"I watched a lot of Oilers games growing up with my father," said Scatchard, a native of Hinton, west of Edmonton. "We'd drive in three hours to see the games at Northlands Coliseum. That was a big thrill for me."
Another shocker: Scatchard idolized Wayne Gretzky.
In school, Scatchard was a dedicated student who enjoyed all subjects. But there was no hesitating when asked to name his favorite.
"Science , like biology and psychology, was my favorite," he said. "It fascinated me and it still does. Like cutting open the frog in Biology class -- I loved that. If I weren't a hockey player I'd probably be in sports medicine or sports psychology. I'd alsolike to try my hand at being a stock broker."
Although living in the great outdorrs of Western Canada, the Scatchard family didn't venture too far from home for vacation, opting for the next province to the west. "When we lived in Alberta," Scatchard said, "we would travel down to British Columbia for the summer, where we had a cabin near Shuswap Lake. I'd spend two months just fidhing and water skiing every day."
Scatchard, whose charity work - especially with children - is well chronicled, was raised in a loving home with a younger brother, Doug (18) and sister, Heather(21). That upbringing undoubtedly had an impact on Scatchard's down-to-earth demeanor.
"We are definitely close, my brother, sister and I," Scatchard, 24 said. "It was tough when I moved away from home to play juniors. I was just turning 16, so my brother was 10 and my sister 13. I missed them when I moved away but it was something I had to do.
"My sister was always kind of on her own program, but my brother and I always hung out together. Pretty much any sport there is we did as kids."
In addition to excelling at hockey, Scatchard dabbled in baseball, basketball, soccer and water skiing.
"In Canada we really don't have school teams. They really don't have the same sort of programs you have in the big cities," Scatchard said. "The school didn't have a baseball team. But I went down and registered for minor baseball in a league. I was a really good baseball player, but during the summer hockey camps took me away from baseball because of the time constraints. I was a pitcher.
"All I really cared about was sports and school. That was my life."
