The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School boy’s hockey team deserves a stick salute from the sports world.
The Stoneman Douglas skaters won the Florida state championship Sunday, just 11 days after the horrific school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 students and staff members at their school. The Eagles upset top-seeded East Lake 3-1 in the semifinals, then downed Tampa Jesuit 7-4 in the final.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, entering the day as the bottom seed, won the state hockey title 👏🏻
➡️ https://t.co/HwjRrcCyWn #MSDStrong📸: @AMcDevittTV pic.twitter.com/RTGk6BiSTp— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 25, 2018
“We just came out, played hard, gave it everything we got,” Stoneman Douglas player Joey Zenobi said, per The Associated Press. “This wasn’t for us. This was for the 17 victims. We played for them.”
Afterward, the Stoneman Douglas players returned to their school’s campus and hung their winner’s medals on the 17 memorial crosses that have been installed in honor of the victims, according to The AP.