Dave Kelso
Special to the Sun

Brenden Kelso, of Bodfish is currently enrolled at Brock High School in Cannington, Ontario Canada and is playing hockey for the Brock Bucks.

Brock High School has a student body of 600 students.

Brenden Kelso, who is attending Brock High School in Cannington, Ontario Canada is shown here controlling the puck , while the referee watches the action.

Kelso goes to school Monday -Thursday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and then goes home does his homework and then heads to the rink for practice.

The team plays games Friday-Sunday all over the Ontario provence. Being that Ontario is so big they often have a long bus ride to the away games.

His first weekend they had an eight hour bus ride to their first game, they spent the night in that town and then a one hour ride to the next town.

According to Kelso when asked about how the games went said that there are anywhere from 300-1000 people at the games depending on where you play. The other players told him that when winter sets in there are times when the whole town comes to watch the games.

He said that the players are big and fast (he is one of the smaller players on the team at 5' 11, 190), Kelso is now playing at a level that is highly recruited by college and NHL scouts.

Kelso is the son of Dave and Kim Kelso of Bodfish.

Kelso played in two high profile junior A tournaments this summer. He played in the Pre-Draft and the Chowder Cup, both were held in Boston.

At those tournaments he apparently impressed scouts from a couple of coaches from teams in the GMHL (Greater Metro Hockey League).

He also attended an invitation only draft camp for the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, during this camp he broke his foot in the first game but continued playing.

In the last game he suffered a shoulder injury but finished the game. Kelso had just started the regular season when he received a phone call from the president of the Brock Bucks Junior A (comparable to AA in minor league baseball) team in Cannington Ontario Canada asking if he was available to come and play for them.

The president told him that they had two of their defensemen go out with injuries and that Kelso came highly recommended by coaches from other teams.

Kelso had his heart set on playing in the GMHL until he got hurt so he jumped at this chance. With a lot of help from his counselor Mrs. Horacek at Kern Valley High School and a sponsor that stepped forward he was on a plane headed for Ontario Canada exactly one week after getting the call.

Kelso said that playing there is cool because everybody knows that you play for the Bucks and there is so much town pride in their team.

He is the only player from California on his team, but there are players from Slovakia, Sweden and Russia on the Bucks team also.

He lives with a husband and wife (Norm and Margaret Wright) along with two other players, the Wrights get the boys to practice and games and Margaret is like the team mom always taking care of the boys.

Kelso plans on coming home for the Christmas break and then he will go back to finish the hockey season in Canada.