Playing in his first year with the North Stars, netminder Kaeden Serpa is now living in his third province in Canada at just twenty-years-old.
Serpa was raised in Burlington, Ontario which is about an hour southwest of Toronto. When he was 18, Serpa moved out to Golden, British Columbia to play for the Rockets. He played for the Campbell River Storm last year before coming to the Battlefords.
Burlington has a population of around 190,000 people, so the communities that he has lived in are quite different. Serpa enjoys that small town feel when he’s here to play hockey for the city.
“If anything, the biggest thing is also the best thing. It’s the support we get from the community. If I were playing at home, it’s so spread out and big. Here, everybody’s so tight that the support we get at games is just from the community good, it’s really good so I like that,” he said.
Outside of hockey, there are a few other sports that Serpa enjoys. He played baseball when he was a kid as a second baseman as well as a catcher.
“If you’re a goalie, it’s kind of like they just put you back there,” he said.
He has also taken up playing pickleball with his friends and family and really enjoys golfing when he is back home for the summer.
As he has lived in three different provinces, Serpa is no stranger to travelling. He loves to travel the world as well. He has been to Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Sweden, Finland and the USA. Many of the European countries were also part of playing hockey tournaments, which was a unique experience for the North Stars goaltender.
On gamedays, Serpa has a certain routine that he likes to follow. He has three lacrosse balls that he will juggle off the wall 100 times, before throwing them really high in the air before catching it five times over. “Once I do that, then I’m good to go or I’ll stretch but if I mess up, then I’ll have to restart again,” he said.
He said that he likes all kinds of music but while some athletes like to listen to upbeat music to get pumped up, Serpa enjoys more relaxing music before games to try to keep a level head.
“It’s mostly chill music…when I’m on the ice I want to be focused and just chill; I don’t need to be crazy. It’s a lot of maybe old stuff or classic stuff that’s just slow and gets me calm.”
That pregame routine has worked so far for the goaltender who has a .924 save percentage and 2.73 goals against average. A smaller sample size thus far, but better numbers than last season with the Campbell River Storm where he won VIJHL goaltender of the year.
Playing in his last year of junior hockey, Serpa hasn’t given extensive thought to a future beyond hockey as his focus is still on the North Stars. However, he mentioned that he wouldn’t mind taking up being a chiropractor.
“We have a few family friends that I train at their clinic, and they work on people as well there. I just like being around that, I think that’s pretty cool,” he said.
Serpa looks to continue to excel in net for the North Stars as the season goes on, with their next game on Oct. 24 in Estevan against the Bruins.
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Ryan.Lambert@pattisonmedia.com
