Sisters Provide Support and Inspiration for Monsters

On March 5, the Cleveland Monsters celebrated Women’s History Month. During post game, I made sure to ask assistant coach Trent Vogelhuber, defender Jake Christiansen, and forward Robbie Payne about the women in their lives who have supported and inspired them throughout their hockey career. The key theme was “sisters”. 

For defender Jake Christiansen, the support he receives from the women in his life has made playing hockey enjoyable. “My mom is obviously a massive support of mine. And so is my sister,” said Christiansen of the women who support his career in hockey. With a beaming smile on his face, he touted one of his biggest supporters, his girlfriend. 

Christiansen went on to give his grandmas a little bit of love, too. “My grandmas have been awesome and they just support me a lot,” said Christiansen. “They watch every game.”

For Vogelhuber and Payne, their sisters are the reason why they are even playing hockey. 

Payne’s sister, Terra, captained the Michigan State University Spartans Women’s Ice Hockey team for three years. In 2011, she helped lead the Spartans to a American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championship. “She was always playing hockey and was a great battler on the ice,” said Payne of his sister. “It was great to watch her as a kid, being able to look up to her and kind of learn the game from her.”

As a child, Vogelhuber’s mom found the beauty in the fundamentals and made sure to enroll her son into a “Learn to Skate” program before entertaining the idea of starting hockey classes. In her eyes, knowing how to skate was one of the more important aspects of playing hockey. 

Why did Vogelhuber’s mom understand the importance of knowing how to skate correctly? Her daughter, Vogelhuber’s older sister, was a figure skater. Watching her skate was what slowly began his love affair with hockey. “My older sister started figure skating and that was the reason I even started playing hockey,” said Vogelhuber. 

So, when I asked Vogelhuber who inspired him, the answer was said quite simply and with a lot of reverence, “My older sister, my mom, my younger sister are huge parts of my life and if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have started playing hockey in the first place. So, they are my choice.”