Youth Hockey Hub tells the story each day of the hockey life in Minnesota. We talk about great coaches, teams and players. In order to fund this endeavor, we host hockey tournaments. The Battle for the Blue Ox is our Bantam Tournament we host for the top 14 and 15 year old boys in Minnesota. By last Fall, we had hosted enough events to have seen everything go wrong that could go wrong (missing trophies, refs, teams and even a missing parent).

On November 14, 2014, my biggest fear became a reality. Patrick Schoonover, a defenseman for Eastview (Apple Valley, Minn.) died suddenly while playing against Wayzata in a first round game late Friday afternoon. The details of that day and the weeks following forever changed my life and how I view the game and how I view a hockey tournament.