Smiles Aplenty This Past Season At St. Jude, Especially On The 14U Girls Team

By Ross Forman
Tom Stanislavski started coaching for the St. Jude Knights when his playing career ended in 2017 at age 22. He coached both the coed and girls’ side and ran power skating for a few years before becoming the coed program director in 2020 and the girls’ director in 2021. 

This past season, he coached three Knights girls’ teams: U14, U16 and U19.

This fall, in what will be his ninth full season coaching, all with the Knights, he will lead the club’s U16 girls and assist on the U14 and U19 girls. Plus, he will be the head coach for the 2014 boys’ team. 

“I love it here,” Stanislavski said with pride of representing the St. Jude Knights, a program filled with more than 60 years of history on the south side. The club was founded in 1960 by a group of families who were members of the St. Jude church in South Holland and many past St. Jude players are now coaches and parents of current St. Jude players.

“I try and get out with all of the teams throughout the program when I can, either running team power skates or floating around practices and helping my other coaches if needed.”

St. Jude is coming off a successful season overall during the 2025-26 campaign. “Almost every team in the program made the playoffs,” Stanislavski said. “We had an 8U CUHL championship, a 10U CSDHL prospects championship, a 12U CSDHL Championship, and a 14U girls’ team who not only got to regionals but then nationals which has never happened in program history.”

This past season also had its hardships.

“The hardest thing the club went through was the issues we had with Oak Lawn Ice Arena not being ready when the season started,” he said. “We skate out of two rinks, Southwest Ice Arena and Oak Lawn Ice Arena. Oak Lawn was supposed to be open for the start of the season but had foundation issues and had to take out and re-pour the concrete. The ETA for opening moved to mid-January so a sizable chunk of our club’s ice was gone with the season starting. The club had to figure out an alternate plan so we ended up getting ice at Willowbrook Ice Arena and (in) Homewood Flossmoor. 

“We had teams that never had practices at SIA and were at other rinks (instead). The parents and coaches had to make sacrifices all year and some families drove 20 to 30 minutes further than they are used to.”

Still, St. Jude remains a solid, viable option for area players, especially girls.

“For me and the coaches in the girls’ program, our commitment to the development of the players,” is paramount, he said. “We work with the players we have no matter the skill level. Very rarely are we ever in a spot where we cut a player or have a full roster, but we always find a way into the state tournament and NIHL playoffs and can compete with these big clubs in our area that have 35 or 40 players trying out for their top, national-bound teams. We typically have girls on our team who are cut from these clubs who are looking for a place to play on (another) national-bound team.”

St. Jude does not have the true off-ice facility or film room like many other clubs, so the Knights hold off-ice programs in the parking lot that either the coaches run or the U19 captains. 

“Overall, the girls’ teams did well,” this past season, Stanislavski said. “The 14U team came in third place in the regular season and ended up making it to the championship where we fell short; they also went to the state championship, regionals and nationals. The 16U team came in first place for the regular season with only 14- and 15-year-olds playing against teams with mixed 16/19U girls. The 19U team missed playoffs the last week of the season and struggled a bit due to a short roster. They got better as the year went on but it’s hard to compete with teams in the national division who have 18 skaters and two goalies when we have 12 skaters.”

St. Jude’s 16U girls gave up the fewest goals during the regular season. 

“We went to Denver for the first time with the 14U and 19U teams,” Stanislavski said. “The girls and families had a blast. We were able to have some good road trips (such as this), and the girls bonded a lot as a team and got to travel to new places in the process.”

St. Jude has a large mix of 16U players which, in fact, is up from last season. “The 19U number was lower but we have never been able to field a true 19U team; it is always a 16/19u combo,” Stanislavski said. “The 14U level you never know; we haven’t been able to field a 12U team for a few years, so we usually have a few girls who come over from our coed side of the program once checking starts at the 14U level. We get a few girls who come from over the border in Indiana and then usually some cuts from the surrounding programs once tryouts hit in June. 

“We work with whatever comes through the door and that changes on a year-to-year basis.”

St. Jude’s 14U girls finished 23-19-5 in what was truly a magical season.

“Once tryouts ended (last summer), the coaching staff knew we had a solid team; we just didn’t know to what extent,” Stanislavski said. “Of the 16 skaters and two goalies, only two players had previously played for me in the program so I knew it was going to take time to figure out what systems would work with the group and that it would take time. We got better as the year went on; the girls all got along on and off the ice, and very rarely did players miss practice, though we had quite a few families driving (up to) two hours to skate. The families made some serious sacrifices to play here and make it work; I’m grateful for that since none of this is possible without them. 

“I knew the 14U team was good and we were getting better as the season went on. But, if you had asked me at the start of the season was nationals even a thought, I would have said, ‘No.’ We are lucky to even get to the state round-robin most years let alone the state championship. 

“A big highlight for me and I think a turning point for us was winning the Denver tournament in January. Everything really started to click with the group, and the girls were playing their best hockey at the right time with playoffs right around the corner. They really bought in and started to believe in themselves that they could make a run at state and regionals at that point. Getting to nationals would be their highlight if you talked to them; seeing the girls walking around the rink with their credentials was awesome to see. I just kept telling them to have fun, enjoy it and take it all in no matter what the results may be since it’s incredibly hard to get here.”

Stanislavski added: “Nationals were everything I expected them to be. Our bracket was tough, playing against two top 10 teams in the country, Steel City and the East Coast Wizards. We hung with them and they were great games; we deserved to be there. The way they competed and rose to the challenge of playing teams of that caliber, it was incredible to see and be a part of. All you could do at certain points, whether it was in the locker room after the game or talking between periods, was just realize how proud the coaching staff was of these players. It was truly a season you never wanted to end. 

“It was one of those ‘Don’t be sad it’s over; be happy you made it this far’ talks after our final game.”