Senior Tyler McLeroy out of Langham Creek was born the same year his dad, Dorsey McLeroy, began working for the Houston Aeros.

At a very young age, hockey was all that Tyler talked about and he developed a love for the game with the access to the players and facilities.

McLeroy signed a National Letter of Intent to play ice hockey with East Texas Baptist University, April 7 at the Willowbrook Aerodrome as his family and friends looked on.

“We knew at a very young age that the ability and desire was there for Tyler to take it to the next level in college as long as his love for the game never dwindled and it didn't,” Dorsey McLeroy said.

When the Minnesota Wild purchased the Aeros, Dorsey would take several business and personal trips to St. Paul with his wife, and they always took Tyler.

Seeing firsthand the NHL games with 19,000 fans just like him cemented Tyler’s love of the game.

“You could see the passion Tyler had for the game at the early age of six,” Dorsey said. “Each year, Tyler would come to around 30 games per year with me. He would watch every game that came on TV and never wanted to miss an Aeros game.”

Tyler first started playing inline/roller hockey at the age of eight and then advanced to playing ice hockey at the Aerodrome, his home rink.

Tyler's accessibility with the Aeros gave him opportunities that a lot of kids didn't have and the Aerodrome was not far from home.

TC Lewis, the general manager of the Aerodrome, is a driving force behind hockey in Houston.

Lewis, caters to all of the youth of Houston and gave Tyler the opportunity to start playing house hockey at the age of 10.

“I would like to thank TC Lewis and all the staff at the Willowbrook Aerodrome Ice Skating Facility for all of their support for hockey in Houston,” Tyler McLeroy said.

Travel hockey in Houston

Tyler’s 11-year hockey career included playing travel hockey for the past eight years with the Houston Wild Hockey Club and Team Houston Hitmen.

“Tyler got involved with travel hockey as his desire to play the game at a higher level,” Dorsey said.

Travel teams are like all-star teams in that they are selected from a tryout each June and the best of each of the local house or high school teams are put together to create a super all-star team.

The Houston Wild Team had the best players from all over the city from nine Interscholastic Hockey League high school teams.

Players came from Fair Creek, Klein, Cy Woods, Woodlands, Ridge Point, Seven Lakes, Pearland/Friendswood, Memorial West and Taylor.

Tyler loves this team in that the best players from Houston get to play together against the best teams all over the state.

He also played for the Fair Creek HS varsity team the past four years, which is made up of CFISD students.

Some teams in the ISHL are a one-team named school such as Klein and Cy Woods. Then others that don't have a full squad play under a blended name such as Fair Creek.

Tyler's career saw him play all four years on varsity with five teammates, Brandon and Jonathon Roskey and Evan Ruonavarra(Cy Fair) and Caleb Newport and Grant Marconi(Langham Creek).

Next chapter drawing near

Tyler joins several area players that have left to go play at colleges the last two years, including Klein’s Armand Jivraj, Univ. of Texas commit.

Six area players went to play college hockey last year and five this year.

Tyler finished his four-year varsity career with a total of 58 assists, a city of Houston (ISHL) championship and joined the 100-point club with a total of 101 and 10 game-winning goals.

In 2017-18, with the help of his Fair Creek teammates, Tyler set the all-time 20-year ISHL record for most regular season assists by a defenseman with 25 and tied for fourth all-time for most regular season points by a defenseman with 40.

This past year at the ISHL banquet, Tyler received two awards including Most Valuable Defenseman in the city of Houston and first-team All-ISHL for the second year in a row.

Tyler at any one time may be playing on two or three teams. It was very common for him to have two practices on the same night and play five games over a three-day stretch.

The Lobo will now take his skills to the next level playing with ETBU in Marshall, Texas.

ETBU plays their home games in Shreveport, Louisiana and competes in the Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference against Texas A&M, UT, North Texas, Texas State, UTEP, Dallas Baptist and TCU.

ETBU was 16-6 last year and plans on a 30 game schedule this year and a trip to Sweden to play games, all factors that excited Tyler.

Tyler would like to get his degree in International Business.

“As sad as it was to see him play his last high school game, travel game and all-star games, it's exciting to see what he does at the next level in college,” Dorsey said.