By Alex McCuaig

Hockey parents

Pride on display as parents take in U-17 tournament

Nov 4, 2019 | 8:37 AM

Medicine Hat, AB – The final score of the USA, Czech U-17 World Hockey Challenge on Sunday may have been lopsided but the pride on display from the parents of both squads was even-steven.

Craig Straky and his wife travelled to the city from Detroit to watch their son Ethan play for Team USA. But prior to that, the family was living in the southern States which meant a lot of travel to keep up with the ice sport.

Something Straky says was well worth it.

“So playing hockey in Florida is kind of odd and we had to travel quite a bit,” said Straky. “It`s just the three of us so its a family vacation and we`re loved it for the last 10, 12 years we`ve been doing it with him.”

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While travelling across a continent to watch their son play might be long enough, coming across an ocean is a whole different matter, says Tomas Suchenak`s mom Katrina.

“Yes, it’s a very long way. We spend 27 hours (flying) but we wanted to watch our son because (he is) goalman from the Czech Republic – goalkeeper,“ said Suchenak.

But for all the parents no matter what the team, there is pride in watching their son don the national uniform of their home country.

“It was his dream to play for Team USA,” said Jack Devine`s dad Ted. “It`s just like the Canadian boys putting on that crest and worked really hard to do it. It`s also fun to meet new people and to to new towns and Medicine Hat has been absolutely terrific.”

The U-17 World Hockey Challenge continues this week.