Hockey has been in the blood for brothers Blake and Hayden Lewis from a really young age, and all of the time playing together, the hard work and hours they’ve put in for so many years has paid off in a huge way.
Blake and Hayden, a senior and a junior at Culver Academies, are the first brothers from Columbus that’ll be playing in the USA National Hockey Championships in the 18U division, which is set to begin on Wednesday and continue through Monday in St. Louis.
But the journey to St. Louis for the Lewis brothers almost ended, and the team, called the Culver Eagles, never had a chance to play in the district tournament due to a team member testing positive for COVID-19.
To qualify for the national championships, a team has to win its district, which is made up of the top six teams across the Midwest or earn an at-large bid. Fortunately for the Lewis brothers, COVID-19 didn’t win the battle against the team since it received one of the four at-large bids in the 16-team field, along with the 12 district winners.
“Obviously with COVID, the season has been nothing like any other season I’ve had in my life. We really didn’t play the month of November because of COVID and tournaments getting canceled,” Hayden said. “We had our ups and downs early on, but we kind of hit a flow late in November going into December, got games under our belt. Once we got back from our winter break, we kicked it into our fourth or fifth gear, and we’ve been playing pretty much every weekend since. But obviously with COVID being a thing this year, it’s been weird. We had to make adjustments on how we get to play games.”
Their at-large bid was a result of the successful season they’ve had this year. According to myhockeyratings.com, the Eagles are ranked No. 7 in the 18U Tier I Division. Culver’s overall record is 23-12-5 this season.
“We’ve been playing games over the course of a year, and we’ve been doing well,” Blake said. “They have rankings out, and we get ranked every week across the country. We’ve been staying in the top 10.”
Both Blake and Hayden got introduced to hockey by their father Bob. They watched their father, a former hockey player himself, coach teams when they were young in Columbus. They also learned a lot of their basic skills through their father over the years in their youth, and would even watch National Hockey League games on television, as well.
“I would sit on the couch with my dad and watch a full game, and most kids my age would watch maybe four or five minutes before they got bored,” Hayden said. “I would sit there and watch the entire games, so that’s kept me into hockey.”
Blake and Hayden played hockey in Columbus until close to middle school when they decided to play for a more high-caliber travel hockey team out of Indianapolis. The players on the team consisted some of the best youth players from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
That also met a lot of hours on the road a few times a week for practice, and then traveled to places like Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and Michigan on the weekends for games.
It also meant a lot of sacrifice for their parents to drive them to and from practices and games.
“I’m thankful for the opportunities my parents provided me,” Blake said. “To be able to drive me all those times to Indianapolis, and do all the things to help me get to this point. I’m thankful for the opportunity.”
The Lewis brothers both have made their impacts felt this season. Blake is second on the team in scoring with 46 points (18 goals and 28 assists) in 40 games played. Hayden is fourth on the team in scoring with 23 points (six goals and 17 assists).
“They’re two very key players to our success. Blake centers our top line; Hayden plays on our second line,” Culver coach Kevin Patrick said. “Both players are on our top power play unit. Both kill penalties. Both boys are key contributors to the success of our team this season. It’s been enjoyable to see their development.”
When the tournament begins on Wednesday, the teams are divided into four pools with four teams in each pool. They will play a round-robin format, and the top two teams in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, which will begin on Saturday. From there, it’s single-elimination through the championship match on Monday.
Following their time at Culver, Blake and Hayden both want to be involved in sports, hockey in particular. Blake is looking to get into sports management, while Hayden is looking into sports broadcasting or journalism.
Of course, like many aspiring athletes, the end goal for both Blake and Hayden is trying to play hockey at the professional level. They both realize it’s going to take a lot more time and harder work to get there.
I fell in love with it as a kid and kept pursuing it and kept liking it more and more,” Blake said. “So just being around people that also played hockey was my edge for wanting to play hockey.”
Hayden added, “An end goal for everybody our age is to go play professionally, but you’ve got to be at the top of the top to do that. Right now, I’m more focused on taking it one step at a time.”
