PAUL BUCZKOWSKI       Bio       Setting Goals       Respect       Back to School       Professionalism       Those in the know       Turn It Positive       Finding a Job       Eye Protection       Playing Injured       Gearing Up       WCHL vs. CHL       Europe v. N.A.       Specific Training       Training Camps       Road to Success       Dedication       Life in the WHL SANDY LAMARRE       Bio       Season to Forget       College vs. Junior       Sportsmanship       Game Prep       Conditioning FORBES MACPHERSON       Making the Jump BRIAN PATAFIE       Bio       Stretching       ICE PATRICK POWERS       Is Hockey Just a Sport? ANDREW ZOPPO       Be Tenacious
	PlayYourGame.com is proud to welcome Paul Buczkowski as a feature writer. From the WHL to the NHL, Paul will bring insight to every aspect of the game, as a sport and as a career. Finding a Job By Paul Buczkowski July 22, 2001 Once you become a professional hockey player, things change dramatically. Sure, Junior was fun. Messing around with the boys, having fun at school, staying out late at night. These things were all great at one point of your career, but as you turn professional, things change slightly, and your list of priorities change dramatically. As you start to get older, you have to start thinking about the future. If you are married, then you have to start making decisions not only for yourself but for two people instead. When you buy a house in the summer or rent an apartment, your list of priorities change. They certainly have for me. A mortgage payment, property taxes, car payment and other things have made me start to think about things. Hockey is a great game, but you can only play for so long, and after a while, it starts to take a back seat to other things. If you were able to make a successful career from hockey for a little while, I would hope that you would be smart enough to put some money away for a rainy day (like the end of your career). Most minor league hockey players who are professional play for the love of the game. Their salaries would be somewhere between $300 and $1500 per week. That is only over an average of a twenty-four week season. That is not a lot of money. If you are at the high end of the spectrum, it is great, but if you are a bottom dweller, is it really worth it? I am not trying to discourage anyone from playing the game of hockey, but I see time and time again players hurting themselves both physically and mentally and for what? I was just talking to a friend of mine and his role on his team is that of a gritty, tough, hard hitting forward. He makes $300 per week. He told me that he hated his role, but he had nothing else to fall back on, and he had to play hockey to pay the bills. He overlooked his education while he was younger, and now, as his career is slowly coming to the end, he is becoming concerned. I don't like to see any hockey player in that predicament. If you have a chance to take some sort of classes in the summer to further your education in any field, do it! It will be tough to get a good job after hockey. It would even be tougher if you had to hand in your resume and all it has on it is "HOCKEY PLAYER". Here are my quotes for the month: "A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride." - Nancy Lopez "Don't look back, someone may be gaining on you!" - Satchel Paige Paul Buczkowski 1 Year CHL 1 Year ECHL 3 Years Europe 6 Years WHL
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