Former Buckeye Achieves a Lifelong Dream Courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks

Former Buckeye Amanda Keeton has made her local news in her hometown of LaPorte, Indiana when she got the rare opportunity that many hockey players only dream of-a chance to see the Stanley Cup. Keeton, a diehard Chicago Blackhawks fan since elementary school, and dreamed of the day when her favorite team would one day hoist the coveted Stanley Cup. After winning the Cup, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville and the Stanley Cup made the journey to the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association camp, where Keeton has been a participant for the past four seasons. “I did not believe my coach at first when she told us that the Stanley Cup was on its way,” Keeton wrote in the article. “I just got out of a three-hour morning practice and did not even have time to take a shower. The other players and I quickly got out of our equipment and threw on clothes and got in line to see the Cup. By then, I did not care about not taking a shower because I was seeing the Cup, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

For Keeton, even more amazing than meeting Quenneville and the Cup was the chance to hear the Blackhawks coach praise the camp and the girls who participated. Keeton and other members of the camp hope to one day become the first women’s Deaflympics hockey team, and hearing Quenneville call them the “pioneers of the women’s deaf hockey team” was on par with getting to see him and the Cup for her.