A simple joke with his mom changed the course of Austin grad Marcus Stoulil’s path last year.

Stoulil was attending Buena Vista University, where he was on the baseball team, when he jokingly told his mom he should just quit school and go play hockey again.

Initially, Stoulil’s mom told him it was a bad idea, but by the time Christmas came around she was telling him that if he wanted to do it, he had to start calling people before it got too late. By the time Minnesota’s state hockey tournament was being played, Stoulil found himself watching every game and wishing he was still playing hockey.

“I was thinking I should’ve probably done it and I didn’t [choose hockey],” Stoulil said.

Now he’s playing hockey for the Rochester Icehawks after playing for BVU’s JV baseball team last spring. Stoulil has his sights on finding a college where he can play hockey and he couldn’t be much happier playing with the Icehawks.

“It’s better than what I thought,” Stoulil said. “The guys are great and the coaches are great. When you have everybody on board and guys that want to compete for three whole periods, it’s unreal what you can do.”

Stoulil went into the Rochester Icehawk tryouts with BVU as his backup plan. He didn’t tell the school he wasn’t coming back until after he made Rochester’s final roster.

Once he got back to playing hockey, Stoulil took about a month to play himself back into shape. He’s playing defenseman for the Icehawks (19-1 overall) and he has five goals and seven assists in 18 games played.

Stoulil has just one year of eligibility with the Icehawks to find a college to play for and he’s enjoying every night he has on the ice. He was ecstatic when he played his first game for the Icehawks, which was his first organized hockey game in about a year and a half.

“It felt right,” Stoulil said. “There were some kinks to work out and I knew it would take a good month or so to get back in game shape, but it was everything I expected it to be. I knew I made the right decision right away.”