Servant-Leadership Hits the Ice

This March, three Jesuit high schools from around the United States sent their hockey teams to the USA Hockey National Championship: Regis High School in Denver, a powerhouse of Colorado hockey; Jesuit Dallas, the perennial Texas State Champion; and Strake Jesuit, a team from a non-traditional hockey market, in the first year of its existence, and with players representing all four grades, two of whom had never before played the game and one of whom never before put on a pair of ice skates. A year ago, this idea of Strake Jesuit sending a hockey team to Nationals in 2022 seemed about as likely as Jamaica sending a bobsled team to Calgary in 1988. But just like the Jamaican bobsled team, the Crusaders, despite the odds and with hard work, earned their place and represented their school, their city, and their state with pride, giving a whole new audience a glimpse of the wonderful things that happen when we do all things for the greater glory of God.

Hockey lives in Houston quietly, but it lives. With four rinks, two youth house programs, a travel club team, and a high school league, the city’s hockey culture survives on a small group of dedicated coaches, players, and parents who love and live for the game. What Houston lacks in facilities and outreach—enough sheets of ice to support the large population, pro shops, an NHL team—it makes up with this small community of people who make an enormous city feel like a small room and who work tirelessly to make a place that almost never freezes feel like a hockey town. The Interscholastic Hockey League (ISHL), the high school hockey league in Southeast Texas of which we are a part, grew this year by one, and we hope our new program, the only one in Houston with a pure team in which all its players attend the same school, will contribute to the sport’s growth in the city.

When I first interviewed to teach at Jesuit ten years ago, Athletic Director Mike Crowley asked if, while teaching, I had interest in coaching. I asked if the school had a hockey team, and after he realized I was serious, he commented that maybe it’d be possible in the future. Nine years later, I saw in the SJET daily digest that the school was surveying student interest in a hockey team, and I immediately had to find out more. It turns out that the idea had been in the works for a couple of years. Two then-students, now-alumni Matthew Boisvert ’21 and Brady Foyer ’21, who played for another team in the ISHL but wanted to play for their own school, asked Jeff Kipp, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, who would later be named Head Hockey Coach, if he could help start a team. Coach Kipp put together a proposal, and it looked like Principal Ken Lojo ’91 would greenlight the team after spring break in March 2020; of course, we never came back after spring break, and the plans to begin not just a club team but a fully supported Varsity hockey team were pushed back by a year. Coach Kipp told me that, after the initial survey of the student population, he heard back from about 12 boys who had played before and now wished to play for their school. That wasn’t many but enough at least to roster a small team. Coach Kipp, as ever, remained undeterred.

Of this new program, SJ President Fr. Jeff Johnson, S.J., said, “A new hockey program is more than just an athletics team—it’s an opportunity to serve the needs of our students, responding to their interests and providing environments of growth for them.” This team, then, fulfills exactly the school’s mission to recognize interest, facilitate opportunity, and encourage growth: the Varsity roster contains 22 names—3 seniors, 5 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 7 freshmen; 3 goalies, 2 true defensemen, and 17 forwards; 9 travel hockey players, 8 with house-league experience, 3 players returning to the game after a few years away, and 2 who never played. It’s a hodge-podge of experience, size, and skill, a motley crew that coalesced as a unit. The team’s leadership—Captain Michael Martinez ‘22, Alternate Captain Charles Higgins ’23, and Alternate Captain James Rheaume ’24—facilitated the growth Fr. Johnson, S.J., mentions, pushing all players, those with experience and those who were new, to become better. Michael Martinez especially demonstrated this leadership throughout the season on the ice, leading the team in scoring during both the regular season and playoffs, and off the ice, leading some of the team’s younger players through dryland workouts whenever they could find the extra time. Michael’s dedication to the team, his servant-leadership, defines Jesuit Hockey.

Jesuit Hockey owes an enormous debt of gratitude to so many who helped throughout this past season: the school’s administration, the Booster club, the team parents, associate coach and mentor Stephen Flavin to name a few. But I want to make special mention here of Coach Kipp, who built this team from the ground up and whom I witnessed day after day demand the same excellence of himself as he demands of his players; I also wish to name our three assistant coaches, each a father of a current player, all who volunteered their time, often early in the morning and late at night, who brought their extensive hockey knowledge to bear, and who shared their love for the sport, their sons, all the players, and the school throughout the inaugural season: Jason Ahlgren, Marcos Martinez, and Vadim Saratovtsev are not just SJ hockey coaches but model dads and true Men for Others.

What they helped to achieve is nothing short of phenomenal. By the end of the season, the Ice Crusaders finished the year with 23 wins and 7 losses, going 20-0 in the regular season, earning the title of State Runner-up, and advancing to Nationals. I look back on the season now and think of some of the highlights: Charles Higgins ’23 scoring the program’s first goal, Misha Saratovstev ’24 getting the shutout in the first game of the year, Charles Higgins ’23 scoring against Cy Woods with less than a minute left to break the tie and extend the unbeaten streak, Carter Kipp ’25 netting the game-winning goal against Jesuit Dallas to win the first of a Thanksgiving doubleheader, Michael Martinez ’22 sending Jesuit to Nationals with his game-winning goal against Allen at the State tournament. These are the moments of the season. And yet, despite those achievements and highlights, for me nothing compares to the moment the team took to the ice for the first regular season game—across freshly Zambonied ice and wearing green sweaters with AMDG on the back, the Crusaders skated as a team for the first time. It was magic.

In the locker room after our first ever scrimmage against Tomball last August, a game Jesuit won 6-1, as coaches gave postgame feedback, Coach Vadim Saratovtsev chimed in with what I’m sure he thought was a throw-away comment but withstood the test of time to become the line of the year, a mantra for the team, and a summary of the inaugural season: “Strake Jesuit has a hockey team,” he said, “and we can play.” Play they can, as in all things AMDG.