In Memory of Our Teammate Eddie Berke
Donation protected
In memory of teammate Edward Berke, the SCHL Tigers ice hockey team are soliciting donations to benefit a charity of the Berke family's choice.
Edward "Eddie" Berke (31) disappeared from a boat in the middle of Maine's Casco Bay on the Fourth of July while celebrating the holiday with close friends. Despite being an accomplished athlete in good health and good shape, he was never rescued. The Concord Monitor's Sruthi Gopalakrishnan wrote a moving tribute to Eddie (link below) in which those who knew him best spoke of a truly remarkable person, and it is an inspiring read even for those who didn't know him at all.
His Tigers teammates quickly found that his athletic ability, paired with consistency and dedication, made him an excellent hockey player. He loved the competition, and he didn’t let the fact that we were a "beer-league" team temper his enthusiasm. He wasn’t afraid to lay out and block a shot, or skate hard to the open ice to receive a pass. All the guys on the team came to quickly respect Eddie as a leader who preferred letting his actions speak for him. Off the ice, Eddie’s natural charisma made him a wonderful guy to share a beer with after a good win, or even a tough loss. At the end of the day, all of us share a passion for hockey, and we are lucky to have shared the ice, the locker room, and post-game banter in the parking lot with our friend.
Please consider contributing not only on behalf of those close to him, but as a representation of what men's league hockey really means to its participants: While the results may not matter to anyone outside the locker room, we all know how easily teammates become friends, and how valuable those late-night skates (and end-of-the-night parking-lot chats) can be to each of us.
Eddie was one of the good ones. He was one of us.
Organizer
Benjamin Steele
Organizer
Branford, CT