The Stoneman Douglas High School hockey team has claimed the Florida state title.
Just two weeks after a tragedy on campus that left 17 students and teachers dead, the community received an uplifting moment when the Eagles claimed the hardware. Stoneman Douglas entered the semifinals of the Tier I SAHOF Florida Hockey State Championship as the last seed.
On Sunday, they were able to upset Jesuit, 7-4, to become state champions.
“We almost didn’t come here because we didn’t know if we wanted to play or not,” senior Ronnie Froetschel told NBC Miami.
Senior Matthew Horowitz added, “We plan to bring all the medals to the school when we go home. There were 17 of us on the ice. We plan to put one medal on every single person that passed away.”
Entering the day as the bottom seed, the Marjory #StonemanDouglas hockey team has pulled off the unthinkable, rallying to win two games, in commanding fashion, to become State Champs!!! Hear from them tonight on @ABC7SWFL and @NBC2 pic.twitter.com/EL2nlZ0ua9
— Andrew McDevitt (@AMcDevittTV) February 25, 2018
Stoneman Douglas will now compete in the high school hockey national championships tournament, beginning March 22 in Plymouth, Minnesota.
A further look at the emotional journey can be seen below: