On parent/billet night Saturday, T.J. Grewal was reminded how lucky he is to be the father of a Prince George Cougar.
He has the good fortune of living five minutes away from CN Centre, where his Prince George-born-and-bred son Raymond plays all his home games as a second-year player in the WHL.
"We're very lucky to be right at home -- he gets to sleep in his own bed," said T.J.
Aside from missing nine games with an ankle injury, Grewal has been a regular for the Cougars on defence the past two seasons. Lately, he's been playing left wing to help fill in for some of the injured Cats forwards and had some great shifts at his new position in the weekend series against Kelowna.
"I honestly didn't think he would come up this far [to the WHL]," said T.J. "He's still got a way to go this season. He prefers defence and hopefully he'll be back in his position again, coming back as a 19-year-old."
The Cougars have two other Prince George minor hockey products. Both of them -- forwards Chase Witala and Jari Erricson -- have been sidelined with injuries for extended periods, which has taken a lot of the fun out of game night for their parents, Darren and Tiffany Witala and Al and Catherine Erricson.
For most Cougar parents, the internet is their only way to watch the games. But on the weekend, Preston and Rita Tkatch were there with their older kids, Brandon, 21, and Brelynn, 24, from Prud'Homme, Sask., watching 18-year-old centre Jordan in action. It was the first time in three seasons all the family was together in Prince George.
"He's doing OK for himself and I'm proud of him," said Preston, who followed the Cougars on the road during their East and Central Division tours.
"He loves P.G. He's met a lot of great people and I'm glad it's working out for him. I just wish more people would come out and support him. They play some really good games and I hope they make the playoffs. We just need some luck."
It was 21 C when Jenelle and Steve Pochiro left their home in Las Vegas and they arrived just as an Arctic cold front moved into Prince George. But they didn't come up for the P.G. weather. They came to see their 19-year-old boy Zach crank up the Cats' offence.
"It's very exciting to see him play, he's amazing and we're very proud of him," said Jenelle.
Zach was born in St. Louis but lived there only briefly before the family moved back to Las Vegas, where Steve Pochiro owns a boxing gym.
"It's awesome, we knew about the league when Zach was 12 or 13 and it's always been the goal to play in the 'Dub," said Steve. " He didn't want to go the college route. There's been colleges in the U.S. after him and everyone said we were crazy for not taking that route but his goal from the time he was seven was to play in the NHL and we've let him go on and try to pursue that goal."
