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CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. () — A Santa Clarita girls hockey team chose to play through their pain after they were involved in a deadly crash in Colorado, and now they’re bringing home a trophy.
The Santa Clarita Lady Flyers won the Western Girls Hockey Championship over the weekend, just days after a snowplow lost control, crashing into one of their team vans in Colorado on Thursday.
The father of one of the players, identified as Manny Lorenzana, was killed. He was the driver behind the wheel of the team van.
Several others were taken to the hospital, including one girl who was critically injured. She is expected to be OK. The team says one mother of a player is still in the hospital in Colorado.
A father was killed and several members of a Santa Clarita girls hockey team were injured when a snowplow hit their van in Colorado.
The Santa Clarita Lady Flyers returned to their home rink on Monday night to be celebrated as champions. A memorial outside of the rink celebrates their big accomplishment, but also recognizes the pain of several families who were involved in the deadly crash.
The girls decided they were going to continue on with the tournament and play for their peers who were involved in the crash. They went on to win six games and walked away as Western Girls Hockey Champions.
The team captain said it was about a two and a half hour conversation between the teammates, ages 10 to 13 years old, about whether or not they wanted to proceed.
“We all got around in a circle and we all kind of just talked about if we should play or not, and our decision was that we should play, not for ourselves, but for Manny, who was the father, and for our girls,” said Sophia Boyle, the team captain.
The head coach said it was a very special moment when the player whose dad passed away returned to the team.
“We had a short bench, and on the fourth game, the young girl whose father who passed away actually showed up on the bench, game four, scored about 40 seconds into the game. As the girls were cheering, she was walking onto my bench with a helmet on. And all the girls hopped over, were giving her hugs because that was the first time we saw her. And I think that just gave all the girls that inspiration to continue on,” said head coach Todd Stelnick.
An online fundraiser to help the victims has been created. A GoFundMe was also set up to cover funeral expenses for Lorenzana and support his family. Collectively, the two fundraisers have raised over $120,000.
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