Terri McBride is a veteran who turned to Warrior PATHH classes, a peer-based training program, over this past year as she and her family navigated some struggles. A lot of people in the hockey community were brought into the class. McBride is originally from San Antonio and didn’t know much about the sport.
“When I heard all of them come in and speak… it made me want to get my sons into hockey,” McBride said. “That’s the kind of people that it produces, these men.”
She was in search of male role models for her sons. Enter hockey and the Richfield Little Spartans, a new youth hockey program for various ages, experience levels and diverse backgrounds. The diversity piece was huge for McBride, who moved to Minnesota for medical school in 2015 and said she’s “never felt a part of this community.”
“In every sector I go it’s, unfortunately, diversity really does make a difference for me feeling comfortable,” McBride said.
Terri McBride and her son, Xavier, take in the Blues vs. Wild game on March 23 at Xcel Energy Center. (Photo courtesy of Anthony Walsh)
Hockey came at the perfect time for her family last fall. Her son Xavier started hockey in December with the Little Spartans.
“It’s really been like perfect timing that we had a new family and new structure to come to every weekend,” McBride said.
McBride and her son attended their first Wild game with a group of other Little Spartans participants and their parents/guardians, thanks to InSports Foundation, on March 23 when Minnesota hosted the St. Louis Blues at Xcel Energy Center. Xavier loved the peanuts and the music, his mom said, and he gave his approval of the game with a thumbs-up signal from his seat in the lower bowl behind the Wild’s net.
It was also fitting that the Blues were in town because Xavier was born in St. Louis. He came two months early while McBride was in the area for her Coast Guard drills. While Xavier was in the NICU in St. Louis for a month, Blues fans celebrated the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2019.
“We’re not hockey people,” McBride said. “We’ve never been to a game. I don’t even understand the rules. We want to learn.”
McBride and her son have started to learn through being part of the Little Spartans program. This winter was the first season for the program, with Anthony Walsh, Edina graduate and author of the children’s book “Hockey is for Everybody,” as a coach. The program met each weekend in the mornings starting in December at…
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