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Gallery by Amanda LaMonda | July 28 2026 The Tampa Tarpons take the win 10-7, with a total of 4 home runs. Tarpons opened the 1st inning with a “home run derby,” according to fans who were enjoying Dog in the Park Night with their furry friends. #10 Hans Montero had 2 home runs and was named top performer of the night, along with Wilberson De Pena, who hit a home run off a 1st pitch, and Brando Mayea, who tallied 1 HR as well. The teams, pups, families, and local kids brought great energy, and they enjoyed their final days of summer night baseball before school is back in Florida. These photos are owned by Hazze Media and Minor League Baseball (MiLB). They may not be redistributed, sold, or used for commercial purposes without explicit permission.

By Ava Heaton | July 24 2026 Boston Fleet’s Haley Winn (8) celebrates a goal on Ottawa Charge goaltender Gwyneth Philips (33), not pictured, during shootout PWHL hockey action in Ottawa, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby When the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) began, it did more than just establish a professional platform for women’s ice hockey. It emphasized collegiate programs that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. At the top of this list is ECAC Hockey. Formed by a blend of prestigious Ivy League schools and other powerhouse programs, the ECAC has cemented itself as arguably the most dominant development ground for professional women’s hockey. A transition from collegiate hockey to the PWHL is a demanding one, but year after year, ECAC programs prove that they are uniquely equipped to produce athletes who don’t just make professional rosters, but immediately make their impact felt. To understand how deeply the ECAC is woven into the fabric of the PWHL already, you don’t have to look far. The league’s opening night rosters for the 2025-26 season featured 75 former ECAC Hockey student-athletes, with representation from 11 of the league’s 12 schools. The sheer number of ECAC alumni scattered across the league speaks to the conference’s dominance. ECAC programs have built sustained cultures of success and professional readiness. The seamless transition from the ECAC to the professional level is not just a coincidence. It’s rooted in the specific brand of hockey played in the conference. Historically, ECAC Hockey has been defined by its defensive structure, disciplined systems, and physical style. While other collegiate conferences may be known for high-flying, transition offenses, the ECAC is a league of inches. Games are won along the boards, in the netfront closeness, and through neutral-zone pressure. Victoire wins 2026 PWHL Walter Cup © Troy Parla/Getty Images Because the PWHL has quickly established a reputation as an incredibly physical and fast league, ECAC alumni find themselves in familiar territory. The heavy forechecking, shot-blocking, and defensive accountability drilled into them by their collegiate coaches help them transition seamlessly into the pro game. Players who spent four years matching up against the disciplined systems of Cornell, Yale, or Clarkson don’t experience the same culture shock when facing the stifling defense of a professional team. They are already accustomed to playing under pressure, making quick decisions in tight spaces, and sacrificing their bodies to protect a lead. This preparation has allowed numerous ECAC alumni to fast-track their way to stardom in the PWHL. Take Boston Fleet forward Jessie Eldridge, a former Colgate University standout. Known in college for her relentless work ethic and offensive instincts, Eldridge smoothly translated her game to the professional level, becoming a highly dependable offensive presence. Her ability to play a heavy, physical game while maintaining soft hands around the crease is a direct byproduct of the style she perfected in the ECAC. Another Fleet standout and former Clarkson University star Haley Winn has even said that playing in the conference with its physicality and pace of play really prepared her for the PWHL and she was even drafted second overall in the 2025 draft. The Quinnipiac Bobcats Are Your 2026 ECAC Hockey Women's Champions The impact of ECAC Hockey doesn’t show signs of stopping any time soon. In the 2026 PWHL Draft out of 72 players selected, 27 of them came from the ECAC. That ranked the most out of any NCAA Conference. So, as the PWHL continues to grow, securing its place in the mainstream sports landscape, the strong, mutually beneficial relationship between the league and ECAC Hockey will only continue. Young recruits will continue to choose ECAC schools because they see alumni successfully leaping to the pros. For collegiate players dreaming of going professional, the ECAC has proven to be a great path. The conference has shown it can build the foundation required to succeed at the absolute highest level of the sport. When fans tune in to watch the fastest, most physical women's ice hockey on the planet, they are watching a product heavily shaped, driven, and elevated by the alumni of ECAC Hockey. Disclaimer: The views, analysis, and opinions expressed in this op-ed are of the writer. All information is for commentary and informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, professional, or investment advice. References to third-party sources and public figures are made for illustrative purposes and do not imply endorsement or verification by HAZZE MEDIA.

