Part 1: A Boy from Herisau | SUMMER IN HERISAU

On September 13, 1999, the St. Galler Tagblatt published its daily newspaper featuring a large photo on the righthand side. The image shows three young boys running with numbered bibs on their chests.

Off to the left, a 3-year-old boy is midflight with both feet in the air during his stride. His brunette hair is fluffed from the wind, and a determined expression appears on his face.

What that 3-year-old boy didn’t know is the life that would lay ahead of him. A year later, that boy would step on the ice for the first time in a pair of skates. He would pick up a hockey stick and soon be playing hockey against older kids at his local rink. In a decade’s time, his skills and talents would develop so much that he would move from Switzerland to Canada to play highly competitive junior hockey in the Canadian Hockey League. In 2015, that boy would be drafted, ninth overall, into the National Hockey League. In a 10-year-span in the NHL, that boy would compile 241 goals, 238 assists and 479 points in nearly 700 games played. And that boy would go on to become an Olympian, donning the Swiss sweater at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

That 3-year-old boy is Timo Meier.

“I found my first article, and it was not hockey,” Meier says looking at the St. Galler Tagblatt and inspecting the photo. “I came in third place,” he laughs.

He pokes at the image of his younger self, adding: “It’s a similar face to the faces I do now.”

Meier is seated next to his father and mother, Charly and Claudia, and older sister, Larissa. They are flipping through the pages of a scrapbook that contains past newspaper articles and collections from throughout Meier’s life and hockey career – from his first race as a 3-year-old boy to his time in the CHL to the NHL Draft to playing in the NHL with San Jose and New Jersey to representing Switzerland at the Olympics. Charly has collected all these items throughout the years. Each flip of the page produces memories and conversations.

“Oh, I found something,” Larissa says pulling out a folded poster. As she unravels the sides, a larger poster emerges. The top reads: “Top 50 NHL Draft, U20 WM.” Below the header was a pyramid arrangement of differently colored post-it notes. Some notes have different inspirational messages inscribed: “You know you can do it”, “Go Hard, Go Home”, “Everything is possible with hard work”, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Some of the post-it notes have attributes listed, such as Agility, Strength, Mentality.

“I always did little pyramids of how to get to my goal,” Meier said. “I used different colors and different things I wanted to improve on. Some quotes. Then I hung it up on my door so that I saw it every day.”

A second poster board has “NHL” listed at the top with “HARD WORK PAYS OFF” in the middle and “YOU CAN DO IT” to the side. At the bottom it states: “DRAFT 2015.” Again, this poster includes other inspirational quotes – “The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow” – and areas of improvement – Quick, Agility, Training, Play Big. It’s what Meier saw everyday while playing in the Canadian Hockey League as he was heading into his NHL draft season.

For Meier, the dream of playing in the NHL seemed farfetched in his youth. After all, he came from the small town of Herisau, Switzerland.

The mostly forested farm village of 16,000 had produced only one NHL player, Jonas Hiller, and less than a handful that made it to the Swiss League.

“Growing up in Switzerland, the NHL was always very far away, but it was always a dream,” Meier says. “I wanted to play in the Swiss League. That was my goal because it was close. Then when I went over to Canada, the NHL came closer.”

When Meier arrived to play in the CHL in 2013 with Halifax, his goal was to be a top 50 prospect for the NHL Draft, hence the inspiration for the first poster board. Two years later, he landed in the top 10 on many draft boards.

The 2015 NHL Draft was held in Sunrise, Florida. The San Jose Sharks brass, holding pick No. 9, walked up to the stage to announce their selection: “With our pick, from Halifax, Timo Meier.”

Meier stood up with a huge smile and hugged his father, mother and sister before making his way to the stage. It was a proud moment for the entire family.

“We were so happy,” Claudia recalls. “It was one of the most beautiful moments of our lives.”

What many people don’t know is that the moment almost didn’t happen. Not that Meier wouldn’t have been selected in the draft. That was obviously going to happen. But his family nearly missed attending. A delayed train to the airport in Zurich, motionless traffic in a taxi and a mix up at the car rental in Miami had the Meiers scrambling to get to the arena. Claudia, driving in a foreign country, weaved through the traffic on the Florida highways and the Meiers made it on time to enjoy a monumental achievement for their son.

