A determined looking Brady Lyle waits eagerly on the bench for his next shift during the Battalion Orientation Camp which took place this weekend at Memorial Gardens. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
Brady Lyle may have played the past two seasons at a private school in Minnesota, but he definitely realizes he is becoming a role model for North Bay kids.
“I’ve had a couple young fans come up to me already, I mean it’s nice. I think I can handle myself in the right way to be a leader and just be a good role model and show how a hockey player should act,” said Lyle.
The Battalion 2015 first rounder stepped on the ice for the first time on the weekend with his new team after being drafted 16th overall in the OHL Priority Selection back in April.
“It’s awesome, it’s a dream come true, every kid who has watched the team wants to play here and being a first round pick to the team is a great first step to making the team and it’s just a dream come true,” he added.
It’s no secret that North Bayite’s making the Ontario Hockey League have been few and far between in the past decade.
The offensive blue liner left North Bay for two seasons to play at Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep School; which has renowned alum such as Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Zach Parise and Nathan MacKinnon.
His father Dave Lyle, says the move happened after the family made a visit to the Minnesota prep school to watch a couple of his spring hockey teammates.
When Brady was asked by his dad if he wanted to buy a souvenir hoodie before he went home, Brady told his parents that he wasn’t making the journey just to watch his friend and get a souvenir.
He wanted to play there.
“It was a pretty good thing for a kid who was only 13 years old at the time, for him to say something like that showed he was obviously pretty determined,” recalled his father Dave Lyle.
The next step was getting the paperwork in order and of course writing a challenging entry exam, which he aced.
“He actually worked very hard at that and my wife and I recognized at that point that this was a real passion for him, I mean he really wanted to do it. He studied for his SSAT’s and he blew them out of the water,” stated Dave Lyle.
Pull instead of Push
With that determination, Brady was the decision maker when it came to working hard at becoming a better player.
“I think with all kids, hockey parents can push; if you have to push your kid you are going about it the wrong way,” Dave Lyle said.
“If your kid is pulling then support them as much as you can and Brady is a kid that pulled the whole way, all by himself and maybe local kids will see that if you really want to do it, go hard and it can be achieved because he is one that has done that.”
While Dave Lyle humbly doesn’t want to call his son a role model yet, he admits he hopes Brady can make a difference.
“I think it would have been fantastic if five kids could have been taken in the first round but it’s small steps and maybe at some point we can get back to the era when we were contributing more to the OHL as far as players are concerned,” he said.
And as that new role model, Brady Lyle’s advice for young North Bay hockey players is work hard, never give up and always remember where you are from.
