Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1279736
FOR HOURS ON END, Tara Vlasic would gaze out the large picture window of her suburban Chicago home at her three young children buzzing around the back- yard ice rink that her husband, John, built each winter. Never in her wildest imagination could she have envisioned the unique life and hockey opportunities that sprouted from those hum- ble beginnings for the three of them. " We just kind of bundled them up, sent them outside, and that's what they did for fun," the family matriarch recalled. "It was like a dream for them to be able to go out and play hockey like that, whenever they wanted. It will always be one of the really cool memories we have of them from when they were little. " You don't think about what it's going to lead to down the road. You don't know how good they are, compared to other kids. But everything just kind of kept building and building over the years for each of them. It's pretty cool to think back and realize that's kind of how everything all started, on the rink in the backyard." From their grassroots beginnings on that backyard rink, along with heated battles in the basement rec room, the siblings from Wilmette, Ill., have traveled the world because of hockey. The Vlasic's youngest son, 6-foot-6, 199- pound defenseman Alex, parlayed two stellar seasons with USA Hockey 's National Team Development Program into an opportunity to play at Boston University and being select- e d i n t h e s e c o n d round, 43rd over- a l l , by t h e h o m e - town Blackhawks i n l a s t s u m m e r 's NHL Draft. E m m a V l a s i c , a 2 3 - y e a r - o l d f o r - w a r d , c o m p l e t e d a s t a n d o u t f o u r - year career at Yale University, where s h e w o r e a c a p - t a i n 's l e t t e r, a n d s u i t e d u p f o r t h e Connecticut Whale o f t h e N a t i o n a l Wo m e n 's Ho c ke y League last season. And the Vlasic's o l d e s t c h i l d , 24-year-old goaltender Eric, has flourished in the Chicago Blackhawks Special Hockey program. (The siblings' first cousin, Marc- Edouard Vlassic, has played 985 games on defense for the San Jose Sharks and repre- sented Canada in the Olympics). 20 // SEPTEMBER 2020 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM By Jim Leitner F VLASIC FAMILY VALUES "It's pretty cool to think back and realize that's kind of how everything all started, on the rink in the backyard." -EMMA VLASIC