Like a lot of Michigan youth, Mark Richert grew up on the ice, gliding around the frozen ponds and arenas of the Midwest playing ice hockey with his friends. But when a high school classmate and former teammate died during a game, Richert packed away his gear in his parent’s basement, expecting to be done with the sport for good.
“I just kind of shut down,” he said. “The whole sport didn’t make sense to me any longer.”
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