What is the World Junior A Hockey Challenge?

Sid McNeill dreamed of the day he may get the prospect to placed on a Team
Canada jersey and symbolize his nation.

He wasn’t positive if that day would ever occur after present process three coronary heart
surgical procedures three years in the past.

Now, feeling wholesome and powerful, the 18-year-old is donning the Maple Leaf
with Canada East on the World Junior A Challenge in Cornwall, Ont.

“Growing up and watching Team Canada … it was all the time a dream to place this
jersey on,” McNeill says. “For it to occur after every little thing, it’s
superior.”

McNeill is a 5-foot-7, 140-pound defenceman with the Summerside Western
Capitals of the Maritime Hockey League (MHL), and he’s grateful for the
alternative to symbolize not solely his province (he’s a Summerside, P.E.I.,
native), however his nation.

“This tournament is a huge stage,” he says. “This is a good alternative
and I plan on benefiting from it.”

For months in 2020, McNeill wasn’t positive if he was ever going to have the ability to
play hockey once more. He was in Michigan competing in coaching camp with the
Oakland Jr. Grizzlies AAA program when medical personnel observed an
irregular heartbeat and urged he be taken to the hospital for extra
testing.

“I had a routine bodily they usually discovered an irregular heartbeat. It turned
out to be a coronary heart situation,” mentioned McNeill. “The bizarre half – I felt positive.
We went via a tricky coaching camp, and I assumed I held my very own and my
coronary heart felt positive. I by no means had points rising up and there’s no household
historical past both.”

McNeill underwent a battery of exams in Michigan, together with an ECG, EKG,
ultrasound, coronary heart MRI and stress exams. After one other week, he had an
electrophysiology research process to see if he wanted an ablation – a
process to deal with atrial fibrillation which makes use of small burns to trigger
scarring on the within of the center to assist break up {the electrical} alerts
that trigger irregular heartbeats.

He returned to Toronto for a second opinion and was then flown to Halifax
for the process in September 2020.

“The first ablation they did, they went via the arteries and burned a
piece off my coronary heart,” he says. “When I went again for testing, they mentioned it
didn’t work, in order that they did an analogous surgical procedure however with a digicam to attempt to get
a picture of what they had been in search of. The third time, they received it proper.”

After being out and in of hospitals, McNeill struggled with staying
optimistic and even took time to consider what life might seem like
with out hockey.

“I wasn’t positive what the longer term held for my hockey profession. At one level, I
might have simply mentioned ‘enough is enough’ and be accomplished with hockey and attempt to
begin one other profession path. But on the finish of that season [2019-20], I received
cleared to play. It was an enormous aid to undergo all of that and nonetheless
play the sport I like.”

Through the expertise, McNeill has realized quite a bit about perseverance.

“It has taught me to never give up,” he says. “It helped me understand that
everybody goes via adversity. When you come out on the opposite aspect,
issues are quite a bit higher.”

McNeil nonetheless sees his heart specialist in Halifax yearly to ensure his coronary heart
price is regular.

A clear invoice of well being isn’t one thing he’s taking as a right, particularly
since he determined to remain in P.E.I. and play for his hometown Western
Capitals, serving to the workforce to an MHL championship final spring and a spot at
the Centennial Cup, introduced by Tim Hortons, Canada’s National Junior A
Championship.

“Playing at house is superior. After having an enormous scare, I simply determined the
subsequent time I performed hockey, I wished to be in entrance of my household,” McNeill
says.

And alongside his household. For the previous two seasons, his defence associate has
been his older brother, Ed.

“We have been companions for the final two years. It’s particular – not many
folks get to do this, particularly at a excessive stage of hockey,” he mentioned. “We
work properly collectively.”

For Western Capitals head coach Billy McGuigan, who can be serving as
bench boss of Canada East in Cornwall, it’s not onerous to explain the influence
McNeill has on his teammates.

“He’s a outstanding younger man. He’s a scholar of the sport, and he’s a man
that all the time needs to study and get higher. He has an incredible work ethic,”
McGuigan says. “He is a good asset to have. He means as a lot to this workforce
with Canada East as he does in Summerside.”

When desirous about a future in hockey, McNeill is aware of if he retains working,
he could get one other alternative. He has his sights set on faculty hockey in
the U.S.

“I feel with being a smaller, undersized defenceman, I’ve all the time checked out
taking part in NCAA,” he says. “Hopefully I can play some good hockey right here and
flip some heads and possibly some folks will take a look at me.”