February 7th has been a day circled on 2015 BHL MVP and current FHL President, Justin Daigle's calendar for quite sometime now. It marks the day he will board a flight headed to Lillehammer, Norway the site of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. Daigle will represent New Zealand at the 2016 Youth Olympics as the Coach / Trainer of one of The Ferns shining stars, 16-year old Ollie Curtis who will be attempting to take home Youth Olympic Gold in the Individual Ice Hockey Skills event.
After Curtis, qualified for the Youth Olympics last year in Helsinki, Finland as the 15th seed (of 15) he approached Daigle with the golden opportunity to be his mentor for the games. Since then, the two have been on-ice and off-ice training everyday and building a championship bond while Ollie times and scores have skyrocketed. Daigle says, " Ollie has been committed putting in the work, striving to get his body and mind to where he needs to be to be amoung the world's best" he continued by adding, "Ollie is currently staying consistent in beating most of the marks set by those guys who placed 1 and 2 last year in Helsinki, and gets better with every session". A trait that even a seasoned veteran of the game like Daigle can admire and gives him great pride when speaking of his young protege.
The pair will stay in the Olympic Village, have unlimited passes to all the events at the games and train mercilessly for the competition. The Ice Hockey Individual skills event runs in a fashion similar to a decathalon. Each event is held and you are given points based on performance in each disipline, with the total points of all events determining the winner. Ollie has trained for and will compete in 6 events : Hardest Shot , Accuracy Shooting, Accuracy Passing, Butterfly Agility Skating, Fastest Lap and Agility Puck Handling before aiming for the top of the podium.
The 2016 Youth Olympics Games from Lillehammer, Norway are slated to start with the Opening Ceremony on February 12th and will wrap up February 21st. Several kiwi athletes will be in attendance as NZ will compete in Snowboarding, Skiing and Other events as well. You can follow thier journey at :
http://www.olympic.org/youth-olympic-games From each and every member of the BHL/FHL community we'd like to wish you both the upmost support and appreciation we have and remind you that New Zealand's Hockey House will be in full force cheering you both on to Gold.
