“This wasn’t for us. This was for the 17 victims,” Douglas senior Matthew Horowitz told Miami television station WPLG after his team defeated Tampa’s Jesuit High School 7-4 in the championship game. One of the victims, Jaime Guttenberg, was the younger sister of junior varsity player Jesse Guttenberg, the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel reported.
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Douglas had to win twice Sunday to take event in Estero, Fla. It had lost its first three games during pool play Friday and Saturday.
“We came into the game knowing we had to give it our all to get the win and that’s what we did and now we get to bring the trophy back to the best high school in America,” team member Joey Zenobi told Fort Myers television station WBBH.
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The program will be back in the spotlight next month (March 22-25) when it competes in the national high school hockey tournament in Wayzata, Minn.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ campus in Parkland, Fla., is 20 minutes north of BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., home of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. The Panthers honored the victims Thursday in the team’s first home game after the shooting.
