Budding hockey star pride of the Interlake

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2011 (5621 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MORWEENA — So this is how it goes, the parents of James Reimer, Marlene and Harold, must well have thought.

Your son, an unheralded goalie prospect in the Toronto Maple Leafs farm system, gets called up to the NHL as an injury replacement to play maybe one game but stands on his ear and wins four out of five games.

Well wishes pour in by phone, email, text message and in person.

Then one cloudy day, after a brief snow, but before the events of the past two weeks have sunk in, a reporter travels down your lonely farm road and onto your long country driveway — a cold call, completely unannounced, not even a phone call — and asks for an interview.

What are you going to do?

Passing through the Interlake last week, this scribe couldn’t help but pick up the local excitement. Sit in a Peguis First Nation coffee shop and you overhear talk about “Reimer.” In Arborg, where Reimer played organized hockey, there are already discussions about a billboard and possibly naming something after him. Jameon Loewen, a student at the small Morweena Christian School Reimer attended, tracks Reimer’s progress online in Loewenzky’s NHL Blog.

After all, these aren’t the California Golden Fighting Saints, or whomever James is playing for — they’re the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hockey Night in Canada. Every Saturday night. In goal.

His agent discovered Reimer playing goalie in a church hockey tournament. James didn’t even play organized hockey until he was 12.

The Arborg Falcons needed a goalie and knew Reimer played goal in shinny games at the Morweena Christian School’s outdoor rink. His parents, who weren’t overly enthused about organized hockey, said OK but only for one year. Obviously, it lasted longer.

He grew up just outside Morweena, a tiny Mennonite community formed by a half-dozen families who moved there from Steinbach in 1960 to find farmland and to “church plant” as part of their evangelical mission. One person here described Morweena, about 140 kilometres north of Winnipeg, as “a bridge and three houses,” the bridge spanning the 1.8-metre-wide Icelandic River.

James, now 22, became a goalie because older brother Mark needed to practise his shooting. His father, Harold, runs a home moving business with two brothers called Reimer Building Movers, and mom works for the business. The two boys played in the garage, on the driveway, in the kitchen and in the hallway. Marlene shows the dinged-up walls and furniture from their sticks. The square opening beneath the office desk at the end of the hall served as a net.

James graduated to the Red Deer Rebels, where he played for current Calgary Flames coach Brent Sutter. He was drafted 99th in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Scouting reports have consistently upgraded projections on Reimer from “utility goalie,” to career backup, to “has a chance to be starter.”

“It may seem like he came out of nowhere but (the Maple Leafs) have kind of kept him under the radar,” said Mark, a third-year business administration student at the Canadian Mennonite University. “They don’t want to see the same thing that happened to (highly touted goalie prospect) Justin Pogge,” a draft choice for the Leafs who didn’t pan out, possibly because of inflated expectations.

At Morweena Christian School, James was strong in both athletics and academics, and played drums in a punk rock band that covered tunes by acts such as Sum 41. “The reality is he has a lot of options in life,” said Tim Reimer, principal at the Christian school and an uncle. James is described as very sociable. “They talk about his calming presence (on teams). He’s been that kind of kid since he was little. He’s lots of fun to be around,” said Jake Dyck, his brother-in-law and a teacher at the Christian school.

James isn’t making a major league salary yet, but he has already donated to his alma mater, including NHL-size hockey nets, rubber matting for the dressing room and ice-making equipment.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca