David Roper believes his time with the Flin Flon Bombers can help pave his path from the blue line to the courtroom.
A former Bombers captain, Roper learned last week that he has been accepted into law school at Bond University in Queensland, Australia. He has applied to other schools overseas. Once Roper hears back, he will weigh his options.
“I am now on the cusp of attending law school internationally, and I know that my hockey career and time in Flin Flon played a major part in my acceptance,” said Roper, who is interested in corporate law.
Bombers head coach Mike Reagan is not surprised by Roper’s success.
“He was always one of our hardest workers,” Reagan said. “You know the guys that are going to be successful and he was one guy I knew would be. He’s a great guy and deserves all the success he will achieve.”
Roper said that attending law school will be a dream come true. He looks up to lawyers.
“I believe they are members of the community who have proved they have a specialization that not everyone can accomplish,” he said. “Not that I think lawyers are better than anyone else, but rather I admire the way a lawyer thinks and analyze[s] situations.”
Roper believes qualities such as a strong work ethic and perseverance, which he honed with the Bombers, have served him well while studying economics at Ontario’s University of Guelph and applying to law schools.
After spending his early life in Aurora, Ontario, Roper moved to Calgary at the age of 14. He continued his hockey career there and played a couple of games with the Calgary Royals as an affiliated player.
A recruiting trip to Flin Flon during the playoffs quickly settled for him where he would spend his junior A career.
“As soon as I walked into the Whitney Forum, I knew I was going to be a Bomber,” Roper said. “The game hadn’t even started yet. There was just an aura of excitement that rushed through me. I can’t really explain it, I just knew.”
He said it was truly the best decision he ever made. He enjoyed many aspects of playing for the Bombers, including his billets Dwight, Colleen
and Jeff Stallard.
“Although there were so many positives to my time as a Bomber, looking back four years later... it is definitely the people, community and hockey-centric attitude that stand out the most,” Roper said. “Whenever I talk to guys that have played elsewhere, I feel like they missed out. I feel like they didn’t have the same experience I did.”
Roper suited up for Flin Flon from 2009 to 2012. After captaining the team during his 20-year-old season, he opted to pursue an education at a Canadian institution rather than accepting a scholarship to an NCAA Division III school in the US. He tried out for his university’s team, but was cut. Roper says it sounds much worse than it was.
“To be extremely truthful, I believe I got everything I possibly could out of hockey,” he said “I made it further than I ever expected, and the day my career ended after being cut in Guelph, I was happy rather than sad. I looked back on all the times playing as a kid, and eventually growing to be the captain of the Bombers. For me, that was enough. I knew I wasn’t going to make the NHL, and I knew that I had to transfer my passion from athletics to academics in order to achieve what I wanted to in life.”
Reflections
As part of his application to law school, David Roper composed a personal statement in which he reflected on captaining the Bombers. Here is an excerpt:
Being the captain at such a high level was a tremendous achievement for me, and for the first time, my success in hockey really meant something to me as a person. I realized that my hard work, and passion were visible to people other than myself.
Throughout my 20-year-old season as the captain I learned a lot about myself, and how to lead individuals that may not have the same ideologies as me. In a sense, they led me as much as I led them.
At times, the challenges felt insurmountable, however I often reminded myself that I was elected captain by my coaches and fellow teammates for a reason; that I was capable of the job at hand. There are plenty of ups and downs throughout a seven-month hockey season and the captain is the figure that players look to in difficult situations. I grew to love my leadership role. Offering encouragement to a teammate, solving a problem, or simply leading by example became enjoyable aspects of my daily life.
