November 10, 2022
Sacred Heart Forward Among Rookie Leaders
by Anthony Travalgia/CHN Reporter (@A_Travalgia)
Growing up is something we all have to do, both in a literal and figurative sense.
For Sacred Heart freshman Blake Humphrey, his life changed at the age of 14 when his mother Erin suddenly passed away. She was 44.
As the oldest of three boys, it was a tragic loss that forced Humphrey to grow up much quicker than he had planned.
“Especially with it being unexpected, it happened in an instance like that. I’m the oldest of my two younger brothers and then my dad, I kind of had to — you grow up quicker than the average person,” Humphrey said. “It isn’t all bad, you mature at a quicker age. You learn from things you have to deal with.”
Sometimes, life has a strange way of teaching life lessons. While this instance may have been a cruel way for a 14-year old, everything he learned at a young age from the loss of his mother has stuck with him throughout his childhood and into becoming a young adult.
“Adversity, obviously that’s the biggest thing my dad has always told me,” Humphrey said. “If you’re able to handle adversity growing up in life, when you have little obstacle courses thrown at you in life, you know how to handle them and keep moving forward.”
When Humphrey’s mother passed, hockey took a backseat to adjusting to what his new life would look like. Just as his mother would want him to do, he quickly got himself back onto the ice, continuing to chase his dream of playing D-I hockey.
“With everything happening like that, there’s more important things than hockey. I kind of took a break for a little while, hung out with my family and kind of recouped,” Humphrey said.
“After a little while I realized that hockey was what I wanted to do and it’s still an important part of my life. I know my mom loved it and she was such a huge part of me now and a part of me playing D-I hockey. I kind of just use it as even more motivation and keep working hard, trying to achieve my goals.”
Humphrey took a massive step towards his goal of playing D-I hockey when he verbally committed to RIT, the program closest to where he grew up in Rochester.
But as life had already taught him, things can change in the blink of an eye. His college destination being an example of that.
“I committed to RIT at a very young age and I…
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