Steve Downie

Steve Downie

Steve Downie grew up in Holland Landing, Ontario in 1987 with his parents and brother, Greg. Steve was always an athlete, but he appreciated and loved hockey the most. Growing up, Steve played for the York Simcoe Express AAA team. Steve's success came to him at a young age, as people saw the talent in the young star. In hockey success is always brought on by the ones that support you, for Steve that was his parents; driving him to practices and games all over Ontario and North America is just one small commitment made by his parents.

Playing for Team Canada at the World Junior Hocke

In hockey, the battle is always won outside of the rink. The circumstances and life events that happen shape the person you are. Steve is deaf in his right hear due to the hearing disorder otosclerosis, causing him to wear a hearing aid. If being deaf wasn't enough to hinder him, an even bigger event happened. In 1996, the biggest turning point and tragedy in Steve's life occurred. On the way to a hockey practice, Steve and his father got into a car accident. This car accident took the life of Steve's father. Not only was his father gone, but his biggest fan, his hero, and the backbone of his whole family died in that car accident.

With all the odds and signs pointing against Steve trying to steer him away and far from hockey, Steve held his heart higher than his head. Pushing through the obstacles and with every excuse to quit, Steve didn't. Knowing what hockey meant to him now, Steve became a star and people started looking at him. When Steve was 16 years old, he was drafted in the first round, 16th overall, by the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League. This was a huge pivotal moment in Steve's life, as many young kids strive to be where he was then. The Ontario Hockey League separates the men from the boys, and when you strive your real dreams are confronted in a chance to play in the National Hockey League.

Downie celebrates after scoring

Being a teenager living away from home can hold many different difficulties. Living in a new city, with a new family, going to a new school, and playing on a whole new team are just a few of the difficulties. Rising above these new obstacles was nothing less than expected for Steve Downie. After a few years in the league, Steve then made the national junior team for Canada, two years in a row. If making the team wasn't good enough to show the doubters wrong, he won two gold medals with the national juniors while he was there. With these accomplishments Steve earned the right to realize a dream. In 2005, Steve Downie was selected in the first round, 29th overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League.

In the final step towards his dream, Steve signed a 3-year entry level contract in the National Hockey League and made his debut in December 2007. Playing on the Tampa Bay Lightning, rooming with hockey superstar Steve Stamkos, Steve is living the dream. Living the dreams of his, and the dreams his father always had for him. Steve showed those around him, and those all over the hockey world that life puts up brick walls that aren't put in place to keep you out, but to show how hard you must push before they will come down. Steve is a true leader in showing that life is what you make it, and dreams really do come true.