Jake Newton is a 6’3” defenceman from San Jacinto, California who currently plays professional hockey in Europe. During the 2011-12 season, Newton played 31 games for the Lake Erie Monsters (now Cleveland Monsters). Normally, this is where I would throw in stats and fun facts about his time with the Monsters and the teams he’s been with since playing in Cleveland. However, the teams don’t matter nearly as much as the story of why his hockey career didn’t go as initially planned.
In a guest post last year on Nicole Sorce’s blog, Newton explained just what he had gone through in the earlier stages of his life.