Jake Ottmann
About a year ago my family and I lost my wife of 17 years Lauryn Marie Small to breast cancer. Lauryn was a passionate mom and advocate of our twins Iden and Luella Ottmann, who are 13. At the time of her death, I was certain that I was alone and, although surrounded by friends and family, would never find an ally to help support my children the way she did. Lauryn loved her kids and especially loved their team sports. Hockey had become her favorite of all their activities. Luella played into Bantam age.
Our family has been involved with the New York City Skyliners Hockey Club, based in Long Island City, Queens, since its inception. Both kids have grown up playing in the City Ice Pavillion rink and enjoyed it. Iden had a great year following the 2017/18 season and had hopes of continuing. The Skyliners for the first time were not going to have a Spring team. Iden’s interest began to waiver and I found myself at a crossroads. Would he wish to continue to play hockey? Or would his interest fade? Then a friend of mine from the Skyliners mentioned that her son was playing on a team called the Westchester Warriors. That it was a team that had a mission of raising funds for Children’s Pediatric Cancer and the only requirement was that players help raise Charity funds. Lauryn was a tireless fundraiser and even more, expected her Children to find ways to bring good to the world and volunteer whenever possible. So, I figured I’d give it a shot. I followed up with my friend Lisa and called Luis Panchame. Almost immediately a ray of sunshine poked through our little home.
Immediately Iden wrote and posted his fund raising links on various social media sites and he was met immediately with people wishing to help. It instantaneously gave him good feelings to see that family and friends were willing to help out for this cause. Iden felt inspired to see the notes coming in wishing him well. Not long after, we drove to the first practice and were met by a few coaches and a gentleman named Luis plus a lot of talented young hockey players. Iden was at first nervous. He felt they were great players and he was in over his head. I recall him coming off the ice that night and him saying to me, “Dad, that was awesome and I never looked at the clock to see when we would finish.”
Following the first game at an upstate tournament, I was standing with Iden and a tall gentlemen came up to me and asked “Is that big fella your son??" I said yes and he asked if he could speak to him and invite him to another tournament. That was Coach Denis Defresne. Iden was ecstatic. For the first time ever really, he was approached and invited to play more hockey directly by a coach. Iden's passion rose to new levels culminating with him winning an MVP at a summer tournament. He was beaming. It didn’t take long before Luis had asked me to help with the boys and coach a second Warrior team. All the while I made friends with some of the best parents I have ever met. And it was topped off with a new friendship with team manager and organizer Ron Vitale. We spent the summer with our new friends and families.
The Warrior family gave my son a passion for hockey while giving me a team to coach and also be around some very special people. The team gave our family something to rally around and afforded us one of the best antidotes for internal conflict: an opportunity to focus on helping others in need as well. I'm grateful to Coach Defresne, Luis Panchame, Lisa Rathgeg, and the entire Warriors organization. We look forward to being a part of the Warrior family for a long time.
Thank You
Jake, Iden and Luella Ottmann