The No. 1 fan of the St. Albert Merchants will wear the team colours with pride during the hockey stick relay to kick-off the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour stop in St. Albert on Saturday.
Christian Bayus, the dressing room attendant and ultimate cheerleader for the junior B team, has been confirmed as one of the 10 runners/walkers for the relay.
Bayus will be accompanied by several Merchants during his section of the route, which starts at Akinsdale Arena and ends at St. Anne Street in time for the 11 a.m. official opening ceremonies for the two-day hockey celebration.
“They’re like my brothers,” Bayus told the Gazette while wearing his cherished No. 99 Merchants’ jersey with the captain’s crest. “The old boys, they’re good.”
Bayus is one of five relay participants selected through the Tell Us Your Story letter writing campaign for parents, coaches, players and fans to share their greatest hockey story.
The submission by his sister, Erin, titled Hockey is Inclusion, is as follows:
“It is the day after his 25th birthday and like usual, he sits in his favorite black chair to play his latest game, NHL 2016. Hours pass, he is memorizing players’ names, numbers and teams by writing them over and over in a list while sipping his Coke. If you were to look at his phone you would wonder why he has names like (Ryan Hollweg) in his contact list until he tells you that it is his friend Thomas, who looks like the NHL player. You might smile as you make the connection. Then, in the morning, after waking up under his hand-painted Oilers’ mural, the first thing he will do is get the sports section out to check the scores while making himself his routine egg sandwich,” Erin wrote.
“All he really wants is to play ice hockey, with the Oilers to be exact, just like most young hockey lovers. But his feet don’t quite fit into skates and although he is athletic and sturdy, he has trouble balancing on the blades. You might notice he is in denial the way he keeps making plans to go skating which is understandable since he grew up knowing no limits and pushed hard to keep up with his older siblings. Yet, as he grew older, he started to realize that he is in fact limited in some ways, which can be very frustrating for someone in his shoes. So many of his good friends can skate, and there is nothing he would want more than to fly down the ice scoring a breakaway goal with the crowd cheering, but that is unlikely. However, if you knew him, you would know that he is happy despite his different abilities.
“He is happy in part because over the last few years he has been accepted onto an ice hockey team here in St. Albert volunteering as an ‘equipment manager’ and attends every game to cheer on “his boys” wearing his own jersey. Many of you probably know my brother Christian as the No.1 St. Albert Merchants’ fan, and I write this on behalf of him. Many of you probably also know that he is very passionate about his team if you have ever seen him on the sidelines, sometimes losing his voice. Over the years his high school friends have out-grown the Merchants and only a couple that he has known a long time remain. Time with the team is likely coming to an end, and time in his favourite black chair is likely to increase, but the Merchants can never know how much their acceptance and inclusion as “one of the guys” has meant to him and to me.
“I have missed the last seven of Christian’s birthdays and visited whenever I could but it was never enough so I recently moved back to Edmonton. During his celebration this weekend I finally got to meet all the guys that he went to high school with and who first invited him to join the Merchants. I was moved by the support Christian has with his many close friends and I was comforted in knowing such wonderful people have been involved with him while I was away. Christian may never play for the Oilers, just like most young hockey lovers, but he will always be a part of a team, one that I suspect will stick with him for many birthdays to come.”
Erin, 30, wrote the letter Feb. 12, the day after Christian’s birthday through the encouragement of her friend.
“It’s a way just to show my gratitude towards the Merchants’ organization because they took him in and made him part of the team,” Erin said. “It’s great for Christian to be recognized but I think it’s also important for the Merchants to be recognized as well.
“Christian has always been a huge fan of hockey so being invited to these games he’s just in his element. I’m sure if you were to talk to them, they will tell you how passionate he is. He’s been more passionate than the players.”
Christian was a bit unsure about his role in the relay, but Erin said his enthusiasm has snowballed as the tour stop draws closer.
“At first he was nervous, not really understanding it, and as soon as I said some of the boys would be running with him he’s fine,” said Erin, who hopes the relay organizers will have Christian run his leg near the downtown core to experience the hoopla surrounding the opening ceremonies.
Christian plans to run “full sprint” with the specially-designed red hockey stick that will serve as the baton. After all, he is representing the Merchants.
“They support me and I do stuff to help them,” said the St. Albert Catholic High School alumnus.
His favourite Merchant is captain Dan Rombough and he is a big fan of the Edmonton Oilers, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and Connor McDavid.
The bond between Erin and Christian is tighter than a drum.
“Part of the reason why I moved back from Victoria was that he’s 25 and just like any other kid he wants to move out so I moved back in order to help him kind of make that transition. He’s going to stay at the apartment for two nights a week or so just to kind of get a feel for what it’s like to be away from his family,” said Erin.
She is proud to call Christian her brother.
“He reminds me of what is actually important in daily life. He gets really happy about the smallest things, for example just me just being there. It puts him in a good mood and I like that.”
