Rob Blake

Just played that all the way up.

And then I think it was 15 or 16, the local junior B team, Brantford at that time had junior B, they major A now, but they called and said, would you try out for a junior B team?

And my dad drove, yeah, it was 15 because my dad had to drive me.

I drove there.

Uh, tried out, made that team that year, uh, played a year there.

And then the whole team got suspended for a year because of, uh, too many fights.

But there was two of us that were young, myself and Brad Gratton.

Brad was a first overall in the OHL.

Uh, we were young enough that they allowed us to play the next year.

So I went to Stratford and then from Stratford to Bowling Green.

How many fights do you guys have?

Our coach was Kenny Gratton.

It was, uh, I think it was, uh, um, uh,

Brad's uncle, Brad Gratton's uncle, Chris Gratton, and you know, that whole family from there.

And Kenny had a pretty tough team and we had some guys come back from, you know, NHL camps that played with us and that.

I mean, it introduced me to a whole different side of the game, which was terrific.

They were so good to me, protected me all year, but yeah, I learned a lot that year about different stuff on the ice.

was your dad um somebody you like confided in a lot was he teaching you the game after games on the rides home or was it he stayed out of it not really i mean like i said we were farmers growing up and yeah it was enough for him to have to i had to drive me it was about 45 minutes an hour away from our home so he would drive me there for practice every night i'd come out wake him up in the car and get a ride home till about december i finally turned 16 and then

And drove myself, but no, there, there were more just support, not helping understand the game and everything.

Just obviously lots of support.