Stars Daily November 9: The world needs more people like Kade O'Rourke

As part of it’s hockey coverage ESPN has a weekly feature called “the best player in the world of the week.”

This week that feature gave some extra recognition to a Texas Stars fan named Kade O’Rourke, who at 6-years-old is the most accomplished youth hockey player I know.

But Kade isn’t honored just for his play, he was mentioned for his connection to Cody Smuk, a former University of Saskatchewan player who passed away after a battle with cancer and was a close friend to former Texas Stars’ forward Derek Hulak.

Here is the passage from the ESPN story:

O’Rourke, 6 years old and is having a dazzling season for his team, with four goals and an assist in a game last Saturday, as well as a 16-points-in-three-games effort in a recent tournament. But it’s his relationship with Cody Smuk, a former University of Saskatchewan player who died of cancer in 2015, that’s remarkable. When he was 4, Kade heard about Smuk’s life from former Texas Stars player Derek Hulak, and since then he’s found ways to honor the late player’s memory. He switched his number to Smuk’s No. 24. He has that number shaved into his head before the first game of the season. He writes a 2 and a 4 on his hands with the initials “CS.” His father and coach, Dan, said Kade will turn to him during the game, say “Cody is with me right now, watch this,” and then have help produce a goal for his team. For honoring the spirit of the game, Kade gets a BPITWOTW nomination this week.

I first met the O’Rourke family because of their goofy and creative signs during Texas Stars warmups a couple seasons ago.

There was a stretch where the middle son, Nevan, was holding a sign needling former Stars goalie Jack Campbell about his attractive girlfriend. Kade has also held up multiple signs challenging Curtis McKenzie to a fight, with the prize being a bag of gummy bears.

But for all their creativity with signs, my favorite part about the O’Rourke family is this fact, which I wrote about two years ago in a story for the Austin American-Statesman:

After seeing Hulak wear a “Marty’s Men” sticker on his helmet and learning about what it meant, 13-year-old Liam, 10-year-old Nevan, 8-year-old Karis and 4-year-old Kade asked their parents to take a chunk of their Christmas money and donate it to Smuk.

“It was their idea,” Dave O’Rourke said before Texas’ game last Saturday, watching his kids hold up a new batch of signs. “We explained it to them and what it meant. Then they wanted to help and do something about it.”

Housekeeping Notes

–The mailbag comes out tomorrow. You can get your questions in on Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook.

Today’s Schedule

The Stars practice at 10:30 a.m. in Frisco, it is open to the public.