Hockey players’ commitment goes beyond game for comrade
BENSON — You can measure the commitment by Paden Strutz to his favorite sport in miles. The senior on the Morris-Benson Area Storm hockey team makes an 80-mile, round trip five days a week from his home in Granite Falls to attend practices. He pays for all of his gas by working and saving during the off-season, according to his mother, Anne Brown.By: Tom Cherveny, West Central Tribune
- All for 'Jabs'
- Doing their part
BENSON — You can measure the commitment by Paden Strutz to his favorite sport in miles. The senior on the Morris-Benson Area Storm hockey team makes an 80-mile, round trip five days a week from his home in Granite Falls to attend practices. He pays for all of his gas by working and saving during the off-season, according to his mother, Anne Brown.
It’s the commitment that makes hockey special to fellow Storm senior Luke Schwarz of Benson as well. “It takes so much more commitment than any other sport, because of the cost and the hard work. Every practice is a work out no matter how light. It is you either have to love it or you can’t play it,’’ said Schwarz.
And when you can no longer play it?
Those who can will give their hearts for you.
That’s exactly what Strutz, Schwarz and other members of the varsity hockey team have done for Jack Jablonski.
He is the sophomore hockey player with the Red Knights of Benilde-St. Margaret’s prep school in St. Louis Park who suffered a paralyzing injury when checked in a game Dec. 30.
Schwarz said team members began talking about Jablonkski and what happened to him as they rode home on a bus from a practice in Morris. It was just a few days after the accident.
Everyone wanted to do something for him and his family, said Strutz.
Schwarz had taken a graphics communication class the previous semester. He offered to design a T-shirt as a fundraiser.
A few days later he had his design. It features the logo of the Red Knights and the message “in our hearts.’’
Ever since, the team has been selling the T-shirt and a sweatshirt. Strutz took the fundraising campaign to the Yellow Medicine East School in Granite Falls, where he attends.
He is the school’s only hockey player, but Strutz said his fellow students were eager to help.
Same story in Benson, said Schwarz. “I honestly had no idea how it would go because Benson is not really a hockey community.’’
Yet the shirts proved popular, thanks to some help in sales from Luke Schwarz’s mother, Barb. She is an instructor in the schools.
Another parent, Tina DeDoy, took on the T-shirt sales at Morris.
Five seniors comprise the nucleus of the Storm hockey team, and helped spearhead the effort. They had plenty of support from fellow players, said Schwarz.
They had raised $1,100 as of a recent tally. Their funds will be added to thousands of dollars being contributed from all across the state.
Jablonski’s injury led to a change in the rules for high school hockey to reduce the risk of serious injury.
It has also led to lots of discussion among the Storm players, according to Strutz and Schwarz. Everyone is more aware of the risks of the game, said Strutz.
“When you’re playing, you’re not really worried about it, but sometimes you think what could happen,’’ said Strutz. “Anybody could get hurt out there.’’
For more information, the Jablonski family has a website: http://www.jabby13.com
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