Interview by Holly Arend | July 23 2026 On a bus ride home after a bad day at school, a kid sat alone at the front, with no one beside him. Hayden Thorsen noticed. He put a hand on his shoulder, asked if he was okay and invited him to come sit with him. It was a small gesture, quiet and instinctive, the kind of thing that might have passed in a moment and still stayed with someone for years. In many ways, it became the kind of moment Shoulder Check was built to honor. Reach out, check in, make contact. Those words eventually became the heartbeat of Shoulder Check, but they started somewhere more personal. They started in the way Hayden moved through the world, in the way he noticed people, in the way he made them feel less alone. After Hayden passed by suicide at 16, what remained for his family was not only grief, but the memory of how naturally he cared for others. What began in loss slowly became something lasting, not a slogan, but a way of carrying his impact forward. For Rob Thorsen, Hayden’s father, that work was never only about remembering what was lost. It was about building something people could actually live with, something simple enough to carry into everyday life and meaningful enough to matter when it did. That is why the language at the center of Shoulder Check matters so much. Reach out, check in, make contact is not just a message attached to the organization. It reflects the way Hayden lived. “He was the kind of person who walked into a room and made people feel like they mattered,” Thorsen said. That line says almost everything. Hayden had a presence people noticed right away. He was big, funny, sharp, athletic and full of personality. But the quality people return to most often is not just that he stood out. It is that he made other people feel seen. “He’s the warmest, kindest person on the planet,” Thorsen said. “Maybe they weren’t the best player on the team, but Hayden always made them feel like they were.” That memory lives at the center of Shoulder Check. Not just the sadness of what happened, but the truth of who Hayden was. From the beginning, the goal was never to create a traditional mental health campaign. Thorsen wanted something people could use, not just admire. Something direct. Something human. Something that could meet people where they already were. “We wanted it to be simple, universal and something people could take with them,” he said. That thinking shaped the organization’s language and its identity. Reach out, check in and make contact was designed to feel approachable, while the larger idea of making kindness a contact sport gave the message a natural connection to hockey without trapping it there. “It has to be a doing thing,” Thorsen said. “It’s not enough to talk about it. You have to do it.” That idea, action instead of just awareness, became the foundation. Shoulder Check did not come to life in isolation. It grew through family, friends and the larger hockey community, all of them trying to turn grief into something that could help other people. Gary Zegras was one of the people who immediately reached out and made it clear he wanted to be involved. Ben and Ashley Prentiss at Prentiss Hockey Performance, where Hayden had trained, also became important early partners. Their facility, lined with jerseys from the athletes who trained there, became its own kind of tribute. The first jersey hanging in that space carried Hayden’s name. From there, the vision started to sharpen. Prentiss and his team wanted to do something tangible and suggested a game. That idea helped crystallize what Shoulder Check could be. The game became the launch point for the Shoulder Check Initiative. The inaugural event carried the emotion of people who were still very close to the loss. Much of the crowd was, as Thorsen described it, only about one degree away from everything. It was public, emotional and deeply communal. Hayden’s teammates helped run the event and skated in the amateur game, grounding it in the people and relationships that had shaped his life. Even in its earliest form, Shoulder Check felt less like a campaign rollout and more like a shared act of care. From there, the idea kept growing. What began as a local expression of grief and remembrance started to evolve into something larger and more portable. The core message stayed the same, but more people began to see themselves in it and bring their own energy to it. By October 2025, Shoulder Check had already grown into a yearlong effort. Activations stretched across the NHL, the AHL, youth hockey, schools and community spaces. The initiative was no longer confined to a single event or a single room. It had become something people were carrying into their own teams, campuses and communities. That growth also showed up creatively. One of the clearest examples was Lean on Me, a project that brought athletes together in a way that emphasized vulnerability, trust and connection. It worked because it felt real. It did not just tell people what Shoulder Check stood for. It showed them. The same was true as the organization moved into the next phase of its work in 2026. The calendar expanded. The activations spread. The