Logan Hicks’s father had three rules for her if she wanted to play hockey.

One: Do not be afraid to go into the corner to get the puck.

Two: Never lay on the ice after getting hurt. Skate to the bench.

Three: Never cry.

When an opposing player pancaked Hicks into the boards near the blue line in a game, she skated back to the bench with tears welling up in her eyes. Her arm hurt, and she didn’t know if she could play the rest of the game. But her father, also her coach, sent Hicks back out on her next shift. After she returned to the bench, Hicks said she could not play and started to cry out of frustration.

Hicks iced her arm all night. At least 24 hours later, though, it was still sore and she had trouble sleeping, so her dad took her for an X-Ray, which revealed a broken humerus bone in her arm.

“I felt like the worst parent ever,” Alex Hicks, her father, said in an email. “But she knew the rules.”

Alex Hicks’ strict rules developed from his 15-year professional hockey career and his father’s hockey career. The two have played key roles in shaping Hicks into a freshman defender for Syracuse’s (0-2) hockey team.

“My grandpa and my dad are my biggest role models definitely, especially in hockey,” Hicks said. “My dad has coached me my whole life and has had the biggest impact on me playing hockey.”

The Hicks’ hockey family tree starts with Wayne, Hicks’ grandfather and a former NHL player and a 1961 Stanley Cup winner. Wayne Hicks only played two games with the Chicago Blackhawks that year, but one was the game in which the Hawks clinched the cup. Alex Hicks followed in his father’s footsteps, playing in the NHL and overseas.

Hicks was too young to remember her dad’s NHL days and most of her early hockey memories revolve around watching her dad play in Germany.

Despite getting to live in Europe as a small child, no youth hockey leagues existed in Germany. Hicks would go on the ice with her dad after practice but never played hockey.

Alex Hicks planned to retire at the end of the 2006 season but was suspended for the final game of the year for an illegal hit from behind in the game prior. His career ended fittingly for the gritty way he played — and would soon expect his daughter to play.

The Hicks family moved to Arizona after the 2006 season while Hicks was in third grade. She joined youth leagues with her dad as her coach for the first six years.

“That’s when I started playing hockey for real, because not really a lot of girls play hockey in Germany,” Hicks said.

Mostly boys played, and her father preached defense and his three rules. The rules, her father said, are part of what makes Hicks a good and fundamentally-sound hockey player, even if they did lead to tough situations at times.

“Logan is a tough girl that played hard on the ice,” her father said. “I told her if she wanted to play with the boys that she could never ever show them that she was scared. I felt that if she did any of these three things that all the dads that are watching would start whispering that she should not play with the boys.”

When Hicks’s father took a job as an assistant coach for Arizona State’s first hockey team, Hicks got the chance to skate with the team and play in their scrimmages. She learned about the players’ struggles from a coach’s perspective and how to deal with them.

Even now as she’s playing college hockey, Hicks is realizing a dream developed and influenced by her father. He always told her how he enjoyed his college career more than playing professionally.

“I believe this is how she developed a love for the game,” Alex Hicks said, “and the dream of playing college hockey.”

Published on October 10, 2016 at 10:33 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @A_E_Graham