Brendan Burke remembered fondly

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Brendan Burke, student manager of Miami University's hockey team, was killed in a traffic accident during a recent snowstorm.

By Jordan Furbee, Redhawk Report

(Oxford)  The bench at the Goggin Ice Arena was noticeably missing someone this week. The Miami Men’s Hockey team resumed practice a day after returning from the funeral of their student manager, Brendan Burke, who died Friday, February 5th in a car accident in Indiana. Brendan was a senior political science major who had been a member of the hockey team for four years. While understandably playing with heavy hearts, the team plans to never forget what Brendan brought to those he met.

Tommy Wingels, the Junior Captain for the hockey team said that Brendan will be missed and touched many lives. 

“He brought a sense of excitement and joy. The kid would always walk into the room with the biggest smile on his face. If guys were in a bad mood, you’d see Brendan you know there’s nothing to be in a bad mood about. The kid would come into the room, and everyone would look over and hey Brendan’s here today and he was just another one of the guys and going out there yesterday was an honor. It was great support for family and friends, ex teammates and everything, and we were truly honored to be able to celebrate his life yesterday,” said Wingels.

Enrico Blasi, Miami's Hockey head coach believes that the team will grow stronger every day and will continue to remember Brendan for who he was.

“It’s tough obviously knowing what’s happened, but I know that he would want us to get back at it and continue to move forward and play. You know were gonna get through this as a team, and hopefully we get stronger everyday that goes by," said Blasi. 

“We talked about dedicating the season to him. Everyone just keeps saying he’s gonna be right there with us, helping us out and he’s just one of the guys through ups and downs he’s gonna be there and win it for him and everything. We’ve got a patch on our jerseys were gonna wear, we’ve got stickers and everything. But it’s just the most important thing is remembering him and think about what he’d done for each guy how many people, how many lives he’s touched, if you think about that it just puts you in such a good mood," said Wingels.

“We’re gonna honor him by playing our game and focusing on what we do best. That’s the ultimate compliment we can give Brendan, and we know he’s gonna be with us. This is life and we wanna make sure we remember him the way he was. And we honor his life and what he accomplished here on earth, and obviously he’s in a better place now and we’ll always have those memories," said Blasi.

The Burke family is asking, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made in Brendan’s name to: Xavieran Leadership Institute, c/o Xavieran Brothers High School, 800 Clapboardtree St., Westwood, MA 02090.

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