Hey boys, and Kylie. I’m Logan and Luke’s dad. I play on a hockey team called the St. Louis Blues Warriors. We are a team of disabled vets who didn’t grow up playing hockey we only dreamt of it. My team did something a couple weeks ago on the very rink you’ll play on tonight that none of us ever probably dreamed we would. We won a huge hockey tournament. That was a feeling I have wanted to feel my entire life. You boys and lady have probably won all kinds of tournaments, but this is the very last one that this group will play in together. I humbly ask that you all play with your hearts and for each other as you have been doing the past few weeks. Most of all my wish for you is to take this all in and make the best memories you can.
Like a lot of my Warrior teammates, I grew up loving hockey, but was never able to actually play until my 30s. Even if my high school (Hazelwood West) had a hockey team my parents could have never afforded for me to play for it. I hope you all will take a minute to thank your mom’s, dad’s, step dads/moms, grandparents, or whomever it was that tag teamed driving you to the rink at God awful hours of the day and night and froze to death to watch you do what you love. We will be stressing out more than you can know tonight. Not whether you win or lose, but that you played your best and will never doubt it. We hope you will continue to play for your teammates; the ones on the ice, the ones scratched, and the ones that are hurt. You have formed a family and I hope you’ll play that way tonight and be able to look back at it and smile later in life.
I have heard and read some remarkable speeches and statements amongst this group about being a team. You didn’t start out that way, but that’s not what matters. What matters is how you finish. Reading what Tinsley wrote to the team (Well done young man) and hearing and watching how Shousey, Hemmer, Winkles, TJ, and several others have been treating the players who don’t get to play tonight with respect and kindness, has made me proud to be a Jaguar parent.
I am not going to lie and say that winning a Cup/Trophy isn’t an amazing feeling. “Stan” our Warrior Classic trophy is the first trophy I’ve ever won in my life except for my “Worst Golfer of the Tournament” trophy. That felt amazing. I am sure you guys have won tons of trophies, cups, and medals in your time in club and school hockey. Tonight will be different though.
The best feeling from my win was watching the faces of my teammates. We had played a true team game. We had our versions of guys who could skate coast to coast if needed or wanted to be “Try Hards,” but just as you all have been doing in these playoffs, we passed to the open guy, we came back and back checked, and we only got one dumb penalty for someone losing their sh*t (it was me). We high fived the goalie after we scored, and we came back and apologized when we blew it and left him hanging. That made the win all the more awesome. We played our guts out. Some of us got hurt, well to be honest I am super old and super fat so I was hurt before I tied my skates, but I didn’t feel my knee was out of place holding that trophy up and hugging my entire team like a hundred times. That’s what I’ll remember.
I hope you all will get to feel that together. I think if you play with your hearts and not your egos as you have been the whole playoffs, that no one could beat you. Stay out of the box unless it’s to defend your teammate. Play the puck. Remember there are kids on the other team that will never play this game again either. If it gets chippy defend yourself, but be clean and get them back on the scoreboard. Play with class and win or lose with class. Years from now what you’ll remember is how you played and who you played with and who you played for. Be able to be proud when you look back.
As a very goofy and sentimental hockey dad I want to ask that you all take in every moment from making sure you have all your gear BEFORE you get in the car to looking around the locker room before you head onto the ice, and to looking up at the crowd before the first face off. Then get to business.
Remember those of us who drove you all over the country or even worse to Meramec, week in and week out. We of course would love for you to win tonight it is a pretty big deal to get here, but you got here together and became a family. That’s what we are most proud of.
That was the best part for me winning Stan was the family I picked up with him. My sincerest hope is that you will skate off the ice tonight with that same feeling. We are all so very proud of you gentleman and lady. Stan and Logan and Luke’s dad say GO JAGS!!!!
Jacked Up Dad 