Wilson Finally Plants His Roots in the Ice : Olympic Festival: The son of an NHL assistant coach, former El Segundo High quarterback is the top draft choice of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This is what happens when your father is an assistant coach in the NHL, at least if you’re Landon Wilson:

--You move eight times in 18 years.

--Every new place you go, you keep to yourself.

--When the kids in New York tease you because you are a farm boy with a funny Canadian accent, you let it pass, quietly.

--But when you go out on the ice, you skate your heart out and gain a reputation for rough play. Once, the broken arm you suffer while checking an opponent is so bad that a metal plate must be inserted. The scar runs in a thick, jagged line across your forearm.

But that scar is not as deep as those on the inside, the ones left each time you were uprooted and carted off to a new place.

Hockey is the one constant.

Whatever his feelings of being without roots, Landon Wilson, who will lead the East team in the hockey competition beginning today at the U.S. Olympic Festival, has become one of the nation’s best young players.

He was picked in the first round of the NHL draft, 19th overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was the first player chosen from the United States.

“We considered ourselves very fortunate to get him where we got him,” said Bill Watters, Toronto assistant general manager. “I don’t like to use the term breeding , but it’s very good.”

Wilson comes from a long line of hockey players. Besides Rick, his father, who played in the NHL from 1973-77, two of Wilson’s uncles and his grandfather were professional hockey players.

Wilson is 6 feet 3, 210 pounds--big for a forward.

He is agile and quick. He played quarterback for El Segundo High for three years, leading the Eagles to Pioneer League championships in 1990 and 1991. He also played for the California Junior Kings, who won the national 17-and-under championship in 1992.

During that time, Rick Wilson was an assistant coach for the Kings under Tom Webster.

Living in Los Angeles was a high point for Landon Wilson, because he enjoyed football. Once again, however, his stay was short. There was no time to grow roots.

“It was really hard for me,” Wilson said. “I just kept to myself. I always keep to myself.”

Through all the moves, the family has turned inward, learning how to be strong.

“We have a very close family because we’ve moved,” said Landon’s mother, Carol. “It’s the support system in the family that you turn to first.”

When Rick was hired as an assistant coach with the then-Minnesota North Stars, Landon had to give up a promising senior year of football at El Segundo.

If he couldn’t play football, Landon decided, he would play hockey.

Instead of moving to Eden Prairie, Minn., with his parents, however, Wilson moved into a boarding house in Iowa and joined the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the junior United States Hockey League. While finishing his education at Dubuque High, Wilson became a serious hockey player.

In 43 games this season, he scored 29 goals and had 36 assists. He also had 284 penalty minutes. The Fighting Saints won the Junior National Championship.

His physical style of play began to attract attention. Bill Beaney, Wilson’s coach on the East team at the Olympic Festival, says with a smile that Wilson is “enthusiastic.”

It is important for Wilson to fare well at the festival because invitations will be extended to 30 players to attend the U.S. Junior Olympic trials camp, Aug. 15-22, at Lake Placid, N.Y.

What’s more, Tim Taylor, U.S. Olympic coach, will be watching the competition. There is a possibility, although it is slim, that Taylor will invite some players to the U.S. Olympic trials, Aug. 3-15, at Cromwell, Conn.

The Olympic team is generally made up of college players, although there have been junior players in the past. Wilson might not have enough experience this time around, but he is a hot prospect for the future.

“He’s a big, strong, powerful player,” Taylor said. “He’s a very physical player, and he seems to have a very good desire and work ethic.”

The family agrees that all the shuffling has given Wilson confidence.

“He’s gone through some adjustments and proved to himself that he can survive,” Rick Wilson said.

Which makes Landon Wilson a candidate for proving that what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.