Local man inspired by Firebirds to pursue newfound passion

"I love hockey."

Mickey Beatty is an 18-year-old from Thousand Palms who just started playing hockey two weeks ago, a new passion for puck inspired by our new hometown team.

"I went to my first Firebirds game in March. It was the military appreciation game and I just loved it. And then I got into playoffs and went to all the home playoff games and here we are."

Mickey and the Firebirds have a lot in common, beginning a new journey with the fear of the unknown.

But as we saw with the Birds and are now seeing with Mickey, success isn't always measured by winning the final game of the season.

"I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It's just a fun new sport for me but I've met a lot of new people. I've met people who play hockey, I've met people from the Coachella Valley Pride League and they've been helping me out a lot so I think I'm going to be joining their team this fall."

What have you learned about yourself on the ice and off the ice during this time?

"I've learned I'm a lot more fit than I thought I was. I haven't been into athletics in a while and so I've been able to run and do weights outside of this and then do this and do work which also very athletic as well so I thought that was my favorite part about all this."

Trying something new can be scary and often times faced with failure and judgement, but for those like Mickey, courageous enough to push past their comfort zone, they are ultimately rewarded in the end.

"It's made me a lot more socially open because I'm more of an introvert but it's challenged me a lot and made me realize I need to try more stuff and I'm not going to be perfect at it and it is going to get better because I can't get worse but I can always get better at it."

Much like our hockey team lit a fire within Mickey, his newfound flame just may ignite someone's, too.