The Making of Champions: Life in Canada's Junior A Leagues

Dave Jenkinson is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education at the
University of Manitoba.

By following six Junior A hockey players through the 1988–89
season—from training camp to the Memorial Cup championship
tournament—Olver (a Toronto Sun feature writer) gives readers an
entertaining and informative glimpse into this level of hockey, which
still offers aspirants their principal route to a National Hockey League
career. Olver’s careful selection of subjects for the book yields a
well-balanced picture of Junior A hockey. Since the 39 Junior A teams
are divided into three leagues, Olver focuses on two players from each
league. Laval Titans Patrice Brisebois and Donald Audette represent the
Quebec Major-Junior Hockey League; Peterborough Petes John Tanner and
Mike Ricci play in the Ontario Hockey League; Tracey Katelnikoff and Rob
Lelacheur are from the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades. The
players also exhibit different experience and skill levels. Ricci, for
example, is a veteran and superstar, while Lelacheur is an untried
rookie. Finally, Olver’s selections reflect the game’s three
principal player positions: goalie Tanner; defenceman Lelacheur; and
forwards Audette, Katelnikoff, Ricci, and Brisebois.

Unlike most hockey books, The Making of Champions avoids lengthy prose
replays of games. Instead, Olver shares the players’ thoughts and
feelings as they experience the sport’s emotional highs and lows. To
obtain such personal and normally private content, Olver had the six
players keep diaries supplemented by tape recordings. As well, Olver
maintained contact via visits and telephone.

Divided into three parts, the book explores the young men’s
continuing dream of making it to the nhl. “Dream the Dream”
describes various events in the players’ lives that brought them to
this point in their hockey careers. The actual season itself forms the
content of “Chase the Dream.” A subset of the nhl dream is playing
for the Canadian national Junior team in the world championship; this
section also reveals the varied responses of those who did and did not
make the national team, along with reactions to Team Canada’s dismal
results. The Memorial Cup tournament forms the main substances of
“Live the Dream.” An epilogue, “In the End,” tells readers what
happened to the six after the season’s completion.

A worthy purchase to balance libraries’ hockey collections.