Among other accomplishments, the Seattle Pride Hockey Association takes credit for introducing four engaged couples and counting. No one has asked co-founder and president Steven Thompson to officiate — yet.
While ordained on-ice minister isn’t on his hockey biography — yet — the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award finalist is front and center. Thompson was recently named one of three U.S. finalists for the award, given to an individual who has positively impacted his or her community, culture or society through hockey.
The Seattle Pride Hockey Association was founded in April 2019, and the showpiece event is the Seattle Pride Hockey Classic each summer. A newer tournament, the Frozen Pride Classic, took place in February in Winthrop.
While SPHA was brainstorming a few short years ago, volunteer organizers looked around at other major cities’ tournaments and wanted to do things differently. The more traditional model is putting together a team and sending it as is.
“What you don’t get is that community. And that’s not to say that what they’re doing is wrong,” Thompson said. “It’s just — you just stay with your team, right? You don’t really meet anybody else, mix it up a little bit.”
So players register as individuals, and they’re placed on a team. Sometimes, sparks fly.
“The end result of it is remarkable,” Thompson said. “We’ve had so many lifelong, amazing, best friendships come out of it.”
Thompson was born and raised in the Greater Seattle area and attended Bellevue College. He was swept up in the Seattle Thunderbirds’ postseason run in 2017, starring Mathew Barzal, Ethan Bear and others — “How they worked together, and their execution.”
Soon after Seattle’s run ended in the Memorial Cup tournament, Thompson decided he’d learn to play hockey at 29 and dived into that endeavor. He started taking lessons several times per week, and soon he was playing on a team. He started volunteering with the Greater Seattle Hockey League, which eventually was folded into the Kraken Hockey League.
The NHL awarded Seattle an expansion franchise, and many other adults went down a similar path. Thompson, with teammate and SPHA co-founder Joey Gale, agreed that Seattle needed an organization like other major cities have, one that created space and inclusivity and promoted underrepresented communities.
“We’re a major market, so we (needed) a pride organization to create space where people can feel safe, seen and celebrated,” Thompson said.
The Kraken had just a few employees at that point but were interested in supporting it. Everything was rolling. Thompson left his job in transportation management for a full-time job in sports … in 2019. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the SPHA’s first tournament was postponed, and Thompson was laid off.
That wasn’t the end, though. In June 2021, four months before the Kraken first hit the ice, the SPHA held its first, “very small,” two-day event, drawing mostly Pacific Northwest residents but some from out of state. The event sold out and had almost as many people on the wait list as it did participating.
“Little did we know that people had so much fun at that event that by June 2022 it would be tripled in size, from 60 to almost 200 people,” Thompson said.
Today the organization boasts around 350 members. The Seattle Pride Hockey League launched in 2024 but went on hiatus for the 2026 season, citing ice availability as a “major challenge” and economic concerns as a factor.
As the organization focused on its tournaments and its mission, Pride Hockey Classic team captain Vanessa Vargas nominated Thompson for the award.
“He is that kind of person you just want to cheer for,” Vargas told NHL.com.
There is a public voting period, and winners from the U.S. and Canada will be announced in June, which conveniently is when the Seattle Pride Classic takes place. The winner will receive a $30,000 prize and the other finalists receive $10,000, donated to a charity of their choice. Unsurprisingly Thompson would invest it into Seattle Pride Hockey Association.
To be recognized for the award named after O’Ree, who became the first Black player in the NHL on Jan. 18, 1958 and has spent more than two decades as the NHL’s diversity ambassador, is “incredibly meaningful.”
“I didn’t really know how to respond or react,” Thompson said. “Grateful, humbled and excited.
“But ultimately the recognition belongs to the entire SPHA community, including our players, volunteers, supporters … everybody involved to help create something special in Seattle.”
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