Mike Eruzione

And my son lives directly behind me.

My daughter lives down the street.

And my other son, he moved to Connecticut a few years ago because she wanted to be near her family.

And I said to her, who moves to be with their family?

So as we talked about earlier, I have seven grandkids now, which is kind of fun, watching them play hockey, football, lacrosse.

The oldest is 12.

The youngest is 18 months.

But again, back to my childhood growing up,

you worked I caddied as a kid my dad worked three jobs my mother stayed home and took care of six kids um there wasn't a lot of money in the house but there was a lot of love there's a lot of support and uh that's kind of how I grew up sports was was your vehicle I played football I played baseball probably played more baseball than anything and hockey was something you did in the wintertime it got cold you you went and played hockey because your friends played I remember

wanting to play hockey because my friends played but I didn't have any ice skates my parents didn't have enough money to go buy me ice skates if it wasn't something I wanted to show them I wanted to do and they used to freeze the tennis courts down the street from where I lived and in those days you could go down the tennis courts by yourself so you didn't have to have a police escort and not everybody got a trophy you just showed up and and I remember wanting to play hockey because my friends played but I didn't have any ice skates but my sister had these white figure skates

And I'd fit into her white figure skates, and I'd get the white figure skates, and down the hill I'd go on the tennis courts and learn to skate or try to skate.

Hockey's a macho kind of game, and not only was I in white figure skates, but she had these blue pom-poms on her.

And that's how I started to play ice hockey.

And in those days, you could save, some people might remember, maybe not, you could save S&H green stamps.

And I came home one day and there was a pair of hide ice skates on the table and my mom saved up enough stamps To get me a pair of ice skates And that's how I started playing hockey at nine years old never knowing it was gonna lead to the Olympics obviously But it was something I wanted to do and like all great parents you support your kids and what they want to do so I

That's kind of how hockey started for me.

But like I said, I probably played more baseball and and actually, you know, I was an all state football, hockey and baseball player.

So sports were was my life as a kid.

I think it's it's it's a little of both, but but

you know, without hard work, you don't accomplish anything.