Nurse leans on prominent athletes in family to find success with Oilers

The NHL is celebrating Black History Month in February, and throughout the month, NHL.com will be featuring people of color who have or are looking to make their mark in the hockey world.
Today, we look at Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and how his family of prominent athletes has helped him achieve success in the NHL.

EDMONTON --- Darnell Nurse was 14 years old when he had a revelation regarding what it takes to be a successful professional athlete.
The future Edmonton Oilers defenseman was spending the summer working out with his uncle, six-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb, in Phoenix.
McNabb, who played 13 NFL seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings, was known as Five (his jersey number) to his football peers at the gym. And they all adopted his tall, skinny nephew from Hamilton, Ontario, dubbed Little Five, while they trained.
"I kind of felt like everyone's little brother," Nurse said. "They were all (athletic) freaks. Athletically -- running, jumping, strength -- I've never really been in an environment like I was there, where everyone is just so explosive and physically gifted. It was crazy."

The experience training with McNabb and his NFL friends helped make Nurse the player he is today.
"I remember thinking," he said, "'if I could adapt this kind of mentality and this kind of work ethic, hopefully one day it will translate into an NHL career.
"You can't put a price on that. It doesn't matter how many trainers you pay or how much money you put into your training, there are certain opportunities that I think guys who have had people in their family play professional sports, it's hard to compare with that. It's one of the advantages I feel l have had."
But that advantage goes beyond McNabb's influence.
The former quarterback is one of many top-flight athletes in Nurse's family who have had an impact on the 25-year-old's career path as he has gone from aspiring football player to a top-four defenseman for the Oilers.
McNabb is married to Darnell's aunt, Raquel Nurse. Raquel was a four-year letter-winner for Syracuse University's women's basketball team, a point guard who was the school's athlete of the year in 1997, twice the team MVP, and the Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 1997-98 season.
Darnell's father, Richard, is Raquel's brother. He was a wide receiver for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League for six seasons.
Darnell's mother, Cathy (nee Doucette), played basketball at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Darnell is the middle of their three children. Tamika, Darnell's older sister by seven years, played basketball at the University of Oregon and Bowling Green State University.

Kia, his younger sister by one year, is a guard for the WNBA's New York Liberty who won two NCAA championships at the University of Connecticut.
Considered by many the face of Canadian basketball, Kia helped Canada finish first in the 2015 Pan Am Games and played in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. This month she helped Canada qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Sarah Nurse, Darnell's cousin, is a 25-year-old forward who plays hockey for Canada. She played for Toronto of the National Women's Hockey League after her NCAA career at the University of Wisconsin, and played for Team Canada in the Elite Women's 3-on-3 presented by adidas at the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend in St. Louis on Jan. 24.
Richard's influence was perhaps the biggest on Darnell, who played hockey, basketball and football growing up and wanted to take after his father at a young age.
"I wanted to play football, but my dad said, 'No, you'll get hurt,'" he said. "It was probably a smart thing. I was tall, but you could have blown me over."
Despite the fact that Darnell was 6-foot-2 by the time he was in eighth grade, basketball was also out.
"I always loved basketball," said Darnell, who is 6-4, 221 pounds. "Winter, I'd be shooting pucks, but once summer came, you would not see a hockey stick. I'd be shooting baskets. But I was just no good. So I stuck to what I was good at."
Nurse was good enough to become a decorated prospect as a high school junior. Not only was he the Ontario Hockey League Scholastic Player of the Year in 2012-13 for Sault St. Marie, he won the under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament (now the Hlinka Gretzky Cup) with Canada that season. After that season, his second of four with Sault Ste. Marie, Nurse was selected No. 7 by the Oilers in the 2013 NHL Draft.

Craig MacTavish, then the Oilers senior vice president of hockey operations and general manager, said that when Nurse came onto his radar leading up to the 2013 draft, he gained plenty of insight into the defenseman's development, including his family influences.
"I met his mom and dad multiple times," MacTavish said. "They are terrific people, both athletes and they get the pro sports business, which is not always the case when you're dealing with athletes and their parents. But they get it. They are so supportive.
"Having gone through it themselves, it lends him a perspective that other players rarely have. Leadership and experience is all about applying proper perspective to situations, and they give him a very broad perspective of where sports should fit in your hierarchy of values."
Nurse made his NHL debut at the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 14, 2014. He has 114 points (29 goals, 85 assists) in 342 games in his six NHL seasons.

