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“Dan never made excuses even though he was in pain a lot of the time.”

Road trips were an adventure as the team bused around Ontario, mostly in the GTA.

“This idea of Tinder,” Stoddard said of the dating app that seems a favourite of sports teams, “of hooking up with girls. Finishing games at 10 and they’re out till 3 in the morning. Like Holy Cow, what are you doing?”

The school has an alcohol ban on road trips, he said, which is a little hard to take when you’re old enough to have adult children. (His daughter is 18.)

“Things like that. I’m 39, man. If I want to have a beer, I’ll have a beer. Who doesn’t like to sit down and have a steak and a beer?”

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The roster was a little topsy-turvy. A five-week province-wide strike by faculty, for instance, led some players to withdraw from school in the Christmas semester. Others arrived in January.

“Second half was better,” Stoddard said. “I was actually rooming with guys who would go to bed at 11:30.”

He suffered an ankle injury during the season and now wears a brace, but otherwise his old bones have held up.

“It’s not like the season was a bust. I got to do something I’ve been thinking about, dreaming about for a long time. But, in that same breath, I’m not satisfied with where I am.”

His is a comeback story. He was a sometimes dominant player in high school in Hammond, but lost interest in academics in his final year. Then came marriage at 20, two kids and scores of different jobs to make ends meet. But the boy’s dream never died.

“My love for the game is ridiculous and, honestly, I don’t know why. I think it’s because it was the only thing I was happy doing in high school.”

Stoddard no longer lacks a roadmap. He wants to complete his business degree, become an accountant or more, and possibly coach at the collegiate level.

“You have to try. What’s the point of living if you’re not trying hard?”

To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn