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BY JIM LEITNER Notre Dame Goalie Joe Rogers Gladly Accepts Opportunity To Be A Role Model Forward Pay It an impressionable young Rogers, who faced a similar obstacle. that little kid and feeling better about myself because there was out there just like me who made it," said Rogers, a junior goaltender at the University of Notre Dame. "I know exactly how it feels to be someone "Even to get a note from someone like that means the world to you. I was 17 years old when I finally met Jim, but it was still kind of a jaw-dropping experience because he'd had such a huge influence on my life." Elliot Huels finally had the chance to meet his idol Joe Rogers when the University of Notre Dame played in the Ice Breaker Tournament at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. J 20 DECEMBER.2012 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM oe Rogers will never forget how star-struck he felt while meeting the role model who inspired him to persevere through life's chal- lenges to realize a boyhood dream. As a kid growing up in tiny Marysville, Mich., Rogers made an immediate con- nection with baseball player Jim Abbott, who was also born with an underdeveloped right hand. Abbott forged a 10-year Major League Baseball career through hard work and determination that did a number on "I'm so excited to finally talk to him in person," Elliot Huels said prior to meeting Rodgers. "I'm pretty shy, so I'm sure I'll be really shy and nervous. But I'll try my best." Elliot's father, Ed, reached out to Rogers shortly after reading an article entitled "Not Your Average Joe" in the December 2008 issue of USA Hockey Magazine. At the time, Rogers played goal for the North American Hockey League's Motor City Machine, and Elliot was in his first season of youth hockey. Earlier this season Rogers found himself on the other end of a similar exchange with a local youth hockey player prior to the start of the Ice Breaker Tournament in Kansas City. For the past four years, Rogers has served as a mentor and role model to Elliot Huels, a 12-year-old youth hockey player from Overland Park, Kan., who has an underdeveloped left hand. "I was happy to find out I wasn't the only one who plays hockey with a little hand," Elliot Huels said. "I wanted to find out how his life is compared to mine because of PHOTOS BY Troy Thomas