Thanks to the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay’s Blake Coleman is the NHL’s first true Texan
The Stanley Cup Final is not normally the place you’ll find native Texans, or true love stories, but in the case of the 2020 edition, you will find both in the same player.
If you want to measure the true impact of the Dallas Stars’ presence in North Texas, look at the 2020 Stanley Cup Final and Plano’s own Blake Coleman.
This is the NHL’s first final that features both teams from the Sun Belt. The league would not have expanded into southern markets so quickly had the Stars not been such a success when they relocated from Minnesota in 1993.
Tampa Bay Lightning forward Blake Coleman was born and raised in Plano. He grew up a Dallas Stars fan, and is married to a former TCU showgirl and ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Jordan Daigle.
Coleman, who was born in 1991, likely would not have had the chance to play hockey on a competitive level at a young age had the Stars not been in Dallas and built rinks all over DFW to attract people to the sport.
And who knew that three decades later, on a late September Monday night in Edmonton, Coleman would score the second (and final) goal of the Stanley Cup and 2019-20 season against the team that he rooted for as a kid.
Texas had a place to play hockey
When Blake Coleman was born, hockey was still almost exclusively for Yankees. Finding ice in DFW, let alone enough players to field a game for any age group, was not happening.
Coleman’s father, Rusty, who grew up in Oklahoma and played football at Oklahoma State, had minimal exposure to hockey.
Coleman’s mother, Sandy, was raised in White Plains, a suburb just north of New York City. She had some exposure as a child to skating and played some hockey. She went to a few New York Rangers games at Madison Square Garden.
A family from Ottawa moved in three doors down from the Colemans and their five children. The family had a son Blake’s age who had all of the equipment to play roller hockey.
“So all of that was the stimulus to introduce Blake to the sport and he got excited about it and started playing it,” Rusty said in a phone interview. “Then they built the Dr Pepper [rink] in Plano. My wife’s mother bought Stars season tickets, so we’d go to some of the games.”
The more Blake played, the more he took to the game. He played some lacrosse and soccer, but when he was about 12 it was becoming apparent that hockey was it.
“I thought, ‘This is cute and fun,’ but I didn’t know what else there was beyond what he was doing,’’ Rusty said. “We knew he was a good athlete, but I thought he’d play baseball or something. If something got in the way of hockey, he didn’t want to do it. I just didn’t know where he could play.”
By that point, youth teams and leagues had started to form around DFW. The problem was finding quality competition and exposure.
The Stars knew of Coleman, and he participated in some of their youth programs and on some of their youth teams. Longtime Dallas Stars’ executive Les Jackson helped Coleman find the right people in the sport.
Coleman was good enough that he landed a scholarship to play at the University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio. In 2011, the New Jersey Devils took him in the third round of the NHL Draft.
The TCU and the Dallas Cowboys connection
The lady in Coleman’s life grew up in his neighborhood, and even spent time visiting his house as a kid. But she didn’t have any recollection of the boy who would later become her husband.
Jordan Daigle played with Coleman’s sister, and their families were well acquainted.
“The funny part is I don’t have any memories of Blake from when we were kids,” said Jordan Daigle, who now goes by Jordan Coleman. “I had play dates at the Coleman’s house all the time. His sister and I were super close.”
Jordan graduated from TCU where she was a showgirl for several years. She went on to become a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.
A few years later, the pair started to date. When she went to visit Blake’s parents, they were in the same house that she remembered playing in as a kid.
There was familiarity everywhere, except one tiny area. Jordan spoke hockey as well as she does ancient Greek.
“I didn’t know hockey at all,” she said. “Our first summer together, we were watching the playoffs at the time. He would explain all of it to me. I’m not going to lie, it took me some time. Now I fully understand the game and it’s awesome.”
Seven months ago, the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Charlie.
The Stars’ move to Texas did not make this story happen, but they made it possible, which is ultimately this franchise’s greatest legacy.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 12:36 PM.
