Chase Witala scored his 32nd goal of the season Wednesday night but, more importantly, it was his 112th goal of his Western Hockey League career. That goal gave him the team record for most goals as a Cougar, eclipsing Eric Hunter who scored 111 markers during his five years with the team from 2002-07.
The writer of The Citizen story about Witala's accomplishment was longtime sports reporter Ted Clarke.
Witala, just the latest in a series of talented Prince George born-and-raised hockey players, first appeared in the pages of The Citizen 11 years ago, on April 14, 2005, listed as a member of the Prince George Predators, an all-star team for players born in 1995. The writer of that story was also Clarke. The following week, Witala's name appeared for the second time in The Citizen. The Predators had won three of four games at a spring tournament in Vernon.
"Chase Witala was the big man in the Prince George offence," wrote Citizen sports reporter - and now sports editor - Jason Peters. Witala recorded hat tricks for the Predators in two of those four games.
And so it continued over the years, with both Peters and Clarke taking turns writing about Witala's scoring exploits with the Freightliner peewee Cougars, the Farr Fabricating bantam Cougars and the Cariboo Cougars of the B.C. Major Midget League.
Clarke wrote a feature in April 2010 about how the local kid, all five-foot-nine and 140 pounds of him at the time, had just been drafted by his hometown junior team, the same team he was the stickboy for when he was eight years old. He was picked in the fifth round, 89th overall, of that year's bantam draft.
He played in some preseason games in the fall of 2010 as a 15-year old before making the big club the following year.
He scored his first goal for the Cougars on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, during a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Giants. His first career hat trick came the following season, on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, in front of friends and family as the Cougars thumped the Victoria Royals 6-2.
That was a terrible Cougars team that year. Witala had 15 goals that year but the team finished with the second-worst record in the entire league. During an interview with Clarke for a story that September before the start of the new season, an upbeat Witala was looking forward to the new season. By this time, the 18-year-old was now six feet tall, 165 pounds and eager to prove himself as one of the team's best players.
He got off to a blistering start, scoring 10 goals in his first 18 games, before hurting his back after Christmas and missing a third of the season.
By the start of last season, the 19-year-old Witala was now a leader on the team and was acting like it, both on and off the ice, coach Mark Holick informed Clarke. Witala put up the numbers to prove it, scoring 38 goals, the most on the team.
Although he wasn't drafted by an NHL team, Witala was invited by the Dallas Stars to take part in their rookie camp this past fall. When he returned to the Cougars for his final season, he was a man on a mission, scoring at a frantic pace. He was the WHL player of the month in December, scoring 14 times and adding nine assists in 13 games that month. Last week, Peters wrote a story about Witala being named player of the week in the league, for notching three goals and four assists in three games.
Clarke and Peters will be writing about Witala again several more times this year, starting tonight when the Cougars visit the Brandon Wheat Kings. Witala now finds himself with one more historic accomplishment in his sights. With 19 games left to play this regular season, Witala is 18 points behind Troy Burke as the all-time leading Cougar for points.
After that, who knows? This is a talented team that could make some noise in the playoffs.
On a personal front, several NHL teams have been following Witala closely this year, meaning a pro contract might be in store this spring.
What a deserving end that would be to Witala's career as a young local hockey player. What a fabulous start that would be to a professional hockey career, however far and high that may lead. No doubt, Clarke and Peters will be there to write those stories, too.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
