PHOTO VIA SWIFT CURRENT BRONCOS/TWITTER Caleb Wyrostok signs a standard WHL player contract with the Swift Current Broncos earlier this week.
srooney@medicinehatnews.com@MHNRooney
When Caleb Wyrostok put pen to paper signing a WHL player agreement with the Swift Current Broncos this week, his mom Charlene was as proud as you could imagine.
Given what the family has been through these past seven months, the feeling was mutual.
The 16-year-old Medicine Hat product moved to the Edmonton area to play with the Northern Alberta Xtreme academy in August, the next step in his development after the Broncos drafted him that spring.
He also took on being part of Bob Wilkie’s I Got Mind speaking tour, talking about mental health to audiences in Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat.
That was all part of the plan, challenging on its own.
Then Charlene was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.
“I was finally getting settled, then that came up,” said Caleb, now back in Devon, Alta. to finish the school year. “It put a whole new spin on things.”
Dealing with such life-altering news is hard for anyone, but Caleb knew where to turn. After all, he’d been working with Wilkie – a mental skills coach and survivor of the 1986 Swift Current Broncos bus crash – and ex-Medicine Hat Tiger and NHLer Kelly Hrudey on the tour.
“I always had someone to talk to if I needed it,” he said. “They had some advice for me, similar stories that they shared motivated me, so it was really helpful being on that panel.”
Sure enough, he had a great season with the Xtreme’s Elite 15’s team, scoring 20 goals and adding 15 assists in 30 regular season games. He scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 championship final win over Burnaby Winter Club March 17.
Charlene noted her son had a four-goal game against Burnaby in the regular season, too. It was the weekend before she started her chemotherapy.
“His commitment and perseverance and all of the tools and skills he has learned for managing the mental challenges of sport were key in his ability to work through that this season,” wrote Charlene in an email to the News. “I think it is so incredible for his young age and so key for other young athletes to know that there will be adversity and they can get through it if they work hard at it too.”
Signing with Swift Current, therefore, wasn’t just something for Caleb to celebrate.
“It was great telling her that because all the stuff we’d went through this year, all the adversity we had faced, that happening was a reward for us as a family,” he said. “All the accomplishments I’ve had over this past year, I owe a lot of credit to my family. They’re my base and support and everything.”
If maturity and mental toughness is part of the skill set needed to excel in the WHL, the Broncos surely feel they’ve got something special in Caleb.
“Caleb will be a fan favourite,” said Broncos head coach Dean Brockman in a press release from the club on their Twitter account. “He plays the game hard and elevates his game in key moments. The coaching staff looks forward to working with him.”
The hard work continues, both for Caleb, Charlene and the rest of the family. Charlene is done with chemotherapy but has more surgeries ahead. Caleb is keeping his grades up and can’t wait for Broncos training camp at the end of the summer.
