldn't agree more.
I mean that's, uh, I meanthat's, I guess that's the, the,
the million dollar question,right, are they going to get
through it?
You know, and, and hopefully,if we, if we arm them with those
skills you know required, thathelp them, you know, to get
through it, they will be betterfor it.
You know, because you know you,you just said it the adversity

(01:38:30):
is what galvanizes you as ahuman, that that solidifies what
you want to do and who you wantto become and the player you
can be, and all these things,and that's kind of like the.
Yeah, that's the juice of thatrookie, that rookie season,
right, uh, do you get out of itbeing exposed to that
environment?
Right, knowing that you wereable to get through it.
You know, like, all thosethings are are reinforcing.

(01:38:51):
But for some kids, right, it'sjust like, no, like that, that
could be shattering and theycould even leave the game
potentially.
Yeah, no, we've seen it, yeahwe've seen it?
Yeah, for sure.
Well, geez, we've been talkingalong, and I want to talk about
your kid, though, too youryounger one.
Yeah, it's such a cool story.
I think we should talk aboutthat before we sign off.
So you had the opportunity,your younger boy, this year,

(01:39:12):
that the 2011, and and, uh,you're saying that he is
overcoming some pretty, uh,major adversity to be able to
play like sure, sure, that story, yeah so uh.

Speaker 1 (01:39:23):
So chase, my youngest , he has.
He has something calledstargardt's disease, okay, so
actually my older daughter hasit too.
So older daughter, ava, um, andthen jake's, the fortunate
enough not to have it, and thenChase, so it's hereditary retina
disease.
So basically it's a retinadisease where you slowly go

(01:39:49):
blind.
So my daughter, her vision ispretty bad right now, so she's
considered legally blind.
Chase isn't as bad as Ava, buthe's still considered legally
blind.
So basically he plays withoutany central vision, he relies on

(01:40:10):
peripheral only.
So he has his peripheral visionbut he has no central vision.
So he won't't he'll see objects.
He can't see any detail, um, sohe can just see objects.
So he'll miss a lot of.
You know, like he's not going toget any backdoor tap-ins or
anything like that, um, but whenhe has the puck he's pretty

(01:40:30):
good.
When he has the puck and he cango, like he can go for check,
he can go hunt, and and I, whenI'm on the bench, I yell
instructions out to him likeokay, puck is in the corner, go,
go in the corner, go in thecorner.
Okay, switch side, switch side.
So a lot of it's verbally metelling him where to go right or

(01:40:51):
what to do.
So, yeah, he's, he's, he's donepretty good.
He had a pretty good year.
He scored five goals, I think,and and had 20, 20 something
points as a you know playingacademy hockey against the top
2011s, really, you know, in inwestern canada, really, right.

(01:41:11):
So, um, pretty pretty cool story, pretty cool for him to to be
doing what he's doing, you knowwow, freaking, courageous and
brave yeah, you know yeah what'shis mindset like when it comes
to it.
You know what he just he doesn'tlet it bother him, he just, you
know, goes out, he loves toplay, just loves to play hockey,

(01:41:33):
right?
So, um, you know, and and againit goes to to the team that we
had just great group of kids.
Man, that just the support, thesupport from the parents of the
kids, like we just had such agood group group of parents and
kids this year that, that, um,you know, helped him and you
know, help you know, me, my wife, my wife obviously, watching

(01:41:57):
the game and and you know, justthe support from the parents was
huge.
But the kids too, the kids,cause kids are kids.
You know, they don't reallyprobably understand what he's
going through.
It may be a little, but, yeah,you know, like we had such as
just great kids that you know,support them.

(01:42:17):
Like if you'd miss a path, likeno one's going, oh, you got to
get no.
It's just like, oh, I shouldknow what they say.
Oh, I should have passed itsofter so you could have got it.
Like they took the blame for it, you know, instead of you know
saying, oh, chase, you got toget no, no one ever did that, it
was just like, oh, I gotta putyou, I gotta put that puck in a
better position for you.
You know, sorry that's my bad.
You know, like it's justamazing, these kids, that um,

(01:42:40):
that we had this year, so um no,but he's, you know he's, he's
loving it.
You know he's loving it.
He just goes out and plays, manjust loves it yeah that's it
right.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
So it's about having fun playing yeah, I love them,
but just to me, I'm justthinking that, like the game's
so freaking hard, it's hardenough with two eyes, you know,
I mean, let alone, yeah, to seeexactly what's going on or where
it's coming from, or, you know,even pressure, like I'm
thinking about that, that's why,it's outrageous, right like
yeah sure, it's great to havethe puck, but it's also great to
know when someone's gonna comeI know, yeah, right, yeah,

(01:43:15):
that's my job.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
I got to tell him when somebody's coming right
Like head up.
It's coming now, so he'll bracehimself, right.
But yeah, no, he did prettygood this year.
I'm pretty proud of him.