“That whole week was very intense,” Larissa laughs. “Timo was very nervous, and he was very focused.”

When the draft moment finally arrived, Larissa admitted mixed emotions for what it meant for their family.

“I was very happy for him,” Larissa says. “When his name gets dropped, I realized that my little brother is going to live in the United States for the next 10 or more years. That made me a bit sad, but I was very happy for him that he could live his dream.”

While Timo spends 8-9 months of his life in America, he always returns home to Switzerland every summer. Back to where he grew up. Back to where it all began.

“I’m still close to (Herisau),” he says. “Where I live, it’s like 20 minutes by the lake. I still come to Herisau to skate, still have a lot of close friends that live in the same area where I grew up. So, that’s always unique to come back to.”

Meier’s family does visit him at times during the season in the United States. But they really cherish the few months they get together over the summer.

“I’m always happy when he comes back because it’s special when we are all together,” Larissa says. “We always go to holiday with the whole family in the summer. That’s important for us. And when Timo is here, all other things (take a back seat) and family time is on.”

“We’re very close during the summer when he’s here,” Claudia says. “We do a lot together. We’re always happy when he comes back and spends the summer here.”

For Timo, coming back to Herisau is a choice. He could choose to spend his summers anywhere, the United States or Paris or London or Zurich. But instead, he returns to the same small village of his youth.

“All my friends and family live here. That makes the place special to me,” he says. “It’s a smaller city, but when you go to the city, you know so many people.

“People in this area, they’ve known me since I was a little boy. For them, nothing has really changed besides me becoming an NHL player. But they still see the same Timo they saw from 20, 25 years ago.”

One of those friends is Gian Kaufmann. The two have known each other for basically their entire lives. They lived on the same street, met when they were 3 years old and went to school together.

“I think he needs his family and his friends,” Kaufmann said of Meier. “He’s such a family guy. He’s such a (loyal) friend. He wants to be back home. He stayed humble.”

Meier and Kaufmann were extremely close growing up. After causing some mischief in grade school, their teacher wrote their parents a letter suggesting that they shouldn’t be friends because they were a negative influence on each other.

“I think this made us stronger,” Kaufmann laughed. “We’re still friends 25 years later. Found the letter six months ago. My mother showed it to me, and I immediately sent it to Timo and Timo’s parents. We all laughed.”

Kaufmann, Meier, and a number of other children in the neighborhood played floor ball in the street when they were younger. Kaufmann has been alongside Meier since the beginning. He watched Meier go from a kid running around the street to youth hockey to junior hockey and now to the NHL. 

“I’m so happy he made it,” he continued. “It was his dream because when we were kids, he was always talking about the NHL stars. Sidney Crosby was his idol. And Alex Ovechkin.”

Christian Rüegg coached Meier in his youth. He watched the boy grow into a man and reach the pinnacle of his profession – both at the NHL and Olympics. And while he has seen Meier mature in front of his eyes, he believes that he also has remained true in his roots.

“I don’t know the word in English, but we say bodenständig. It means he stands with both feet on the ground,” Rüegg said. “Timo is still a person. You can touch him. You can feel him. I think that’s wonderful. He’s just one of us.

“Timo was always a boy from the country. They come back here and give back here.”

Every summer Meier comes back and gives back to Herisau. His summer on-ice training takes place in the exact same rink that he first stepped on the ice and learned the game – the Herisau Sportzentrum. Meier grew up a five-minute walk from the arena and spent the vast majority of his youth on that ice surface.

“I was always at the rink. There was nothing else for me,” he says. “It was pretty much every second. I loved being active as a kid, sports, soccer, swimming. But if I had to choose, I would’ve spent the whole time at the rink.”

GALLERY:

Meier had an opportunity to learn the game and grow as a player from his youth at the Sportzentrum. And he always wanted other kids to have that exact same opportunity. So, when he decided that he wanted to run a youth hockey camp, there was no doubt where it would be held.

