Sad News for Hockey Family

     If you’re involved in hockey then you know how close hockey families are.  Endless hours spent at the rink and nights spent in hotels for tournaments provide plenty of time for getting to know each other.  Not only do you interact with your hockey team but also those from other places. 

    Hockey families are passionate people who most likely love hockey.  Sharing the love of hockey is something you have in common with the parents of kids from other teams.  You see them at the rink or you meet them because your child attended hockey camp with their child.  There’s a bond between hockey families all over and that has become obvious through the injury of a sophomore hockey player named Jack Jablonski.

     Jack is a 16-year old boy who is a member of the Benilde St. Margaret’s hockey team.  In a tournament game last Friday he was checked from behind by 2 opponents from the other team.  He went down and doctors say he won’t get back up.  According to a posting on Caringbridge, Jack’s vertebrae were fused together during a surgery but damage to his spinal cord will make walking and skating and impossible task for Jack.

     What a horrific tragedy for anyone to have to go through.  It breaks my heart to think of the family and Jack and what they are experiencing.  It breaks the hearts of many including the almost 5000 people who have signed his Caringbridge website.  

    It scares me to death to think something like that could happen to my own son on the ice.  I know people can get hurt anywhere but I certainly wouldn’t want a preventable accident at the rink to cause permanent injury to my son or anybody else’s child. 

     It turns out I’m not the only one worried about athletes getting injured while playing hockey.  Other parents, players and coaches are concerned too.  So much so they started Jack’s Pledge.  "The Minneapolis Hockey Association on Wednesday announced Jack’s Pledge, a player and coach-driven program to enhance safety in hockey."

     While this doesn’t change what happened to Jack it will hopefully prevent it from happening to someone else.  Jack’s little brother is still playing hockey and I can’t imagine how hard that will be for his parents and Jack.  Please keep Jack & his family in your prayers, they are part of my big hockey family.

Jack’s Pledge to Prevent Hockey Injuries: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com