While most of us were sleeping, the United States Women’s hockey team was busy winning gold in South Korea.
Christian Louria was wide awake for all of it.
“Oh yeah. Watched the whole thing, super exciting. 2 a.m. I got to go to sleep, but it was so worth it,” he said.
Louria and his Tampa Bay Juniors team have quite a connection to the gold medal winners.
They practiced with them at Center Ice in Wesley Chapel and even beat them in a game.
“You saw them as close as you can see them. Did you think they had a great shot at the gold?” we asked him.
“Oh yea, I did, really tough to play against. Even tough they don’t hit, every shift is a battle,” he said.
Junior team coach Greg Strot was up all night watching too.
His brother, Brett, is an assistant coach for the Olympic team.
“The whole overtime I was on the edge of my couch,” he said.
Jocelyne Lamoureux’s incredible winning shot will be talked about for years.
While training in Pasco, she told us she was well aware of how she can inspire younger players.
"It’s been great to really help grown the game, especially get more girls playing. And we are hoping that we can really set the fire for the next generation down here,” she said.
“They are a great role model for all our kids. Watching that game it kind of set in. People were texting and saying wow this is your girls. And we kind of feel like they are our team. So we’ve had a lot of excitement built about that,” said Center Ice managing partner Gordie Zimmerman.
“Our players felt proud about it. The arena feels proud about it. Just the fact that they were here for five months and this is what kind of led them to the gold,” said Strot.
The women will be coming back to Wesley Chapel to get all their stuff when they return from the Olympics.
And there is hope that there will be some sort of celebration to honor the team.
