Player Spotlight: Isaac Ratcliffe
By: Stephanie Coratti, guelphstorm.com
Isaac Ratcliffe wasn’t born a hockey player.
In fact, all signs pointed to the game of basketball, starting with Ratcliffe’s parents, Al and Elaine.
“We were a basketball family,” Elaine, the mother of three boys, laughed. “We never thought our boys would be hockey players.”
It would be the eldest Ratcliffe, Landon, who would turn to the rink instead of the court.
“He had a group of friends that liked to play a lot so he started too,” Isaac said of his oldest brother. “Then he got my other brother into it, and then obviously he got me into it.”
Although, for Isaac, it wasn’t just about following in the footsteps of his older brothers, as Al and Elaine recall, the game of hockey had quickly captivated their youngest son, and it didn’t take much.
“He wasn’t one of those kids who would run around while we watched his brothers,” Elaine explained, adding that Isaac loved the sport before he even laced up the skates. “He would just sit and watch the games, end-to-end, from the time he was about two.”
Evidently, not much would change, with Ratcliffe learning to skate at the age of three, while moving from the stands to the ice two years later, playing his first game of hockey as a five-year-old.
The now defined as power forward, however, would be lining up on the blue line to start – something Al remembers didn’t last long.
“He started out as a defenceman,” Al said of the early years. “But because he spent so much time in the other team’s end, he was eventually moved to a forward when he was 11.”
A natural flair for finding the back of the net may have been another influencing factor to the decision.
“He was barely skating and he could get the puck to the net,” Elaine added. “He was three-and-a-half when he started skating, and he could score then.”
A knack for the offensive, registering 49 points (22 goals, 27 assists) in 32 games with the London Jr. Knights in 2014-15, would be just one of the reasons the Guelph Storm quickly welcomed Ratcliffe as the club’s first round pick in the 2015 OHL Priority Selection.
Another would be a certain kind of toughness, one that the 1999-born forward chalks up to being the youngest of three boys.
“Keaton was probably the most competitive,” Ratcliffe said of his middle brother, who never liked being on the losing end. “We’d be playing mini sticks and I’d end up in the wall, so, it gets a little out of hand in our household, but it was always fun.”
Outside of the basement battles, Ratcliffe recognizes the hand his brothers played in getting him to where he is today.
“I grew up always watching their games, but I never sat in the backseat to their success,” he explained. “They would always come out and support me too, and being the youngest, I got shadowed by them so they really helped me throughout my career.”
As for the pillar of Ratcliffe’s success this far, it’s certainly not hard to find.
“My parents definitely,” the London, Ontario native said. “They always supported whatever I did, and really just allowed me to make my own decisions.”
“They’re the real backbone to all of my success so far.”
While for Al and Elaine, it’s simply the opportunity to watch one of their boys do what he loves.
“He still tells me today he looks forward to getting on the ice,” Elaine explained. “If there’s anything I can be most proud of, it’s that he can spend his life doing something that he loves that much.”
With that, comes a special piece of advice that Ratcliffe says he’s received from just about everybody.
“Don’t act like you’re a hockey player,” the Storm rookie laughed, adding that staying humble is a huge part of that.
Although he may not act like one, or have been born with a hockey stick in his hands, the six-foot-four, 192-pound centre is nothing but a hockey player when he hits the ice.