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
Oh, that's awesome.
I can imagine how proud you are.
That's super cool.
Well, yeah, he was a past gueston the podcast and he freaking
played with one blind and oneeye completely taking that shot.
And anyways, he had some prettywild stories too.
Lots of inspiration from Willie.

(01:43:47):
I couldn't imagine playing thegame at that high a level either
.
No, crazy.
Lots of cool stories out there.
Glad you get to be a part of itwith your boys and great that
you're uh lots of cool storiesout there.
Glad you get to be a part of itwith your boys and uh, every
year being able to, uh, you know, impart some of that wisdom
there and at Burnaby Winter Club.
So, uh, thanks for thanks forcoming on, man, is there
anything last words?
You want to?
You want to provide anyone outthere, as far as you know,

(01:44:08):
making some dreams come true, Imean it's.

Speaker 1 (01:44:12):
It's to me if the kids out there you know it's
there's a lot, so much skilldevelopment.
Skill development, which isgreat, you need that, right, um.
But but to me, there's so manydifferent things that that you,
you have to do now to to take itto the next level and and a lot

(01:44:33):
of that is a skill developmentyou definitely need that.
Off-ice training, I think, ishuge too.
Kids don't realize how importantthe off-ice training is now,
whether you're doing yoga orproper weight training, there's

(01:44:54):
a lot of good trainers, trainersout there, but I think the
office component gets overlookedsometimes, and it shouldn't, um
.
And then like like yourself,mindset, right, mindset coach.
Like you know, these kids needneed to be in the right mindset,
right so, um, there's so manydifferent things that that kids,

(01:45:15):
kids, um, could do these days,right, um?
But at the end of the day, it'sabout, it's about having fun
and playing the game that welove, right so, um, I love doing
what I do and I know you lovedoing what you do, um, and you
know it's what's all abouthelping kids get better, right,
right.

(01:45:36):
So that's what we're here for.

Speaker 2 (01:45:37):
Yeah, and that's the key too.
I mean all the stuff that wetalk about, the high performance
habits and the engine, you knowthat's required for that.
I mean you're talking about thegym, you're talking about the
compete on the ice.
We're talking about, you know,maybe being willing to do some
work, personal work, on yourmindset, like that doesn't
happen unless you fricking lovewhat you're doing, or it doesn't
happen in an authentic wayunless you love what you're
doing.
So you know, first and foremostis what I'm trying to talk to

(01:46:03):
these, you know parents andplayers about is like, let's
fall in love with this game,right.
And when you do fall in lovewith it and the intricacies of
it and the game itself and theteam component of it and all
these different things, to havea passion for the rest of it
comes a little bit more easily,you know, a little bit more
natural.
Because, frick man, when it,when it's all work, when that's
all work, you know what I meanLike it's it makes it harder
Right so.

(01:46:23):
I think that's where it startsfrom you mean, it's such an easy
thing, and I think every parent, mom and dad out there says go,
go, have fun.
But that really is like thecore of it.
I mean like find a way to havea good time with it and and a
lot of that other stuff is goingto, is going to be taken care
of itself, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:46:37):
Yeah, no, for sure Love it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:39):
All right, buddy.
Well, thanks for thanks forcoming on.
Really appreciate your time andum anytime, buddy, we'll be
talking again.

Speaker 1 (01:46:46):
Happy to do it.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:46:55):
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you for listening to theentire episode.
Again, if you have notdownloaded this and you've
gotten to this point, by allmeans press pause.
Download the episode.
Let the analytics speak forthemselves.
I want to have every singledownload accounted for.
I would love to know what theactual listen rate is here of
these episodes and I will besharing the results shortly.

(01:47:17):
I think that is a small ask ofyou to press pause and to press
download, so hopefully you'vealready done that.
I appreciate you if you have,and I appreciate you for being
here.
I hope you had a greatexperience with Bert, learning a
little bit about the AsianLeague, what it's like to be a
hockey dad in today'senvironment and also what it's

(01:47:40):
like to be coaching today'syouth.
Lots of takeaways from today'sepisode.
So until next time, play hardand keep your head up.

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Ep. 155 - Burt Henderson- Competing at Every Level: Bert's Path Through Professional Hockey

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 155 - Burt Henderson- Competing at Every Level: Bert's Path Through Professional Hockey