This is the kind of athletic dream- based on head shaking perseverance- that becomes legend.

A kid from east Texas dreams of playing ice hockey. (There are no rinks in east Texas.)  He learns to skate and play hockey on in-line skates. He and his family find ice and settle into the hockey family grind of routinely spending weekends on the road driving from rink to rink. (Eating lots of ‘rink pizza,’ I’m sure.)

Moving the family closer to hockey isn’t an option, but the kid is talented and lives for the ice. Boarding school provides the combination of hockey and academics. He wants boarding school and hockey so badly that he lives up to his mother’s requirement to earn straight A’s.

These are the experiences and the foundations that propelled, Thomas Scoggin from Longview, Texas to Cranbrook Schools (Bloomfield Hills, MI).

“He had to make all-A’s in school and he had to take all advanced-placement courses. He did everything I asked him to,I had to let him go, but the day we put him on the plane, I cried the entire way there” Vicki Scoggin told the Longview News-Journal.

Success didn’t come easily to Scoggin at Cranbrook. His goal keeping technique needed work. He didn’t make the varsity team his first year (10th grade); he didn’t see much action as a varsity reserve the next year.

Scoggin won the starting job as senior, compiling a 14-2-1 record behind a .919 save percentage including seven shutouts. Scoggin produced a stellar 6-0 stretch through the playoff and championship run.

Rather than go straight to college, Scoggin is heading back to the Dallas area to play junior hockey.

“…he will return to Alliance for the next school year, playing his home games at the Dr Pepper StarCenter in Irving…Thomas will live with a Metroplex-area (Dallas) host family, moving from Longview in the middle of August. Vicki said Thomas will also take college courses next year as well as work a part-time job.

Thomas said he plans on joining a junior program in 2011 and will play juniors for one or two years. A team he may join is the Texas Tornado, a Frisco-based squad. Thomas said he is anxious to get more ice time, and that his time in juniors will be critical for his college hopes. College hockey is divided between the Division I scholarship level, the non-scholarship Division III level and collegiate club programs.

‘I think it’s a maybe for Thomas playing at the Division I level. Competition at Division I is extremely fierce,’ [Cranbrook coach Andy Weidenbach] said. ‘Can Thomas play at some level of college hockey? I would say yes.’”(LN-J)

I’m only scratching the surface here. For the full story with all the details, read “East Texan’s Love of Hockey Leads to Michigan, Results in a Pair of State Championships.”