Jad Abumrad

Okay, so to jump back in, John plays throughout his school years.

By the time he's getting close to college, a lot of his friends are getting offers, scholarships to different big-time schools.

University of Minnesota, Boston College, places like that.

For John, there was just no interest.

Coaches thought he was too big to play, wouldn't be able to keep up out there on the ice.

But eventually, he did get one offer to play for a mid-level university, Michigan Tech.

And I just figured I would, in all honesty, I would finish college and get a job.

That would be it.

I would have gotten education for free.

And, you know, I'd play hockey with the guys on the weekends.

But that would be the end of hockey.

But then a couple of things happened.

He met Danielle.

They were both engineering students, started dating senior year.

And the other thing that happened was... I got this opportunity to go play for the Houston Arrows, Minnesota's farm team.

A minor league team.

It wasn't crazy money.

It was $30,000 or $35,000.

He talked to Danielle about it.

Like this is the only chance I'm going to get to be able to say I played pro.