Salem’s Kory Ouellette, a 2021 graduate of St. Mary’s, was killed Sunday at the age of 20 in a single-vehicle crash.
“It’s just a terrible tragedy that has really impacted the community,” St. Mary’s Athletic Director Jeff Newhall said. “Coping with the fact that Kory is no longer here is still extremely tough for all of us to comprehend.”
He spent many years playing the game he loved: hockey.
“He also played baseball, but I think his real true love was hockey,” said retired St. Mary’s hockey coach Mark Lee.
His older brother, Kyle, was already in the system while he was in eighth grade. Lee said he had “a ton of ability, so we kept him on varsity.”
“He just kept getting better all the time and he had a great experience being an eighth grader and being on varsity,” Lee said. “[He was] on the team that won the first state Division 1 hockey title.”
The relationship between Kory and Kyle was one of a kind.
“Throughout the next couple of years, watching him and his brother play together, the love they had, and the respect they had for each other, it was very special,” Lee said.
And on the ice, he had “a boatload of ability.”
“He was a defenseman but had a ton of offensive skills,” Lee said. “You could say he was an offensive defenseman and he scored a lot of big goals.”
Lee went on to call him an “impact player.” Perhaps more importantly, however, was his presence in the locker room.
“You knew when he was in the room,” Lee said. “He had a lot of energy. He was the kid who always seemed to have a smile on his face, but he wasn’t quiet by any means. He was very much loved by his teammates and vice versa. He treated his teammates like family.”
Newhall couldn’t have agreed more.
“What a personality Kory had. He was certainly a great athlete, but more than that, he had a unique ability to gain the attention of the team, the class, the cafe, or really any crowd he was around,” Newhall said. “Most of the time, it may have been in a comical way, but you knew if Kory was there.”
A chunk of that has to do with his “great family” according to Lee.
“Not just his brother, but his parents (Steven and Maureen) were very much involved with him and everything he did,” Lee said.
When asked if he stayed in touch with Ouellette during offseasons, Lee said it was a “12-month-a-year relationship.”
“One thing at St. Mary’s, we promote so much about the family atmosphere,” Lee said. “We always stayed in touch and he was very much one of those guys.”
