It was Brendan Jensen's sixth birthday and all he wanted was skating lessons. But when he first stepped out on the ice, he couldn't skate worth a lick.

"He was horrible," said Lars Jensen, Brendan's father and SF State head wrestling coach. "By far the worst one out there. I thought, 'this ain't going to last long.'"

As it turns out, Lars was dead wrong.

Just 10 years after Brendan's first painful experience on the ice, the rink is now his second home. The 6-foot-1-inch 180-pound goaltender is moving to Canada this August in hopes of playing semi-professional hockey for the Vancouver Giants - a Canadian Major Junior team of the Western Hockey League.

All this and Brendan is only 16 years old.

Though he can't legally drive a vehicle, Brendan still finds time to take phone calls from his agent and finish up his chores at home. Washing dishes and doing laundry is about all Brendan shares with most teenagers his age.

"I'm excited," said Brendan, who will attend his junior year at South Delta High School while living with a host family in Vancouver. "It's a whole different world."

Though excited about playing in the Giants' 17,000 seat Pacific Coliseum, Brendan remains as cool as the ice he skates on. His parents meanwhile remain hesitant about their son living north of the border.

"If it were up to him, he'd be there right now," Lars said. "My wife and I are apprehensive about it."

The elder Jensen was also hesitant of his son playing hockey altogether after his first outing on the ice. Always motivated, Brendan joined an in-house hockey league team at age 7. During one of the games however, the teams' goalie failed to show. The rest was history.

"The goalie doesn't show up, and who raises his hand to be goalie ... this guy," Lars said, pointing at Brendan.

So at 7 a.m. every Sunday, Brendan led the march with his parents following, with one thing on his mind -- first dibs on the goalie equipment.

After two in-house titles and multiple trips to Las Vegas and Switzerland, he was the top-ranked goalie in the nation in his age group by 14.

"We knew then he was special in that regard," Lars said.

For the last two years, Brendan made his name with the Los Angeles Selects AAA hockey club, making him eligible for the 2008 Bantam Draft. The Giants picked Brendan up in the 6th round, making him the 130 pick overall. The Jensen's however thought Brendan would be drafted sooner being that he was the second ranked goalie going into the draft.

"My dad called me, and told me that I probably wasn't going to get drafted," said Brendan, who at the time was with his grandmother at a tournament in Toronto. "(Lars) wasn't too happy about that."

To their surprise, it wasn't long before Brendan heard the news he and his family anticipated.

"Two of my teammates came up to me and said, 'you've just been drafted by the Vancouver Giants,'" Brendan said.

With the possibility of playing next year, Brendan knows he will encounter players with big game experience.

This was evident during one of the main camps hosted by the Giants. During a training shooting session, NHL player Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins was shooting at Brendan without much success.

"He just yelled, 'Goddamn LA Goalie,'" recalled Brendan. "I pissed my pants a little bit. They had to bring the mop out on to the ice."

Though technically listed as a prospect in the organization, Brendan has already signed autographs for the loyal Vancouver fans.

"When I was up there, people would come up to me and say, 'Hey, you're the draft pick from California,'" Brendan said. "I signed about 10-15 (autographs) a week."

Though the 'California pick' found his niche on the ice, Brendan's life has always involved wrestling. After 26 years of coaching at SF State, his father Lars wanted his son to follow his legacy onto the wrestling mat. Lars never forced him.

"Every coach wants his son to wrestle," Lars said. "But he's found his niche. We never pushed him. He always pushed himself. I think that's the best way."

Lars remembers a 2-year-old Brendan wobbling out on to the mat during a wrestling meet against Stanford University.

"The referee stops the match. I swoop in and grab him, and we beat Stanford that year. For years, their coach thought we sabotaged the match," Lars said.

Though his father has been influential in his athletics, Brendan's mother, Chanda Jensen, is the one who wakes up at 3 a.m. shuttling her son to the skating rink for practice.

"I'm really proud of him," Chanda said. "He had his mind made up when he was probably 8 years old. From the beginning, he never waivered. He would say, 'I'm going to go as far as I can go,' and we just kind of laughed it off."

Aside from hockey however, Chanda serves a different purpose.

"She's a teacher, so she makes sure my grades don't slip," said Brendan, who currently sports a 3.26 GPA.

But while hockey remains a priority, Brendan said he plans on pursuing higher education and perhaps getting a degree in Kinesiology.

"Education is important," Chanda said. "It's one thing to get drafted, but what sold us was the education package that (Vancouver) had."

The Giants proposal was gigantic indeed, offering to pay a year of college tuition for every season Brendan plays a single game. The goaltender currently lists UC Berkeley as his college of choice.

Eventually however, Brendan's goal is to coach.

"I don't know where he gets that from," said Lars.