‘DELIC’IOUS TALENT: Underage Golden Knights star en route to Minor Atom league scoring title WRITTEN BY DAN PLOUFFE PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK HOLLERON
H
ockey Canada wants to get more immigrant and second-generation Canadian families involved in our national game. Kocha Delic is answering the bell in a big way. Delic’s stats speak for themselves. The Ottawa West Golden Knights centre is averaging a fraction under two points a game with 31 goals and 18 assists in 25 games, leading the OBMHL Minor Atom ‘B’ league scoring race by 17 points. But what makes those numbers that much more remarkable is that Kocha is just eight years old – the Novemberborn player was bumped up to compete in an older age division before this season. “To have the lead that he does and be a year younger, and actually almost two years younger than a lot of kids he’s playing against, it’s quite exceptional,” says Golden Knights coach Paul Gasperetti, whose team is in first place by 10 points with a near-perfect 22-1-4 record. It takes only a moment to be awed by Kocha’s agility, swiftness on blades and speed, even if he’s a bit shorter than his opponents. “If you watch him skate, his lateral movement is just exceptional at a young age,” Gasperetti adds. “It’s those things you usually see in 12-, 13or 14-year-olds, you’re seeing at
ICE FLOW 2008-12 West End Wolverines minor hockey
18
2011 Ottawa Riot
eight. He’s got exceptional skill.” Paired with Joey Kramer and Joey Gasperetti – who is third in league scoring – Kocha has also become a good passer, his coach notes, even though it might be advantageous to simply ask his star to go end to end and score as many goals as he can. “I think what drives him is his love for the game,” Gasperetti explains. “He’s one kid that is just happy all the time to be on the ice. He’s on the ice every day. And I don’t think it’s because his development is pushed on him – he just loves it.”
SERBIAN ROOTS
With no previous attachment to the sport, Kocha’s mother, 2012 Cougars Select East Jr. Flames Ottawa
2012-13 Ottawa West Golden Knights
Svjetlana, jokes that Canadian doctors must have injected her son with the hockey gene at birth while she wasn’t looking. The Delics came to Canada in 1995 from the war-torn former Yugoslavia, where Kocha’s father played junior soccer in Sarajevo. “I didn’t hate (hockey) at first,” Zeljko Delic says with a smile, “but I’m a big soccer guy from Europe. When I came here, everyone was, ‘hockey, hockey, hockey’ all the time, and I was like, ‘C’mon, guys, you can’t even see the puck in front of the net, what kind of sport is that?” But when his son begged and begged to play hockey at age four, he wasn’t about to stand in his way. 2013 Rushforth Selects Montreal Jr. Canadiens
“I saw how much he loved it,” Zeljko explains. “He was stick-handling the puck all the time in the basement instead of watching TV. Ever since he hit the ice, that’s all he’s wanted to do.” Hockey is Kocha’s true passion, Zeljko maintains, telling the story of a Saturday last year when Kocha was scheduled to have six hours of ice time since his winter and spring teams overlapped. Zeljko figured that was a bit much, so he pretended the alarm didn’t go off in the morning to miss the 7-9 a.m. slot. “He said, ‘Daddy, why didn’t you wake me? I wanted to go. I wanted to be with my friends,’ ” recounts the federal government employee. “He didn’t speak to me for a week. That tells you that he has passion.” That love for hockey can have its benefits for his parents, too. “I’ll tell him to eat his vegetables, and he’ll say, ‘No, I don’t want to,’ so I’ll say, ‘All right, no hockey next week,’ and he’ll say, ‘OK, I’ll eat my vegetables,’ ” Zeljko says, chuckling. “It’s the same thing with homework. I’m going to milk it as much as I can.”
EARLY BLOOMER
Kocha’s special talent for the game was evident early on. Last year, the Grade 3 Agincourt Road Public School student was scoring so frequently in his first year playing novice ‘A’ that it spurred discussions of bumping him up to minor atom. Some didn’t like the idea of Kocha moving up because he’d be taking someone else’s spot, but it was decided at a board meeting that if an external
Why I play the game I just want to have fun. I like scoring goals and having fun on the ice with my teammates.
Favourite pre-game meal Meat-stuffed peppers
CENTRE ICE MARCH 2013