message reached different corners of the hockey world and beyond. There were events tied to Shattered Ice, including screenings at McGill University and with support connected to the Capitals. Other programs reached out wanting to screen the film for their students and team members. What mattered was not just that the message was growing, but that it was finding different forms. That expansion was never really about scale for its own sake. It was about finding more ways to make the message usable. Even as new campaigns developed and partnerships expanded, the heart of the work stayed the same. The goal was to keep Hayden’s spirit alive through action, to build a culture where kindness is practiced, not just praised. That is part of what makes Shoulder Check feel different. It does not ask people only to agree with the message. It asks them to do something with it. The annual showcase became the clearest expression of that idea, but it also became part of a larger rhythm. The event was no longer just a single summer gathering. It was the center of a bigger cycle, one that continued through schools, teams, community events and creative projects throughout the year. The move to Sacred Heart marked the next chapter in that growth. The larger venue offered more space, more resources and more ways for people to engage, while still trying to preserve what had made the earlier years special. The hope was not to outgrow the intimacy of the event, but to give it a setting that could hold everything it had become. “It should still be everything that made it special,” Thorsen said, “just with a better setting to host it in, with more resources.” As planning continued, that next phase came further into focus. Ticket sales launched earlier than in previous years. Partners from earlier events returned. New ones began joining the effort. One of those partners was Be The People, whose values aligned closely with the spirit of Shoulder Check and the people behind it. That mattered because the partnership was not just sponsorship. It was recognition. Be The People saw in Shoulder Check the same call to action they believe in: that communities change when people choose to step up, show up and be part of something bigger than themselves. There was also hope for the Hockey Hall of Fame to bring trophies to the event, and the possibility of broader broadcast visibility changed what the day could become. But what seemed to excite Thorsen most was not the scale of the production. It was the opportunity to create more touch points for the message itself. He described an experience where the event would not just contain Shoulder Check, but express it constantly. Stories on the jumbotron. Reflections from students who had helped bring the idea to life. Messages from families explaining why they check in. Moments woven into the rhythm of the day rather than forced into it. That distinction matters. The most moving parts of Shoulder Check have rarely felt manufactured. They work because they feel lived in. They come from real people, real stories and real acts of connection. “There’ll be a band, there’ll be more and different food, there’ll be additional partners in our midway, there’ll be new things to see, like the Hall of Fame trophies, and of course, the players’ arrivals,” Thorsen said. There is joy in that description, and that joy matters too. Shoulder Check has always carried grief inside it, but it has never been built only around grief. It is also built around warmth, humor, togetherness and the belief that kindness can still be active, visible and shared. That may be one of the clearest ways Hayden’s presence remains inside it. The whole story matters, of course. The family knows that. The people close to the organization know that. But one of the most powerful things about Shoulder Check is that carrying the idea forward does not always require knowing every detail of where it began. Sometimes it starts much smaller than that. A hand on a shoulder. A question. An invitation to sit down beside someone. That is the kind of memory this work keeps returning to. Not because it is sentimental, but because it is instructive. It reminds people that connection does not always have to be grand to be meaningful. Sometimes the smallest gestures leave the deepest mark. That is what Shoulder Check was built to hold onto. Not only the pain of losing Hayden, but the example of how he lived. Not just awareness. Not just remembrance. Action. Care. Presence. The choice to notice someone else and move toward them. That is why the phrase still holds. Reach out, check in, make contact. It is a mission statement, but it is also more than that. It is a reflection of Hayden’s life. It is the shape his impact took after loss. It is the way his family, friends and community chose not to let kindness stop with memory. And in that way, Shoulder Check is not only about honoring Hayden. It is about making more room in the world for what he gave people when he was here. A sense of being seen. A sense of being valued. A reminder that someone noticed. Not just to remember Hayden. But to keep making room for people to reach out, check in and make contact.

