I was digging through some old photos the other day and came upon this classic. It’s a picture of me and my five brothers, all dressed in our Edina hockey jerseys in front of the net on our patio. The photo also served as our family Christmas card that year.
There are six Carroll boys and I was the lone goalie in the group, so that meant there was always plenty of shooters available to help me work on my game. I remember we had some classic battles in our garage, patio and driveway. And from what I recall, we used all kinds of different things for pucks including wooden blocks, sock balls, tennis balls, plastic pucks and spong pucks. It was great action.
Those unstructured games helped us develop our hockey skills, passion and competitive spirit. As it turned out, all of us ended playing varsity hockey for Edina-East or Edina High School. So for more than a decade, there was a Carroll on the Hornets’ roster.
Following our prep careers, the Carroll boys all took their talents on to college hockey. I played goalie for Minnesota State University, Mankato (Mankato State University), two other brothers also played for the Mavericks, while other brothers skated at Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan Tech.
Years later, we all still involved in the game in some capacity. I run my goalie school and help coach the Gustavus Adolphus College women’s team with my older brother Mike, who is the head coach. Another brother is head hockey coach at New England College, while others are referees or youth hockey coaches.
My late dad was hockey player, coach and referee himself and obviously was instrumental in getting us started in the game.
