His team has been winning.
For 34 games now, Brett Roulston has been watching.
Roulston is a 16-year-old member of the Cariboo Cougars but hasn't played a single minute this season. In fact, a serious back injury has kept him out of game action since late last season.
"It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my life, especially being away from home just to play hockey and not being able to do it," said Roulston, a six-foot-one, 185-pound forward from Whitehorse. "But my family [parents Shawn and Michele and sister Shayla] gives me tons of support with that. I talk to them quite a bit. Without them, I don't think I'd be able to get through this. It's been rough but I've just got to keep hoping for the best and keep working hard. Hopefully things will work out for me."
Roulston was injured while he was playing for a Fort St. John midget team at the Richmond International in December of 2009. He got pushed from behind, hyper-extended his back, and was in instant pain.
When he got the diagnosis, he understood why he was hurting so badly.
"It was a slipped disc, with two minor fractures on two bones coming off my spine, so it was fairly serious," he said.
"I initially tried to play through it, which I realize now was a bad decision. I thought my team needed me and I didn't really want to let them down so I tried to play through the pain and it just got overwhelming over time."
Before he joined his Fort St. John club last season, Roulston had tried out for the Cougars but didn't survive the final cuts. During the summer, even though he was still in recovery mode, he kept in contact with Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. Roulston wasn't physically able to try out for the 2010-11 team but Sprague -- knowing Roulston's abilities -- gave him a roster spot anyhow. Sprague knew at the time it was a gamble, but it was one he was willing to take.
"He'd be a top-six guy," Sprague said. "He'd be a goalscorer. When you see him in practice, he has the hardest shot on the team, and he's got a nose for the net."
A couple weeks ago, Roulston was feeling well enough to move from light practice to a more regular pace. He was on the verge of finally resuming his playing career but, unfortunately, suffered a setback.
"I don't know if I got too excited too early or what, but I kind of went too hard on one drill and I stood up and right away I knew something wasn't right," he said. "I got off the ice, iced it, and it was really tight and sore afterward. That whole week it was bad and this last week I tried playing a little contact and got off the ice half way through practice for the same reason. It feels pretty good now though. I'm pretty confident now I'll get a few games in."
The Cougars, in third-place in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League with a record of 23-10-1, have just six regular-season games left to play, followed by playoffs.
Considering what he's had to endure, Roulston has been able to remain incredibly positive.
"Basically I just look at the bright side," he said. "When I come out of the injury [I think about] how much fun I'll be having and how rewarding it will be to get back on the ice after all the hard work I've put in to try and get back out there."
Even though Roulston hasn't yet been able to use his skills for the Cougars on game days, he has been making himself valuable in other ways.
"He's been a great team guy," Sprague said. "He's done very well for us off the ice. He's helped out the coaching staff quite a bit. He's getting good medical help here too, with Dr. (Inban) Reddy and Pamela Parker and Rebecca White down at physio. He's in a good place to get all fixed up. I think now it comes down to, for him, do they do surgery or do they keep doing the physio thing? If it was my kid, I think I'd have to start looking at surgery and talking to the specialist and actually getting it fixed."
Roulston has extra reason to want to put his injury behind him. He's on the protected list of the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers and would love to get a shot at playing for the storied major-junior franchise.
"With them holding on to me over the course of the injury, it shows they have a lot of confidence that I'll get better," Roulston said. "Hopefully they want me to play there some day. I also look at that as a goal to push forward to."
Sprague hopes the Blazers do keep Roulston in their pool of prospects.
"If he can come back and play, he's going to be a player, there's no doubt," Sprague said.
