Hal Jensen and Lee Sells of Marysville had always followed local sports – the Seahawks, the Cougars, some Mariners.
But hockey?
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Then they heard the Everett Silvertips were coming to town.
Without hesitation, Jensen, 55, and Sells, 53, pulled together enough friends to buy four season tickets, right on the ice.
“I thought, ‘I may go to nine games,’ ” Jensen said.
All that changed, however, when an e-mail to season ticketholders asked if they would be willing to host players for the inaugural season.
“We started thinking it would be fun to have a male child in the family, so to speak,” said Sells, who had raised three daughters with Jensen. “It was just the two of us, and we just thought that maybe it was a new experience.”
With a five-bedroom house and plenty of room, the couple welcomed not one, but two boys from Saskatchewan – defenseman Shaun Heshka of Melville, and, for the first two years, Ryan Blatchford of Kelvington, who played for the OCN Blizzard of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League this season.
Now, three years later, Jensen and Sells are living and breathing all things hockey, especially this week with playoff excitement building to a fever pitch. The Silvertips, who lead Kelowna 3-2, play the Rockets tonight at the Everett Events Center in Game 6 of the second round best-of-seven WHL playoff series.
“It’s been remarkable. Hockey has just sort of taken over everything,” Sells said. “It has been a splendid experience.”
Heshka, who has spent all three of his Tips years with Jensen and Sells, has been a big part of their love affair with hockey.
“Our granddaughter and our grandson just idolize him,” Jensen said of Tailor, 12, and Andrew, 2, who often attend games.
“Shaun has taught us everything we know about hockey,” Sells said.
Jensen and Sells knew being a billet family wouldn’t be exactly like having their own sons, but they didn’t want to treat the boys like tenants either.
When Heshka inquired about a TV in his room, Jensen resisted.
“I wanted him to come up and be a part of the family,” he said. “If he wanted to watch TV, he had to come upstairs. It gave us a real sense of family fairly quickly.”
Soon a “hockey wall” took shape in their split-level entryway to display both of the players’ awards and trophies.
Jensen and Sells enjoyed being a billet family so much they delayed the sale of their house and a move to their Whidbey Island residence for more than two years.
Instead, they added a second phone line so the boys could “call Canada anytime they want.”
Jensen and Sells have subsequently spread their love of hockey to their extended family, friends and neighbors, so much that at least 35 of them, they estimate, have become dedicated season ticketholders over the past three years.
Jensen and Sells, of course, are obviously more invested and dedicated than most fans.
“This is definitely a hockey household. They base their schedule around it,” Heshka said of his host parents. “They kind of wonder what their life would be like without hockey.”
Heshka spent his first season helping Jensen and Sells understand hockey. After each game, they had tons of questions. At the same time, however, they’ve always tried not to “talk hockey” too much.
“Hockey can be kind of chaotic and you have a lot of pressures from agents to scouts to coaches to parents and everything,” Heshka said, adding that his host parents have been different. “They don’t care if I play good or play bad. They’re there to support me. I can come home, relax and shoot the breeze.”
Sells and Jensen have enjoyed forming an international bond with Heshka and his parents.
They fly an American flag as well as a Canadian one – a gift from Heshka’s parents, Dale and Linda – at their house. Jensen was thrilled when Heshka’s dad asked him for an American flag.
“He said, after all, they had American blood in the family,” Jensen said.
Heshka, an assistant captain waiting to see if he has a future beyond the Western Hockey League, must leave the Tips after this season because 20 is the maximum age for players in the WHL and he turns 21 before the next season begins.
No matter what happens, he’ll have to say goodbye to his local support network.
“It’s going to be hard, walking away from here this year. I owe them a lot,” Heshka said of Jensen and Sells.
“For somebody to open their doors for somebody they don’t know and take them in for three years, it’s something I’ll never be able to thank them enough for. I appreciate every moment I have here.”
Eventually, Jensen and Sells will probably move to Whidbey Island, making them too far away to host players, who often arrive back in Everett late after away games.
“There’s no ferry at 3 in the morning,” Jensen said, adding: “We’ll be hockey fans. That’s for sure.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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