Graysen Briggs just loved hockey — Pinnacle High School hockey in particular.

He was a physical forward with a good shot for the program from Phoenix.

But Briggs won’t be with Pinnacle as his favorite team plays in the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey High School National Championships for a 2A title in Irvine, California, this weekend. He passed away in May of last year after a battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, just a month shy of his 16th birthday.

Instead, Briggs’ spirit is a guiding force for Pinnacle. His No. 93 jersey will hang behind the bench as it has all season. A fitting tribute considering the previous season — his sophomore year in which he couldn’t play — he spent every minute he could with his friends and teammates, knowing full well his time with them was fading.

“If I had to describe him, he didn't really care what other people thought about you or himself,” Pinnacle senior Easton Stockford said. “He was just kind of always someone who could always be himself and you could always be yourself around him. He was just a really caring person and someone who kind of loved you and cared about you no matter what you did or who you were or any of that.”

The first sign that something was off came two years ago when Briggs didn’t show up for Pinnacle’s summer skates. An email from his dad to the coaches contained the bad news: In June 2023, Briggs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Still, Briggs wanted to be part of the team. Therefore, when the season started, as he was undergoing treatments, he was still there at the 5:30 a.m. practices. Only this time, his role was different. He was there to support the boys he had skated with his entire life. During games, he was on the bench with his buddies.

“It was always kind of motivation to have him on the bench and his uplifting spirit actually helped a lot,” Stockford said. “Knowing that he was there and we wanted to do it for him was really just a huge factor of our success and our want to play.”

Briggs also provided a few laughs, although they might not have always come at the right time. Whether he knew it or not, it broke the tension said Chris Ihling, Pinnacle’s head coach.  

“We would be in the middle of two minutes left in the game and behind the bench we're scrambling around and he would stop me and maybe ask me what we were doing for practice on Monday or who I was nominating for the all-star team and things like that,” Ihling said. “He was trying to help at all times, getting water for the kids and handling the sticks. He just wanted to be around the team. But he had no awareness when he was asking questions and where he was. I tripped over him a couple of times running from one end of the bench to the other and all we could do was laugh and smile about it.”

Last season didn’t result in a trip to the Chipotle-USA Hockey Nationals as Pinnacle lost in the Arizona state semifinals.

Briggs was with his team most of the time. Surgeries might have kept him away from for a brief period, but he got back to the ice, perhaps his favorite place, as soon as he could. Being with his team was as good for Briggs as it was for his teammates and coaches.

To show how beloved Briggs was, all 76 players in the Pinnacle program, consisting of four teams, showed up for his memorial service. Clayton Keller, who played for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes at the time, also attended, as he often texted with Briggs.

Not having Briggs around to begin this season was tough to deal with. After all, these are teens who just lost one of their own. 

A moment of catharsis came during a cancer awareness game at the beginning of this season in which Pinnacle unveiled an alternate third jersey in Briggs’ honor, each one with his initials and number “GB 93” inscribed in the gray fabric along with a patch. Briggs’ parents dropped the ceremonial first puck. Several players were overcome by emotion in the locker room and on the ice.

In previous seasons, there would be some sort of award to the player of the game — a hardhat or a rope. This season, it’s the honor of wearing the No. 93 jersey. That first game with the jersey, it just happened to go to Stockford.

“That meant a lot to him, too,” Ihling said. “He kind of lost it when we handed him the jersey.”

Stockford explained, “It was honestly a lot of tears of joy because I knew when he was looking down on us, he was happy himself and it meant a lot to him, just as it meant a lot to us.”

From there, Stockford said the emotions became easier to handle as the season went on. 

It has been a banner season for the entire Pinnacle program. Of the four teams, three won division championships. All three celebrated by carrying the trophy around the ice with a No. 93 draped over it. They even clinched some of the championships in the alternate gray jerseys.

When the season ends, there will be an awards banquet. There, the team will give out an award named after Briggs.

But first, there is a national championship to compete for. Pinnacle has never won a national title and finished third in its last appearance three years ago. This time, though, there is a little extra something carrying Pinnacle.

“He would probably just tell me to enjoy it, just take in the moments,” Stockford said. “I mean, this is my senior year, as well as many others on our team, and he would just want us to enjoy every moment of it and make it an experience we can never forget, no matter whether we win or lose.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.