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LAHC NEWS
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| NHL DRAFT: FORMER LAHC EMERSON ETEM |
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LB's Etem could find himself skating home w/ VIDEO
By Doug Krikorian Columnist
Posted: 06/19/2010 10:48:40 PM PDT
Click here to see the article, video and pictures
For the first time, the National Hockey League's Entry Draft will be staged next Friday and Saturday at Staples Center.
Also for the first time, a native of Long Beach, an 18-year-old named Emerson Etem, is expected to be a first-round selection.
Now many Long Beach products across the decades have been bestowed such an honor in baseball and football, but hockey is not exactly a sport you identify with renowned athletes from this city.
In fact, in this celestial paradise of beaches and bays and year-round sunshine, Etem is quite an anomaly.
He's a hockey prodigy who has defied local sporting convention, a peculiarity who has spent his high school years in faraway places developing his skills in a pursuit alien to most of his childhood friends.
As a freshman and sophomore, he left his parents' home in Alamitos Heights near Marine Stadium to attend Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribualt, Minn., a school celebrated for producing such stellar young hockey players as Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Zach Parise and Jack Johnson.
And then as a junior during the 2008-2009 school year, he resided in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he performed in the U.S. Under-17 National Team Development Program and where one of his linemates was Matt Nieto, a long-time friend who's a year younger and who's also a Long Beach native with a bright hockey future.
Etem wound up scoring 45 points in 50 games in Ann Arbor, but it was his exceptional play the past season with the Medicine Hat Tigers, a junior team in the Western Hockey League, that has considerably enhanced his draft status.
The 6-foot, 190-pounder, who plays right wing, was the league's top rookie goal scorer with 37 and wound up with 65 points overall in 72 games, inspiring glowing reviews from his Medicine Hat coach, Willie Desjardins, and from NHL scouts.
"I thought if Emerson had 25 goals this year, he'd have a pretty good year," Desjardins was quoted as saying in an NHL.com report. "He certainly passed my expectations. He's an exceptional skater, has real good speed and he's strong. When he goes down the wall teams have trouble containing him because of his speed."
"He's a very heady hockey player," NHL Central Scouting's Peter Sullivan says in the same story. "He knows where things are going to happen before they do. His skating and his puck skills are excellent."
So, how does a Long Beach kid, who says he's done his share of surfing and skateboarding over the years, wind up becoming such a coveted hockey player even though he hails from a place that's not exactly a hotbed of the sport?
"My older brother Martin is the one who got me into hockey," says Etem, who according to several NHL mock draft mavens, could wind up being selected by the Ducks, holding the 12th pick, or the Kings at 19th. "The YMCA on Bellflower near Long Beach State had a roller hockey rink at the time, and my brother was really into roller hockey. I'd watch him play, and liked what I saw. I
NHL prospect Emerson Etem hails from Long Beach, and started playing roller hockey before stepping on the ice. (Eugene Erick Double E Photography)was about three-and-a-half the first time I tried it and about six the first time I got on ice."
Emerson Etem immediately became enamored with hockey and started spending a lot of time playing it at places like the Lakewood Glacial Gardens and the Westminster Ice Arena on teams like the Junior Ice Dogs and L.A. Hockey Club.
In those early days, he was mentored by, among others, people like the Gasseau brothers, James and Sandy, both with extensive hockey backgrounds.
While Etem's hockey success might be unique because of his roots, it's not exactly a stunning development to his family since all its members have been heavily involved in athletics.
His father, Rick Etem, who's an aviation engineer at Boeing, was a rower while attending the Naval Academy. His mother Patricia, who works in public health, was a member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic rowing teams and participated in four world championships.
His brother Martin, five years older, rowed at Syracuse and is on the U.S. national rowing team. His sister Elise, a 2007 Wilson High graduate and swimming star, has been a stalwart rower at the University of California.
"I come from a family that's always been involved in water sports," says Etem, who says his favorite hockey player is the New York Rangers' Marian Gaborik, who, by the sheerest coincidence, also plays right wing. "I guess you can say I am, too.
"Only I'm the only member who plays on frozen water."
Etem says he last year actually attended Wilson High for three weeks during the spring, and then during the summer resumed a grueling workout regimen under the famed trainer T.R. Goodman that he first started in 2007.
Not only were Goodman's sessions exhausting - he's the one who has kept ageless hockey player Chris Chelios and many others in the sport in such stellar shape - but the daily trek from Long Beach to Goodman's gym in Venice was just as taxing for Etem.
"Between the train and bus rides, it usually would take me two to two-and-a-half hours each way to get there," he says. "But I was there every morning. I'd work out with people like Chris Chelios and Mike Commodore and Mike Comrie. They've really helped me out and given me good advice. It was good for me to see how they worked out and how focused they were."
And it's doubtful anyone is more focused than Etem, who admits his passionate desire is to be performing in the NHL as early as next season.
"Obviously, this is an exciting time for my family and me," he says. "I've worked hard to get to where I am, and made a lot of sacrifices. I know I've set high standards for myself. But I think that's made me a better player. It's all been worth it."
Emerson Etem soon also will be worth a lot of money, especially for a youngster who just celebrated his 18th birthday on June 16.
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