In early July, Meier held his seventh annual Timo Meier Hockey Camp. During the week, the participants – 108 in total from all over the world – learned important on-ice skills and character development. And, of course, the camp is run by many of the people who have been instrumental in Meier’s life, from old coaches to his closest friends.

“My friends, they sponsor the camp, and they're here. They're always here to support me because they know how important it is to me,” Meier says. “Like I said before, my friends really support me in life and in sports, which definitely wouldn't be possible without them. So, I have the best friends, I have the best family, and I'm a very lucky guy.”

It takes a full team to run the hockey camp, but Meier is also very hands on. He attended every day of the camp, working with the children on the ice. The kids, many sporting New Jersey Devils hats and shirts, lit up every time they had a chance to be near him, a real NHL player. That’s something that Meier never had while attending youth camps as a kid.

“We didn’t really have pros at the camps, I would’ve loved that,” he says. “I think for me, as an athlete, you have the possibility to come in and make the (kids’) faces light up.”

The camp is just one of many ways that Meier gives back to the town that raised him.

“I think what makes Timo special is that he remembers, ‘Hey, I was that kid,’” Kaufmann said. “And now he wants to bring it back to the kids. With this camp and his other charity work, he makes a lot of kids happy and smile.”

The camp is filled with children that love the game. And they also have a dream of playing in the NHL one day. As Kaufmann noted, Meier was once one of those kids on the ice. His dream of making it to the NHL seemed impossible, until it wasn’t. Meier was raised in a small town that didn’t produce a lot of pro players. And yet, he stood before those youths as a living testament that dreams do come true.

“(I want to) show the kids that it doesn't matter where you're from, if you really put your mind to something, you want to achieve something, that you can get there with hard work and determination,” Meier says. “To have respect, discipline and work hard. Work harder than the other people to get what you want.”

“These kids, they come because of Timo. He goes on the ice and takes the time with them. And I think that's also just who Timo is,” Rüegg said. “What I always say here for the young players who look to him, that he had done a lot with hard work, with hard work hard and with heart.”

The name Herisau is derived from the Old German "Hari" meaning warrior and "sau" meaning village. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to raise a hockey player. And this "warrior village" raised one hell of a hockey player and man. 

“I needed a lot of people that supported me, a lot of people, a lot of friends, and definitely my family,” Meier says. “My family played by far the biggest role to get me to the NHL level or wherever in life, they supported me. It means the world to me.

“They’re my rock. They’re always there for me. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

“Timo always had very good people around him, and that’s one reason he got so far,” Charly says. “We’re very happy that he’s made it this far. We’re proud, and we can see how much he has grown because of it and how proud he is himself.”

Meier has grown into a mature man, but in many ways, he hasn’t changed at all from that 3-year-old boy running a race. The characteristics that make him a successful professional athlete – determination, grit, work ethic, passion – were there at an early age. As was the stubborn fortitude to chase his dream.

“(As a kid) you play street hockey and you put yourself in the role of an NHL game, like ‘Timo Meier walking in on the goalie and scores,’” he said. “You run through these moments and now you actually get to live them. Sometimes you have to poke yourself.”

Meier’s home in Switzerland is well decorated with artwork and photographs. A small table in the open-area kitchen has a collection of pieces. A plaque from his NHL All-Star Game appearance, a bottle of wine commemorating his five-goal game with the Sharks, and a framed quote that reads: “There’s no place like home.”

Herisau helped mold Meier into the man he is today: humble, hardworking, determined. His connection to the area is deep rooted. That’s why he returns every summer. It’s where he’s comfortable. It’s where he belongs. It’s part of who he is.

It’s home.

“Where I’m from, people are very humble. They’re hard working,” Meier says. “All these people, all my friends, they’ve known me since I was a little kid. I’m still little Timo. Still the same person that started playing hockey at 4 and lived my childhood here.”

Meier has stamped his passport a lot throughout his life, traveling the entire world for work and play. But of all the places he's been to in the world, he knows exactly where he wants to be, and exactly where he belongs. 

He’s still just a boy from Herisau.