By Wojtek Dabrowski
As a child, Steve Bewley, goaltender for Ryerson’s hockey team, collected hockey cards of his favourite NHL goalies.
He loved the position and the attention it brought. “It always seemed so glamorous to me,” the second-year business student said while packing up his goalie pads in the change room after a game.
“It’s a position where you can end up being the hero or the goat,” Bewley says. On this night he was the hero. The Rams won its game against the Royal Military College and Bewley was smiling.
After taking a year off from the glamorous life of a goalie and playing as a defenceman, the attention is now back on him. Bewley has taken over the starting goaltending job from a fifth-year player and is helping the Rams travel into foreign territory—the playoffs.
Bewley, a 23-year-old native of Georgetown, Ont., had played goalie his entire life, but when he came to Ryerson last year the Rams already had an excellent goaltender, Carm Giurleo, so Bewley played defence.
After a year of patrolling the blue line, he decided to return to his goal crease to split ice time with Giurleo.
But Giurleo, who had been saddled into a part-time role, decided to quit the team last semester and concentrate on finishing his hospitality and tourism management degree. Bewley was left with a full-time job.
“Carm carried the team [for four years], and we miss him,” head-coach Louie Carnevale said. But he added that Bewley’s play is negating the loss.
Saturday he helped Ryerson win its seventh game of the season, in only the team’s 20th game. Last year the Rams finished the season with only six wins.
“He’s got the mentally tough attitude that goalies need,” Carnevale said, adding that his competitive and focused nature easily matches the rest of the team.
Because the Rams have a shot at the playoffs this year, Bewley is really working to improve his skills and he said the rest of the team is doing the same.
And he has a weird ritual to help him focus on the task at hand.
“Between periods, I dry [the sweat] in my glove,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a horrid, horrid smell. It lets me focus mentally.”
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