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ST. LOUIS — The Dunne family can recall just about every detail from those long rides to school in their Ford Excursion.It was a 45-minute drive from their home in O’Fallon to The Fulton School in St. Albans, and with six siblings, the SUV was packed.
“Someone would have a massive sneeze and there would be snot everywhere,” remembers Jincy Roese (nee Dunne). “Someone else would spill something and there would be food and drink everywhere. Someone else would forget their instrument, so we’d have to turn around and go back for it. We were late every single day.”
Jessica, now 29, was the oldest, followed by Jincy (27), Josh (26), Josey (22), James (21) and Joy (19).
“One time I forgot to wear shoes to school,” Joy recalls. “The amount of times we went back to get something was insane. We would tell our teachers: ‘I’m not late because of me. It was because of them.'”
The children had designated seats and, of course, they all fought for the front.
“I remember we would fight outside of the car and our mom was like, ‘Stop! Say you’re sorry and hug each other right now,'” Jessica says.
For as much chaos as there was, there was also a connection building. For example, whenever one of the kids had a spelling bee, everyone in the car would help recite the words.
“That’s part of the reason we are so close because we had so many of those drives,” Josh says. “Some of those days weren’t great for us, but some were awesome. We saw each other at our highest and lowest points, and we know each other better than anybody. There was some character built between us, and that’s a big reason why we’re close.”
There’s another reason the six are so close. From the local hockey rinks of St. Louis to the NCAA, NHL and Olympics, each has competed at a high level, and in a sport where the journey can be unbearable, the support for one another has been essential.
That will be the case again Saturday when the Dunne family flocks to Enterprise Center, where Jincy, a defenseman for the Ottawa Charge of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), will return home to face the Boston Fleet in a neutral-site game.
The puck drops at 1 p.m. CT, and hopefully Jincy won’t be late.
Tom and Tammy Dunne weren’t planning on having such a large family.
“It’s one of those things, we’re a big believer in whatever God gives us, we’ll run with it,” Tom says. “That’s what the good Lord gave us and that’s what we did.”
Tom is from St. Louis but moved to Naples, Fla., where he met Tammy after college. They had what they called their first “pod” of children — Jessica, Jincy and Josh — and then Tom was transferred back to St. Louis, where the second pod — Josey, James and Joy — was born.
Tom and Tammy were athletes but never played hockey and weren’t planning on their kids playing it, either. The family’s long-running joke is that their story is a “true miracle on ice” because neither parent can skate.
It wasn’t until Josh became fascinated with the Blues — goalie gear, specifically — that it got on their radar.
“Josh used to roll up socks and pretend he was a goalie and shoot on himself,” Jincy recalls. “My parents were like, ‘We’ve got to let this kid try hockey,’ and because Jess, Josh and I were so close in age, if one person was doing it, we were all doing it.”
The three started in roller hockey and didn’t transition to ice until Jessica and Jincy were preteens. The two older sisters played on the boys’ teams and held their own. They all received private lessons, but not just in hockey — swimming, piano and more.
“That was a big thing, doing all the extra stuff,” Jessica says. “Not that we would’ve been amazing in any other sport, but if it hadn’t been hockey, it could’ve been something else.”
But hockey had their heart, and it was clear they could make a career out of it, however far that might take them.
When Jessica was the first one ready for college, she committed to Ohio State in 2014. Jincy made the national team, winning three IIHF World Championships with Team USA and being named the tournament’s best defenseman in two of those tournaments. She followed Jessica to OSU in 2016, and they were teammates for 1 1/2 years before a head injury prevented Jessica from playing her senior year.
In 2019-20, Jincy’s senior year, she was named OSU’s female athlete of the year and a Division I first-team All-American.
“I know my older sister kind of got caught in my shadow in a lot of ways,” Jincy says. “She was such a good player in her own right but never got the full respect that she deserved. She had an opportunity to be jealous, but she was the greatest big sister you can imagine.”
Josh gave up the goalie pads to be a skater and was turning into a talented forward. In 2014, he was a first-round pick of the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers, where he played four seasons before a three-year career at Clarkson University.
