Kennedy finds his freedom again

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007. . . .

Sheldon Kennedy is 38 years of age now.
And he says he has found his “freedom” for the first time since he was a
youngster.
When he was a kid growing up in Elkhorn, Man., he knew what freedom was.
Skating on a prairie slough, his hair tucked up under a toque that protected
his ears from the cold, he was as free as a leaf in the breeze.
These days, he says, he’s playing hockey again and, yes, he feels that same
freedom.
“I’m actually enjoying the game again, playing rec hockey,” he says one
evening during a lengthy conversation from his home in Calgary as two old
acquaintances talk for the first time in years. “I didn’t skate for probably
10 years but I’m playing again now and it’s nice to be able to get
out there.
“It’s just feeling that freedom on the ice like I had when I was a kid,
which is cool.”
For the longest time, Kennedy, who was a dazzlingly good player for three
seasons with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos, couldn’t bring himself to go
near the game. He wouldn’t touch his skates. He wouldn’t watch hockey on TV.
These days, it’s like he can’t get enough.
“I hated going on the ice for a long time,” he says. “I kind of didn’t want
to go.”
Then, one day, he put on a pair of skates and found some ice.
“I ended up just going one day and playing,” he adds. “Now I actually play
quite a bit of alumni hockey. We play in the small towns.”
And he absolutely loves it. Not that it has been easy getting to this point
in his life.
“A couple of years ago,” he says, “I had to deal with wishing I would have
been able to play the game with the freedom that I have today.”
He pauses.
And, with a rueful laugh, he adds: “You know what I mean?”
Oh, do we!
By now, Kennedy’s story is well known — how he was sexually abused by Graham
James, his coach with the Broncos. Kennedy has written a book — Why I Didn’t
Say Anything: The Sheldon Kennedy Story — with James Grainger. There was a
made-for-TV movie — The Sheldon Kennedy Story.
In three seasons in Swift Current, Kennedy totaled 287 points, including 134
goals, in 159 games. He went on to a professional career highlighted by NHL
stops in Detroit, Calgary and Boston. It was during his stint in Calgary
when he spoke up about the abuse he received and sent shockwaves through the
hockey world. Eventually, James went to jail. Kennedy tried to get on with
his life. It was difficult and he left behind a trail marked by drug and
alcohol abuse.
These days, though, he sounds so much better. There were times when his
focus was more on his past than the future. That doesn’t seem to be the case
any more, though.
These days, he talks about kids and coaches.
He is part of a company, Respect In Sport, that works with such high-profile
clients as the Canadian Red Cross, Sport Manitoba, Gymnastics Canada,
Federation de Gymnastique du Quebec, Sport B.C., Sport Yukon, Baseball
Alberta and Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
“We do knowledge translation. We do education,” Kennedy says. “We have
probably trained a couple hundred thousand people.”
These days, Kennedy says, Respect In Sport is working with the IOC on
creating programs for it.
“We take research knowledge around the issues of abuse, bullying,
harassment, hazing and all that stuff,” he explains. “We simplify it. We
dummy it up so that people can understand it. We put it on line and we do
the training. We replace Speak Out in certain places. We trained every coach
in all of Manitoba. The same with all of Gymnastics Canada.
“We’re now working with the IOC to create programs for all the youth and all
the young people that are coming into the Olympics, all the volunteers and
everyone.”
What all of this means is that Kennedy spends a lot of time around young
people and with amateur sports executives. And what he hears, or doesn’t
hear, from leaders troubles him.
“The sad part is that they’re in sport and I’ve never heard kids come up
once,” he says. “It’s sad. It really is. The thing that really upsets me is
that these leaders take these positions . . . just so they can say, ‘Oh, I’m
the president of such and such‚ . . . but what are they really doing?
“When push comes to shove they are nowhere to be found.”
When Kennedy looks around the ‘amateur’ sports world, he wonders: “Where are
our leaders?”
In hockey, he says, “We expect these kids to get on that ice and to perform
and to win and to be the best they can be. Well, where are all the adults in
this?”
He is aware of the mess in which the KMHA finds itself these days and
wonders why officials from, say, the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association or
Hockey Canada haven’t made their presence known.
“Where are the leaders in hockey? Where are they?” he says. “For the big,
tough sport, where are they? Turning a blind eye again.
“It’s sad, eh?”
Pause.
“It’s just sad because sports and the game have such great things to offer
and they are such good people-builders if done the right way,” he adds.
Kennedy also is concerned about something he has started to hear coming from
Mom and Dad.
“I hear parents talk about making an investment . . . investing all this
money so that this kid can get a scholarship,” he says. “A frigging
investment! So what happens if their investment doesn’t turn out, if the
investment goes bad . . . that poor kid, the pressure he’s in.
“And then we lose these kids forever from sport and we wonder why. We say,
‘Geez, I wonder what’s wrong with that kid?’
“It is unbelievable. It really is. It’s sad.”
What isn’t sad is that Kennedy has been sober for almost three years. In
fact, he is especially proud of the fact that he is scheduled to get his
three-year cake this week.
After all those years, Sheldon Kennedy may finally be learning that, yes, he
can have his cake and eat it, too.
And you know what? That icing looks good on him.