ATHOL SPRINGS, N.Y. (WKBW) — There’s winning a state championship, and then there’s winning a national championship.
"It just felt like my senior year was complete. Three years that I’ve been here all led up to that moment," Jacob Shull, a senior at St. Francis, said.
Back in March, the St. Francis prep hockey team won the USA Hockey High School 1A National Championship.
A moment the players and even their families will never forget.
"Looking up in the stands and seeing my dad literally crying," Will Miller, a senior at St. Francis, said. "You know my dad’s not a big, cuddly bear, but seeing the emotions on him was intense. It was a great time."
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"Like Jake said, it completed everything that we’ve been working towards," Cameron Hill, a senior at St. Francis and team captain, said. "Even through the ups and downs, we got the job done."
Red Raiders captain Cameron Hill recalls a time when things could’ve gone much differently for this team.
"During the mid-point of the season, we went on a 10-game losing streak (8 games). It was a really low point of the season," Hill said.
But letting that stretch derail their season was simply not an option for this group.
"It’s because every guy on this team we’re brothers. There’s not a single guy on this team that we would drop for anyone. And it’s a lot of love and compassion that not a lot of teams have," Schull said.
"I walk past that trophy shelf every single day of my life, going to the library. I just wanted to be in there so bad and leave my mark on this school. But like Shull said, it’s a family, and it’s so much more," Miller said.
Because of that unwillingness to give up on each other, this team gets to say their national champions, which leaves behind quite the lasting legacy.
