"I got all choked up. And the next year I started videoing. So John could see his games."
She's been doing it ever since, building a library that had to be digitalized recently, to preserve room in their Washington Township house. But Stacy has a dilemma this week: Beginning tomorrow, her two sons are playing in national championship tournaments at the same time, miles from each other. Nolan, who is 12, will center a line for Team Comcast's Pee Wee team in Indian Trail, N.C. John Jr., 14, will center a line that includes Derian Hatcher's son, Chase, on the Team Comcast Bantam team that will be competing in Frisco, Texas.
Mom will accompany the little guy, send her parents to watch John in Texas. Hatcher, sidelined after last summer's knee surgery, and his wife, Heather, also will be looking out for him.
But it is the first time Stacy will be this far from her eldest.
"The pieces of the puzzle fit together," she said. "Still, I'm kind of getting an ulcer thinking about nationals."
John Stevens will miss it, too, at least live. Nothing unusual about that. The job of professional coach, especially in this era of advance scouting and preparation, is pretty near 24-7. Certainly it is more time-exhausting than when he was a Phantoms player and occasional Flyers call-up in the 1990s. Back then when the team was in town, he could make it home for lunch most days.
"That's been the biggest adjustment," Stacy said. "You had so much more family time when he was a player. As soon as John walked through the door, little John would walk up to him with that goalie stick."
