Game on Magazine: Kyle Collins: Playing for the Fun of the Game

Story written by Scott Taylor for the December issue of Game On Magazine. (Link to the story: http://mytoba.ca/sports/kyle-collins-playing-for-the-fun-of-the-game/)

Here’s something you don’t hear all that often anymore: “Hockey is my passion and I just have so much fun playing with my friends.” Fun? Hockey? Friends? What a novel idea. Kyle Collins and his buddies with the KJHL’s North Winnipeg Satellites love every minute of every game … and every win.

Kyle Collins is a 21-year-old University of Manitoba student who loves playing hockey. He’ll tell you with a straight face, “Hockey is my passion and learning more about the game and getting better every day is why I play.”

Collins knows he isn’t going to the NHL. He was never a high scoring AAA forward on a Western Hockey League draft list. In fact, just for fun, he gave up scoring goals and spent two seasons — as a 16- and 17-year-old — playing goalie.

These days, he’s the second-leading scorer in the Keystone Junior Hockey League with 19 goals and 26 assists in 18 games. In his third season with the North Winnipeg Satellites, his hockey career has never been better. Or, at least, it’s never been more fun.

“All my friends are on this team,” said Collins matter-of-factly. “Sure, we all come from different areas, but we’re so close, it really is a wonderful chemistry. I play hockey for fun, just for the fun of if. I want to get better and I think I work pretty hard, and winning is great, but I just want to play the game with my friends and have fun. That’s happening for me here, 100%, and that’s why hockey is my passion.”

Say what you like about the importance of team chemistry, but for the North Winnipeg Satellites, it’s pretty much everything. The Satellites started the season with a 10-1-0 stretch (they’re currently second at 13-5-0) that certainly impressed head coach Taylor Lemon. And it takes some doing to impress Lemon.

When it comes to the KJHL, Lemon is a lifer. His dad is a long time Satellites board member and Taylor has done just about everything that can be done within the organization.

“I started out as the stick boy and then I became a player for five years,” Lemon said. “Then after I finished playing, I was the assistant coach for a year and I learned a lot. Then, last year, I took over as head coach and this is my second year in that job. I think the only thing left for me is GM.”

Lemon is obviously committed to the club, a solid franchise that hasn’t won the Baldy Northcott Trophy since 2006. He sees something just a little different, a little better, in this year’s group

“We’re deep up front and we’re really deep on the back end,” Lemon said. “But it’s the chemistry and commitment that has given us the start we’ve enjoyed so far this year. It’s a pleasure to coach this team.

“Let me explain, this is a team of 18-21 year-olds who will get together the night before a game and go out. But they don’t go to the bars. They go to the movies and drink sodas and eat popcorn. They are committed to hockey, to playing well, to winning and most of all to themselves. They have pride in themselves and in the organization and they love to play.”

That’s exactly the way Collins sees it. He’s 5-foot-11, 175 pounds and has never been highly touted or highly scouted. But he loves playing hockey with this particular team in this particular time and place.

“What makes this team different is that we can all play here,” said Collins. “My closest friends, Kevin Haines and Jason Campbell and my linemates Sean Murray and Matthew Carrey, well, we wouldn’t be able to play together if we weren’t on this team. I mean, for instance, I might have had a chance to make the (MMJHL’s) Twins in my area a couple of years ago, but that would have meant not playing with most of the other guys. We all wanted to play together and with the Satellites, we can all play together.”

Collins grew up in the southwest end of Winnipeg, started playing hockey “at three or four,” and just kept playing. He wasn’t a high-end AAA kid, but he sure loved the game. He played A1 and AA when he was growing up and chose not to play high school hockey at Vincent Massey. Instead, at 16, he decided to play a season of AA midget as a goaltender.

“I was always fascinated by the goalie’s equipment,” he said with a smile. “I remember going to a Moose game with my dad and Cory Schneider was the Moose goalie. I really got caught up with goaltending and talked to my dad about. He’s the most influential person in my life when it comes to sports and after talking with him, I decided to give playing goal a chance. So as a 16-year-old and 17-year-old, I played goal.

“Then after my 17-year-old season, some friends asked me to play forward in a summer league at the Highlander (Canlan Ice Sports) and I realized again, how much I loved scoring goals and making plays. That next winter, I played one last season of midget A2 with my friends and then spent a year in juvenile. At 19, Jason Campbell and I decided to try out for the Satellites and here we are.”

Indeed. Here they are, on a great junior B team with a legitimate shot at reaching the Keystone Cup, emblematic of western junior B supremacy.

“Our chemistry is 100% of the reason why we’re off to such a good start,” said Collins, who eventually wants to become a firefighter after graduation from the U of M. “We have good skill, but a lot of the teams in this league are skilled. The difference is, we really like each other and we work hard and play well together. I think we have the perfect balance of being really competitive and having a lot of fun.”

Wow. There are two dozen professional teams who could make use of that formula.