Prab Rai knows exactly what he wants in a home away from home. And the Seattle Thunderbirds are in the final stages of securing just such a home – several of them, actually – as they continue gradually moving into their new hometown of Kent.
Rai, who makes his mark on the ice with the Western Hockey League team, also needs a place where he can make his bed, make a meal – or have one made for him. In junior hockey parlance, those places and the people who open the doors to them are called billets — families who agree to take a player in for the season that runs from the start of training camp in late August through the playoffs, which can stretch into late spring.
“Anyone who can basically make it like your home, welcome you into their home — just treat you like their own son, basically,” said the 18-year-old Rai, who’ll be starting his third season with the Thunderbirds. “My past few (billets) have been really good, and my last one was amazing — they made me feel like I was their child.”
While the T-birds range in age from 16 to 20, many officially are still considered children — 16- and 17-year-olds, most of them far away from home, some for the first time, all in pursuit of their hockey dreams.
Former T-birds star Turner Stevenson has taken a lead role in helping set up billets in the Kent area, where the whole process has had to start from scratch after the team was headquartered in Kirkland for many years.
Most are at least penciled in, but Stevenson said the team always likes to have some additional potential host families lined up just in case. That process continues.
“Sometimes, they get a kid in there and they call me back and say, ‘This isn’t what we had in mind at all.’ And it’s the same with the players sometimes,” Stevenson said. “But it’s very rare (that it doesn’t work out).”
Barbara Chaplin of Bellevue and husband Kent, who have a minority ownership stake in the team, were billets for seven years.
“I did find it just to be kind of a fun experience,” Chaplin said. “It felt pretty rewarding. One of our boys played hockey, although certainly not at this level. If he was going off from the Seattle area to play in Manitoba or somewhere, it would make me feel good that he was in a nice, stable home, being comfortable, being looked over.”
Wanna host a hockey player?
The Seattle Thunderbirds continue to seek billets in the Kent area for the upcoming season. Those interested can contact the team at (425) 869-7825, or visit the Web site at www.seattlethunderbirds.com, click on Team Info, then Host Families.
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