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Ditch chasing trends. We build brand relevance through creative solutions & industry-focused marketing skills for businesses and brands in entertainment, fashion, food, hospitality, healthcare, real-estate, & sports. Our Creative Agency is the top creative agency based in Texas for content creation, social media marketing, photography, paid ads, website/graphic design, branding, & more. Based in Dallas, and serves international clients, contact us to start today. CREATIVE AGENCY Ditch chasing trends we help build brand relevance through creative solutions & industry-focused marketing skills for businesses and brands in: entertainment, fashion, food, hospitality, healthcare, real-estate, & sports Meet Ezzah Rafique As the Founder of HAZZE MEDIA, I've created a network of the top Gen-Z Creatives within the United States, Australia, & Europe to help businesses and brands stand out in their desired fields to their target audiences. Over the last 6 years, I have helped creative direct media productions, run social media campaigns and paid advertising plans, develop digital marketing plans, and create content through editorial photography and videography within entertainment (music & film), healthcare, real estate, sports, fashion, & beauty. From working with major brands like NYX Professional Makeup, Steve Madden, Urban Decay, & Conair to small businesses like MarieLouLou, Nova Bariatrics & General Surgery, Rafia Muggo Official, and Dil Ki Recipes by Dr. Sheeza Mohsin, I developed a passion for growing businesses and brands to reach their target audience. Within HAZZE MEDIA, projects like the Dallas Mavericks South Asian Night, NYFW show coverage, SXSW content creation, cover story editorial shoots with Alec Benjamin, Briston Maroney, Nik Bonitto, & more have reached over 3.3 million interactions under my expertise & team. By developing HAZZE's Creative Agency, my team and I are focused on purpose-drive creative solutions for every project, big or small. Contact Here EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VIDEOGRAPHY BRANDING & GRAPHIC DESIGN PAID AD MANAGEMENT WEBSITE DESIGN & SEO PODCAST PRODUCTION Get in Touch Contact us to learn more about services from HAZZE MEDIA, the HAZZE Creative Team, & more info@hazzemedia.com BACK TO HOME First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting! HOME HAZZE MAGAZINE JOIN/CONTRIBUTE ABOUT ADVERTISE CONTACT JOIN NEWSLETTER INTERVIEWS WEBITORIALS CREATIVE AGENCY ALL CONTENT SHOP © 2025 by HAZZE MEDIA, LLC Dallas, TX

HAZZE MEDIA's Creative Agency is the top Gen-Z performing creative agency based in Texas for content creation, social media marketing, production, photography, paid ads, website design, graphic design, branding, & more. Based in Dallas, serves international clients. CREATIVE AGENCY DIGITAL MARKETING Rafia Muggo Official: Social Media & Website Development Rafia Muggo Official is a Luxury Modestwear Brand based in Dallas, TX HAZZE MEDIA manages all social media accounts for @rafiamuggoofficial & is currently developing a rebranded website. Dil Ki Recipes by Dr. Sheeza Mohsin: Social Media & Podcast Production Dr. Sheeza Mohsin is a Relationship Expert, Eexecutive Coach, Public Speaker, & Author and host of "Dil Ki Recipes" (Podcast for South Asians navigating relationships and mental health). HAZZE MEDIA created all branding elements and helps product, edit, and distribute "Dil Ki Recipes" as well as manage Dr. Sheeza Mohsin's social media accounts (@drsheezamohsin & @dilkirecipes). We also create clipped content, graphic static posts, and advertisements on Meta for new workshops for targeted South Asian demographics. Nova Bariatrics & General Surgery: Social Media Marketing & Content Creation At NOVA Bariatrics, Board Certified General Surgeon Dr. Alibhai—also a Fellow of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons— specializes in weight loss, hernia care, bariatric surgery, general surgery, reflux, and aesthetics. HAZZE MEDIA manages @novambi @novabariatrics accounts while creating video-focused, educational content. Amasi Decor: Email Marketing & Graphic Design Amasi Decor is the leading retailer of premium Ramadan, Eid, and Eastern-inspired party and home decor. HAZZE MEDIA designs graphic elements like inserts, email blasts, & ready-to-use templates for marketing. Our Client Metrics After 90 Days.. Want to see what results we bring in? Take a look at some metrics we've pulled from our client accounts after 90 days. Farah-J Photography: Paid Advertising & Website Design Farah-J Photography is a photographer based out of Keller, TX. HAZZE MEDIA ran paid advertising on Meta and increased her bookings, while redesigning a user-friendly website and portfolio. UGC Based Content Working with brands like NYFW, NYX Professional Makeup, Steve Madden, Urban Decay, MariLouLou, & More View Videography Porfolio Want to see more? Photography Editorial Photography for events, brands, shows, red carpets, artists, designers, & more View Here Video Production Video production projects for clients in entertainment, sports, healthcare, fashion, & more View Here Graphic Design Branding, logo design, graphic design for marketing, & editorial graphic design projects View Here Other Projects More client projects by HAZZE includes: podcast production, website development, & SEO View Here Get in Touch Contact us to learn more about services from HAZZE MEDIA, the HAZZE Creative Team, & more info@hazzemedia.com BACK TO HOME First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting!