Arizona Rubber

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New Mexico native Gretz finding positives in Flint’s OHL season

 

Even though a shoulder injury has him sidelined him for the remainder of current 2018-19 season, Marcus Gretz is still working.

A second-year defenseman for the Ontario Hockey League’s Flint Firebirds, the 17-year-old Albuquerque native has been out since late November, but is still finding ways to be involved with the club.

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“Being at home to recover was very hard,” said Gretz. “Just being around the guys and my roommates and my billet family have all made it much easier to deal with. We all know this year has been crazy. At times, we showed we can keep up with the big dogs and I think that has us excited for what’s coming.

“This season being injured has really given me time to step back, watch lots of film and highlights to really help give an extra push for the mental side and even continue building my lower body.”

The Firebirds got out to a slow start and entering February, had won all of nine games to that point. Even so, Gretz was never deterred.

“The best advice I can give is stay humble, keep your head down and work as hard as you can,” Gretz said. “It’s not easy to control what happens around you in a game, but you can control how hard you work and be positive. I think, as a team, we have really just started coming together. We started to have more fun and we enjoy coming to the rink regardless of what happened the night before, which is a great foundation moving forward.”

And it also helps to have a strong fan base at the Dort Federal Event Center.

“The fans in Flint are so loyal and supportive,” said Gretz. “With us having such a young team, it’s really exciting and we enjoy every bit of it.”

During his youth days back home, Gretz played for the New Mexico Scorpions, New Mexico Renegades and Team New Mexico.

Photo/Luke Durda/OHL Images

— Matt Mackinder

(Feb. 25, 2019)

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