Flyers honor fan who drove 500 miles to attend game against Capitals

The Philadelphia Flyers had fans at Wells Fargo Center for the first time this season March 7, and Marine Sgt. Justin Solorio wasn't going to miss it.

Even if it required a 500-mile drive from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
"When it was announced that [Wells Fargo Center] was going to be allowing fans back, especially in the crazy times that we are right now, I just thought, you know what, I have to do it," Solorio said. "I have to go up there, I have to support them, be there for the home opener. And it was just something that to me, being the Flyers fan that I am, I knew that it just had to be done."
The Flyers have made sure the 23-year-old from of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania knows his fandom is valued.
Flyers forward Sean Couturier signed a jersey for Solorio and sent a message.
"Thanks for your service in the military, everything you do for us, and thanks for the support also," Couturier said.

That brief message was more than Solorio could have hoped for.
"It still doesn't feel real," Solorio said. "It still hasn't hit me that Sean Couturier, someone that I've looked up to for so many years, ever since he got on to the Flyers, he's always been someone I looked up to, someone I appreciated and respected, and to hear him talk about me, and to hear like any Flyer talk about me, it's a dream.
"It's like I'm constantly living in a dream right now. Then to see the video of him signing my jersey and saying something to me that was just ... it was just amazing. It was just something that I never thought would happen. And now that it's happening it's like, 'Oh my God.' It's hard to put words into how I'm feeling right now."
Solorio grew up playing hockey, including at Spring Ford Area High School in Royersford, Pennsylvania. He's been a Flyers fan since age 11, and his bedroom at home and in his barracks at Camp Lejeune are covered in orange and black.

And when he's been deployed, including to Japan and the Philippines, the Flyers also are with him.
"I always bring a Flyers flag and a Flyers blanket to wherever I go, even if I'm getting deployed," he said. "It's always coming with me."
Solorio said he will be in attendance when the Flyers play the Capitals on Thursday before he makes the long drive back to Camp Lejeune. But he'll try to get back to Philadelphia when he can.
"I've done the drive a bunch of times," he said. "Whenever there's Flyers games on the weekend, I'm always like, you know what, maybe I'll spend a leave day here or there and be able to go up there and see the Flyers. And I mean, also family. But usually the one thing that will make me really do it is Flyers games."

Photo: Marcus Hayes / The Philadelphia Inquirer