Color of Hockey: Walsh helping kids deal with diversity, inclusion, race

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Anthony Walsh, a former Minnesota high school hockey player who has authored an illustrated children's book that deals with race, diversity and inclusion.

Anthony Walsh was outraged by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. He was stung by the reactions of some people to Floyd's death and filled with the need to do something.
"Not everybody understood what was going on and I felt like [there were] questions that people had needed to be answered," said Walsh, who was living in Washington, D.C., when Floyd was killed while in custody of Minneapolis police. "I don't know why … I got this epiphany to just start typing."
The outcome was "Hockey is for Everybody," a new illustrated children's book that addresses diversity, inclusion and race based on the 27-year-old's experiences as a Black player growing up in Minnesota.
"I just typed out a manuscript, all these things that had happened to me as a youth hockey player through high school. I played junior A hockey in Canada for a bit as well," Walsh said. "All these experiences just kind of came to the forefront and I was able to get them down on paper."

He hopes the 38-page book, illustrated by Justine Allenette Ross of Detroit, will teach young readers to "put yourself in somebody else's shoes" and to respect one another.
The book has been gaining traction since its release July 27. The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, a Hockey Is For Everyone affiliate in Philadelphia, reached out to Walsh about doing a reading for its players in October.
And Walsh, a student at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, recently delivered free copies to Minnesota Unbounded, a hockey program for girls of color.
"I'm honestly proud of the message that it presents and representation for the kids, especially being in Minnesota and having it be a book about hockey," he said.

"Hockey Is for Everybody" features Anthony, a 12-year-old Black player on the Monarchs. Anthony is excited that the Monarchs are playing for a championship against the rival Cardinals but sad about what he's had to deal with along the way.
"Anthony had been battling more than just tough opponents," the book says. "He'd been battling the mean things people said to him because he was Black. Anthony had been battling racism."
Anthony's antagonist in the story is Jason, a Cardinals player who tells him "Why don't you go back to the basketball court?" Another Cardinals player tells Anthony to "Go eat a banana."

Those were slurs Walsh said he often heard as a young player.
"It was always, always something," he said. "I don't mean it was always somebody calling me the N-word. It was, like, 'The basketball court is over there,' or, 'Why aren't you shooting hoops,' or, 'Go eat a banana.' If it wasn't overtly racist, they were microaggressions."
But they didn't diminish Walsh's passion for hockey. He was a forward for Edina High School, which won Minnesota's Class 2A championship in 2013, and he played for Brockville of the Central Canada Hockey League in 2013-14 and had 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 27 games.

Walsh has been a volunteer instructor for the Minnesota Wild's Hockey is for Me, a four-week learn-to-skate program for children ages 5-9 from underrepresented communities across the Twin Cities.
He was also an assistant coach for the Panthers, an Under-18, all-Black boys' team of players from across the United States that competed in the Minnesota Showcase Hockey Summer Showdown in June. The team was organized by the Black Hockey Mommies, a
Facebook support group of Black hockey moms
.
"It was so incredible just to be there as an assistant coach," Walsh said. "We've experienced the loneliness, the isolation that comes with being the only elite Black player on your team. Just to look into the locker room and see a sea of color, honestly, there was nothing like it."

Mary Taris said she had seen nothing like Walsh's story when she first read his "Hockey is for Everybody" manuscript. Taris, a former schoolteacher, is the founder and CEO of Strive Community Publishing and Bookstore, a Black and woman-owned business in Minneapolis.
Strive's mission is to elevate Black authors and their stories, especially in the children's books space. Walsh's story was a natural fit, Taris said.
"It's different in terms of the topic is hockey, but it's actually the same as our mission, which is representation in all areas for the Black community," she said.
"I was inspired to publish his book because in the Black community we don't always see ourselves doing things because we don't see other Black people doing things," Taris said. "That would not have been on my radar if he had not submitted his manuscript."
Photos: Anthony Walsh, Mary Taris, Cyndi Nightengale Photography