A mobile, physical force, Nurse is averaging 23:11 of ice time per game this season, second on the Oilers to defenseman Oscar Klefbom (25:36), and has 26 points (five goals, 21 assists), second among Edmonton defensemen (Klefbom, 33). Nurse has become a core player for Edmonton, signing a two-year contract Feb. 10, and has helped the Oilers to a tie with the Vancouver Canucks for second in the Pacific Division entering their game against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, NHL.TV).
Nurse said the bonds of his family support system that's so incredibly deep with elite athletes have provided strength along the way.
"Our family is so tight, so no matter siblings or cousins or aunts and uncles ... everyone keeps in touch and keeps track of each other," he said. "So if you're going through something, you've got that ability to reach out and find out what someone else might do if they were in this situation or that situation.
"Hockey and basketball may not relate on the court, but the mentality side of it, things like getting out of slumps, you can definitely relate [to]. Everything away from the courts and rinks, you can relate to those, too. A lot of people I can lean on if I have a question or something I haven't been through."

Nurse especially leans on his younger sister. He talks to Kia nearly every day, even when she's halfway around the world in Australia playing for the UC Capitals of the Women's National Basketball League, where she was league MVP this season.
"She's always FaceTiming me, especially when she figures out something new to cook or there's some news or something that she saw," he said. "Me and her, we're really close. A lot of people thought we were twins growing up, we're so close in age and we look alike. We're very tight."
Darnell and Kia were among the supporters present on each other's draft days in the NHL and WNBA.
"One of the biggest moments for me was watching him get drafted," Kia said. "Being able to be there and have his dream come true, well, he's my most inspiring person. He's got everything that you'd want in an athlete and in a person. He's absolutely the hardest worker that I've ever been around.
"He's my best friend. For us, it was probably good that we didn't play the same sport, so that we were very supportive in whatever we were doing. We were competitive in everything outside of that, who got better grades, who could be the fastest to do this or that. But when it came to wanting the other person to succeed and wanting the other person to win in their own right, that was all we wanted."
Sarah said that when she looks at the family tree, she is humbled by the closeness, the built-in cheering section and the common goal to excel.
"I think it's absolutely incredible that everything in our family is celebrated regardless of it being an Olympic medal, being drafted into the NHL or just participating in ice dancing," she said. "Whether it's Kia in basketball or my uncle in football or us in hockey, there are so many different experiences and perspectives to pull upon so if you're ever looking for anything, there's somebody in the family you can call whether you need advice or encouragement. It's amazing to have had that my whole entire life."
Richard is proud of such a strong network of support and shared a recent example of Darnell supporting a younger family member.
When Darnell was home in Hamilton during a break in his schedule, he went to watch Kendra Restauri, his 10-year-old niece, play in nearby Flamborough. After the game, Darnell went to the locker room to speak to and encourage Kendra -- a defenseman who, like him, wears No. 25 -- and all the girls on her team.
Within such a competitive, cohesive group, it should surprise no one that the list of accomplishments has sparked the occasional good-natured game of one-upmanship, including when it comes to deciding who is the best athlete in Darnell's immediate family.

Darnell said it is Kia.
"She's the best athlete," he said. "A freak of nature, that's the only way I can describe her. And when I say that, it's with the utmost respect. She's one of the most inspiring people I've ever met. She won the 100 [meters] in the city in high school track. You put her in soccer, she'd be the best player on the team. Put her in basketball, best player on the team."
Cathy, known as the scrappy, ultra-competitive type in volleyball, track and basketball, laughed when she said she's rarely considered to be in the running by the others.
"Athletically, Richard believes it's him," she said. "Hands down, he believes he's the most athletic. They all are in different ways."
No matter what the family members do on the rink, court or field, or how they do it, they are all there for each other. Richard said he believes it's why Darnell and his loved ones have been so successful in sports.
"That's what we all do," Richard said. "That's what [Donovan] did when he played. That's how we all are. Everybody's competitive but everybody wants the best for everybody. It's about supporting everybody and helping everyone reach their goals."