Sapurji: Education is Price-less for ex-Frontenac

Many months ago I handled on a story by Star reporter Randy Starkman who is The Man when it comes to all things Olympics related. In this story it mentioned that Canada's alpine teams were being trained by an ex-hockey player name Matt Price.

Despite being a fairly common name, I knew it had to be former Kingston Frontenacs forward Matt Price. Randy confirmed it and sent along Price's contact info, which I then squirreled away for a rainy day.

And since it rained in Toronto yesterday, I busted out the article.

Click here to read about Matt Price's journey after the OHL.

The thing I love most about this story is that Price made good on the OHL's offer of a free education. He was able to parlay his time in the OHL into a university degree, a new career and successful business (Matt still works with hockey teams, you can check out his site here).

“I would hope that if one of these overage guys is picking up the paper and reading this, that he gives (the free education) a second thought,” said Price who had his undergrad degree at Acadia paid for by the Frontenacs.

Too many times you see kids chase the dream to the ECHL, Central League or god-forbid lower and by the time hockey is done with them, all they have to show for it are bad knees, scars and stories.

“For the past 15-years of your life you’ve dreamed about playing in the NHL and now you have to swallow the hard pill – and it sounds funny – but go away and get a free education, that was my consolation prize," Price told the Star. "But in hindsight it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Officially the OHL pays these players peanuts -- what they do under the table is their business-- $150 a week for overagers and $50 for everyone else. A free university education is worth thousands of dollars. MAKE THE OHL PAY.

Plus as Price points out, the calibre of university hockey is pretty good.

“The hockey is as good as some of those semi-pro teams,” said Price who earned a Masters degree in Kinesiology from the University of Calgary.

Plus going to school seemed to work out OK for current NHLer Joel Ward (ex-Owen Sound) and number of others now playing pro hockey.

Anyway, I'll get off of my soapbox now. But just remember: MAKE THE OHL PAY.

As always - questions, comments, compliments, complaints, threats etc: sunaya19@hotmail.com or on Twitter @loosepucks