Notre Dame senior Graham Slaggert calls his mother, Tara, “a superhero.”
Little brother and Irish sophomore Landon Slaggert prefers “saint” as his term of motherly endearment.
But perhaps “chauffeur extraordinaire” might be the best way to describe a dedicated mother who invested more than a decade of travel time to provide her sons an opportunity to play hockey at Notre Dame and keep them on track to realizing their lifelong goal of playing in the NHL.
“We owe mom everything,” said Landon, with sincere gratitude. “She really made this dream possible.”
The story begins about 12 years ago when Graham — with the help of his mother and the guidance of his father, Andy Slaggert, a well-respected 29-year Irish hockey assistant coach — seized the opportunity to play a portion of his youth hockey with Chicago Mission, an elite Triple-A developmental program.
As South Bend natives, a lack of high-caliber competition and coaching locally meant the Slaggert boys were unable to pursue their lofty hockey goals close to home.
So, at least twice, and sometimes three or more times a week, Tara made the four-hour round-trip drive with Graham to practices in the Windy City, a taxing task indeed.
And, as if hauling Graham back and forth wasn’t demanding enough, Tara eventually meshed the same routine in with Landon, and eventually with her youngest son, Carter.
The three boys are separated by six years total in age — three years between each — and all followed the same youth hockey path, meaning that for 12 years, Tara handled the commutes at the same time husband Andy was coaching the Irish.
Tara’s routine was packing up the food and gear, picking up the boys from school, making the two-hour trek to Chicago, sitting through a 90-minute or two-hour practice inside a chilly ice arena, loading back up, driving back to South Bend, rinsing and repeating.
For the Slaggert boys, those practice days in Chicago began with school drop-off around sunrise and ended with arrival back home around midnight.
And while this rigorous routine may seem excessive for a school-aged adolescent, Landon said, “no way.”
“It may seem like a sacrifice to some,” he explained, “but if you’re really serious about the commitments you make, you don’t see it as a sacrifice, you see it as an opportunity, it’s where you want to be.”
After each of the three Slaggert boys spent six years playing in Chicago, all graduated to their next stop as members of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP), where only the best of the best compete internationally.
In December, Landon won a gold medal with the NTDP team. Graham won a silver medal while in the NTDP a couple years earlier before his arrival to Notre Dame.
The Slaggerts’ competition schedules became so overlapped and far-reaching, Graham shared a story from 2017 when he was playing in Slovakia with the NTDP team at the world championships, while at the same time Landon was competing in Arizona with Mission for a national championship and their father was in Chicago coaching his Irish in the Frozen Four.
“We’ve been all over the place,” Graham said. “It’s definitely been hectic at times.”
Carter, a 16-year-old high school junior, recently began his NTDP stint — an all-hockey on-location gig near Detroit that required all three of the Slaggert boys to move away from South Bend and board with foster families.
Carter’s advancement from Mission in Chicago to the NTDP brought an end to Tara’s chauffeuring duties, and a new chapter for three simultaneously budding hockey careers.
Back Home Again
With their youth league travel and experiences behind, both Graham and Landon said that playing and studying at the university where their father coaches and they grew up loving made for an easy college decision.
The irony is that the three-year age difference between Graham and Landon meant that outside of the living room, driveway or local ice rink growing up, they never played competitively together as teammates.
“Yeah, very strange,” Graham said, “especially in our family.”
The brotherly bridge finally connected last year when Graham and Landon became teammates and linemates at Notre Dame, and they played very well together on the forward lines.
“I think we do have some chemistry together,” Landon said. “And I don’t know if that’s the family ties to where we can find each other on the ice but there is definitely something there.”
Graham, an Academic All-Big Ten selection on top of everything else, was the team’s second-leading scorer last season with 25 points on seven goals and a team-best 18 assists.
Meanwhile, Landon made a quick impact as a freshman in 2020-21, finishing third on the Irish with 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists on his way to Notre Dame Rookie of the Year honors after last season.
All of it makes for an interesting brotherly bond the stretches well beyond finally playing together on game weekends.
“Because we never played competitively together, we never really knew what we’d have together with chemistry but it’s been awesome,” Graham said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have that happen these last two years with [Landon]. It’s fun to do well, especially when you have your brother out there.”
New-Look Irish Open Season
A year after surviving a strange season because of COVID-19, 17th-year Irish head coach Jeff Jackson recently returned his team to action for 2021-22 with normal surroundings and a familiar routine.
Following a 4-3 exhibition loss Oct. 3, against the U.S. National U-18 team, the Irish began regular play Oct. 9, at home against Long Island University.
Notre Dame finished only 14-13-2 last season, which included a 12-10-2 fourth-place finish in the Big Ten. The Irish went 4-1-1 in their final six games to qualify for the 2021 NCAA Tournament, before a COVID-19 breakout on the team forced it to withdraw before playing a game.
Jackson explained that all but one of his players is vaccinated, and returning to some coaching normalcy this season is welcome relief.
“It’s been fun again to actually coach without a mask, to not have to worry about social distancing,” he said. “It’s a much different environment when you’re coaching and practicing more back to normal.”
Jackson starts this season minus three forwards who were expected to boost an offense this year that averaged a middling 2.90 goals per game last season.
Incoming freshman Sasha Pastujov, last year’s U.S. National Under-18 scoring leader, opted for the NHL instead. Irish junior Michael Graham (18 goals and 52 points in 87 career games) retired from hockey after multiple concussions. And senior Jake Pivonka hopes to rejoin the Irish in about three months after rehab and recovery from an Achilles injury.
Notre Dame does return the talented Slaggert brothers — senior Graham and sophomore Landon — on the forward lines, and its defense will be anchored by experienced seniors Spencer Stastney and Nick Leivermann. Junior goaltender Ryan Bischel also back from last season.
With four graduate transfers added to the roster — defenseman Adam Karashik (UConn), defenseman Chase Blackmun (UMass Lowell), goaltender Matt Galajda (Cornell) and forward Jack Adams (Providence) — Jackson has a new-look team that will once again carry the usual high expectations for a program he has led to four NCAA Frozen Fours since 2008.
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