At a rink in New York, a future Division I hockey player was learning how to skate. The three-year-old wobbled around the ice wearing his hockey jersey.
But he was wearing the wrong skates.
Wrong for a hockey player, that is. Taking after his older sister, Arielle, Marshall Warren first took to the ice on figure skates. He learned the fundamentals of his future sport with toe picks and no stick in hand.
“He wanted to get a hockey stick,” Marshall’s mom, Lisa, told The Michigan Daily. “I said to him ‘Marshall, I’m not going to have you be one of those kids who is holding onto the stick for dear life because you can’t stand up on the ice. You must figure skate first and learn how to skate, and then we’ll take it from there.’ ”
Watching other little boys playing hockey, Marshall admitted he would hide behind the boards out of embarrassment. But figure skating built his hockey talent. While Marshall is now a graduate defenseman for the Michigan hockey team, the kids he used to hide from while learning to figure skate have long since quit the sport.
Figure skating was his introduction to the ice, but hockey was Marshall’s first love. He loved the speed and competition, and more importantly the camaraderie. That passion pushed him through learn-to-skate lessons, junior hockey and the U.S. National Development Team, all the way to collegiate hockey.
Marshall put in the work and was rewarded. Now he’s showing others how to do the same.
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Ahead of Marshall’s senior year at Boston College — where he spent four years before transferring to the Wolverines — legendary Eagles coach Jerry York retired. One of York’s final decisions as head coach was to name Marshall captain for the upcoming season, relying on him to provide consistent leadership through the coaching change.
Not only was it an immense honor for Marshall, it was also a history-making move. In the 100-plus years of Boston College hockey history, Marshall was the first Black captain.
“It was cool for kids that look like me, they could see someone and be like, ‘Wow, I could do that when I’m older,’ especially hockey players,” Marshall told The Daily. “At BC, I kind of stuck out just being Black, so I think being a leader on a team like that was really important just for people to look at me, watch our games, see me on TV, just to be inspired and want to play hockey or even just do something with their life.”
Marshall isn’t just making an impact through a TV screen, though. He actively extends his influence into his community by working with Ice Hockey in Harlem, a nonprofit in New York City that offers free ice hockey lessons and educational enrichment programs for kids. Marshall might’ve shipped up to Boston, or gone west to Ann Arbor, but he never fully left his home.
Interacting with the kids and seeing the smiles on their faces has amplified Marshall’s love for the sport. Just talking about them instantly put a big smile on his own face — clearly, the benefits of his work go both ways.
“Representation is the most important thing, and representation can be far and few between when we talk about ice hockey and players of Color,” Malik Garvin, executive director of Ice Hockey in Harlem, told The Daily. “ … We’re a very diverse program, which you simply don’t find. And having someone like Marshall, so the kids can actually see, it proves to them that it’s possible.”
As meaningful as being a minority representation in a hugely white-dominated sport is, it also comes with its fair share of adversity.
Playing a game in Russia with his NTDP team, Marshall was called the N-word by a player on the Russian team. Although it wasn’t his first time being called that word, it was the first time he was old enough to truly understand the gravity of what had happened. His coach immediately sprung into action, calling for the game to be stopped. Marshall’s teammates — his “brothers” — had his back, checking to make sure he was okay.
At the time, Marshall didn’t want to make a big deal out of the incident. He just wanted to continue playing. But years later, the experience remains top of mind. It’s something that will never leave him, will never be OK and will forever drive him.
“When moments like that happen, I continue to remind Marshall that the reason he plays the sport is because he loves it so much,” Arielle told The Daily. “ … Thinking about the support of his teammates, or thinking about the support that he provides to others within the space and being able to educate and inform people that this is continuing to happen has been amazing.”
That moment, as horrible and unfair as it was, helped shape Marshall into the player and leader he is today. Part of it was because he was knocked down and built himself back up stronger. And part of it was because his team’s support reinforced the very reasons that he fell in love with hockey in the first place.
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When Marshall was six or seven years old, he went on a cruise with his family. As any little kid would, he brought some toys along — little superhero figurines. And Marshall’s dad, Lewis, fondly remembers the joy his young son spread with those toys.
“I will never forget a couple of parents coming up to us … and telling us that our son Marshall was sharing his superhero figurines … with their son who happened to be in a wheelchair,” Lewis told The Daily. “It brought tears in our eyes because Marshall is about team, extending himself, making friends, growing the game of hockey, but it’s not just hockey. Marshall loves making friends and building community.”
Sharing toys as a kid may seem like a small gesture, but it stood out to Lewis because it exemplified the values of service he and Lisa instilled in Marshall from a young age. It’s those same giving qualities Marshall showed then that have made him a leader in his community and on every hockey team he’s been on.
Following his senior season as captain at Boston College, Marshall was honored with the John “Snooks” Kelley Memorial Award and an ACC top-six for service nod for his involvement in his community. And upon transferring to Michigan after that season, Marshall was named an alternate captain before he had even played a single game with the Wolverines.
Beyond his tangible accolades, Marshall quickly earned the respect of his new teammates, and they followed his lead when he brought a piece of home to Michigan.
In January of this year, Ice Hockey in Harlem made a trip out west to collaborate with Clark Park, a similar program based in Detroit. Of course, the opportunity to visit Marshall was a motivating factor in making the trip too. For the visit, Marshall gathered some of his teammates and some Michigan women’s hockey players to skate with the kids.
“It was just a wonderful event,” Lisa, who is on the board of Ice Hockey in Harlem, said. “My philosophy and the reason that I’m so high on being a part of Hockey in Harlem is because I want these kids to have experiences and understand that there’s more than just the community where they live.”
Seeing Marshall in his element, playing college hockey and interacting with his teammates, shows them exactly that. Marshall was instrumental in organizing similar events during his time at Boston College as well, and he has impacted countless kids in the process — precisely the intention of Ice Hockey in Harlem.
“Marshall and everyone out there like him are a key piece in what we’re trying to do,” Garvin said. “It’s one thing to say it. It’s another thing to have a living example.”
Marshall’s upbringing was defined by giving back. His parents led by example, instilling in him the importance of service. Through the tribulations of competing at a high level in an environment that naturally caused him to stick out, Marshall never lost sight of that familial mindset.
In fact, he used his differences and the adversity they caused to fuel him.
“You gotta get used to being someone people don’t understand in a way,” Marshall said. “It’s a lot of adversity, but then it drives you. … Especially in a predominately white sport like hockey, there’s not many Black individuals playing, so it’s just cool that I can be one of them, and just doing it at a high level is so cool.”
The three-year-old who wore a hockey jersey while figure skating and the six-year-old who happily shared his toys both have the same love for other people. The graduate student who will soon leave behind his college hockey career turned that love into a life of service.
Marshall Warren worked hard to get his own hockey career to this point. And now he’s working just as hard to lift others up to meet him.
