Abercrombie's involvement in camp didn't just end on the field: On Thursday, the TSU Tigers bench boss took to the stage to offer some inspirational words to the Predators' next generation of talent.
“Everybody has a different background and a different journey, but that's how you truly grow as a team and really get to know the people that you're sitting next to,” Abercrombie said, “because if you really want to win, the person that's sitting next to you is more important than the person that's wearing your shoes.”
Certainly, Abercrombie's message was received with open minds.
“[My biggest takeaway] “It's about remembering where you came from and taking a step back and looking at how far you've come,” said 2024 second-round draft pick Teddy Stiga. “For me, I think it's about looking back at when I was younger and remembering how much fun hockey was and not taking each day for granted. I think it's easy to get caught up in the media and the statistics and stuff, so for me, I think it was really about going back and realizing that we're here playing hockey for an NHL team and it's not so bad.”
“I think the biggest thing I've learned is just the gratitude for my family and how much they've helped us all get to where we are,” said 2023 first-round draft pick Matthew Wood. “I can't even put it into words. My dad coached me and taught me pretty much everything, my mom always looked out for me, my sisters always supported me. When I moved to Vancouver Island, I stayed with my grandparents until I found a house, and my family drove me to practices and games. Everything I have now I owe to my family, so I'm really grateful.”
Family played a big role in Abercrombie's life and in his decision to pursue hockey at an early age.
“My mother had me when she was a teenager, 19, and she didn't want her children to be just a statistic,” Abercrombie says. “She put me in swimming and violin, and she also put me on skates. I'd put on toe picks and just twirl around. I'd come off the ice and there'd be a hockey game. I was hooked right away. I said, 'Mom, I want to try that,' and she enrolled me in an inner-city program.”
The program Abercrombie was a part of was the Fort DuPont Ice Hockey Club, an affiliate of the NHL's “Hockey Is For Everyone” initiative and the oldest diversity hockey program in North America. Founded in 1978 by U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Neil Henderson, the DuPont Cannons continue to this day to provide local and inner-city youth in Washington, DC, the opportunity to learn and play hockey in an organized and competitive environment.
“I didn't grow up playing traditional hockey,” Abercrombie says. “My teams were all black, so I grew up looking right, looking left, feeling like the game was ours. It was only when someone on the outside said, 'Hey, this is a white person's sport, black people don't play hockey,' that I was like, 'What do you mean we don't? Yeah, we do.'”
These formative experiences, combined with a lifetime of dedication to sports and those of similar backgrounds, led Abercrombie to make history at Tennessee State University.
Those experiences helped him receive another “full-circle” moment last season when his hometown Washington Capitals, in a surprise in-game ceremony, named Abercrombie, a member of the Capitals Black Hockey Committee and former head instructor at the Capitals' Rising Stars Academy, as a 2024 nominee for the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award.
“I remember Mike Grier, Anson Carter and Joel Ward from the Capitals all coming and doing a presentation at the rink where I grew up, and now I get to be one of those for other people,” Abercrombie said. “I was totally overwhelmed with emotion. It happened to be Black Hockey Night so my whole family was there. To get a chance to experience it with my wife and kids, they actually pointed at the jumbotron and said, 'Dad, it's you,' so it was just unbelievable.”
Abercrombie's kids, and countless others from similarly diverse backgrounds, will once again be watching as the 37-year-old leads not only the nation's first HBCU hockey program, but the Music City's first and only Division I hockey program.
