Shawna Morris thought she was putting her son Logan on a mailing list for hockey camps, but it turned out to be much more than that.
Morris actually put him on a list of players to be scouted by the CCM Selects to play in the CCM World Invite in Bled, Slovenia. Morris didn’t think too much of it when the CCM Selects president added her on Facebook.
Two weeks later, the Morris family received a letter asking if Logan would join the team in Slovenia for the tournament, which took place on July 31.
“I had to read it two or three times,” Morris said. “I was like ‘I don’t know where this is coming from.’ I was like, ‘This is strange.’”
It caught the family so off guard that Logan’s father Duane thought the letter was fake. But the offer was very much legit.
Logan and his family spent a week in Slovenia while the Columbus North freshman played alongside 17 other boys from across the country who were invited to represent to the CCM Selects.
Logan said he had a blast, but was nervous going into the first game of the tournament. His two assists in Game 1 helped calm his nerves. He also scored a goal in one of the games on his way to helping the Selects reach the semifinal round.
The semifinal game was a highly physical match against Slovenia, and the selects had 12 players in the box at one point. They were eliminated in that game, but won three of their five games.
Logan did more than just play hockey during his seven days in Europe. The team went hiking in the Vintgar Gorge, skiing on one of the biggest sky ramps in the world and even got to meet the Los Angeles Kings’ Slovenian hockey player, Anže Kopitar.
“It was really cool overseas in Slovenia. It’s just so much nicer,” Morris said. “It was a lot of mountain ranges to look at, and there is just always something to see over there.”
Logan not only got to interact with his new teammates, but he also got a chance to share experiences with the kids from other teams and countries.
“It was cool. We met all of the CCM Select teams, all of the European teams, all the western teams. Pretty much every country was there,” Morris said.
A few of the players from some of the other teams did not have a ride to the rink one day, so the Selects talked the bus driver into letting them ride on their bus. Logan and his teammates shared experiences from their respective countries, and Logan’s parents said it was a neat learning experience for him to interact with so many different cultures.
“(The best part) was meeting everybody on my team and getting the chance to play with everyone else from across the world,” Logan said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Logan Morris” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Name: Logan Morris
High school: Columbus North
Year: Freshman
Columbus hockey team: Columbus Iceman
Position: Defenseman
Recent tournament: CCM World Invite in Bled, Slovenia, with the CCM Selects.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