“Josh was always a perfect example of someone who’s going to work harder than anybody to get the job done,” Jincy says.
The second pod of kids didn’t have much of a choice when it came to playing hockey. When Tom and Tammy were taking the older three to the rink, the younger three were always hanging out in the arcade, and the parents decided they’d rather spend their money on the sport instead of video games.
It wasn’t long before you could see that Josey, James and Joy were willing to put in the work like their siblings. They woke up at 5 a.m. to skate before school.
“We did sled pulls with people on the ice, and I’m pulling an instructor that’s three times my size,” Josey says. “I was crying on the ice, but after practice I got a chocolate chip ‘muffy’ from Panera, so life was good.”
James remembers the 6 a.m. skates, as well.
“I was tired going to my first class at school, but one of the biggest things we’ve taken away from hockey is we’re always going to give it our all,” he says.
It was the same way with adversity.
“We’ve all been cut from teams and were taught it doesn’t mean you can’t make it again next year or make a different team,” Josh says.
“It was, ‘Oh, that door closed? OK, here’s another one,'” Jessica adds.
As the youngest, Joy may have benefited the most from witnessing that.
“They pushed themselves to the limits and it wasn’t enough sometimes,” she says. “It helped me understand the accountability of persevering.”
But it wasn’t just the Dunne work ethic that was passed down. It was the knowledge of the college process and the motivation to be the next one in line.
“When Jessica and Jincy left for Ohio State, and Josh left for juniors, I didn’t even know what they were doing,” Josey says. “But I was like, ‘I want to leave home and keep playing, too.’ That created a trajectory of what we wanted to do.”
“I was like: ‘I want to play college hockey. I want to be the Big Ten player of the year. I want to play overseas,'” Joy recalls.
Josey went on to play at the University of Minnesota and she’s now at Lindenwood University. James was a successful high school player who went on to Oklahoma State University. Joy is a sophomore at Ohio State, where, as a freshman last season, she scored the game-winning goal in the NCAA championship game.
“It’s amazing how they all kind of gravitated to hockey,” Tom says. “We had no idea back then what we were doing. We would have never dreamt it.”
Jincy dreamt of playing for Team USA in the Olympics. She recalls watching the women’s hockey tournament in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
“That’s when it became a little more real and I started putting everything into that,” she says.
Eight years later, Jincy lived out that dream, playing in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. She suited up in all seven games and had three assists for the U.S., which fell 3-2 to Canada in the gold-medal game.
The tournament was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the Dunne clan couldn’t be in attendance, but they were glued to the games from afar.
“When I first saw her go on the ice wearing the USA jersey, I was like, ‘That’s my sister!'” James says.
Jincy’s popularity with young girls playing hockey in St. Louis rose after her Olympic appearance.
“I think she brings a lot to the table as a leader and a mentor,” Tom says. “It’s not all about hockey, but hockey is one of those platforms that can take you places.”
So without a women’s pro hockey league, Jincy would be losing her platform. She had been part of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, whose focus was to create a sustainable league.
“If the (players association) didn’t happen, I probably wasn’t going to stick around,” she says.
Jincy did stick around, however, and in August 2023 the PWHL was born with six teams: Minnesota, Toronto, Boston, New York, Ottawa and Montreal. Jincy was drafted by Ottawa in the third round (No. 17 overall).
“It’s been great so far,” she says. “There’s a lot of people that are working their butts off for us. Being in Ottawa, it’s a great market, GM, staff, coach, players, and our fans are amazing. There’s so much love and support, so it’s been awesome.”
When Ottawa hosts Boston on Saturday, Jincy will be the second member of the Dunne family to play a professional game at Enterprise Center. Josh, who realized his NHL dream when he signed a free-agent contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2021, played an exhibition game in the arena.
“You have to pinch yourself,” says Josh, who now plays in the Buffalo Sabres organization. “You’re like, ‘I’m on the ice that I grew up watching.’ I’m so excited for her that she gets to do that.”
Just like the siblings did for each other growing up, Jincy is still paving the way.
“Now girls are saying, ‘I want to play in the professional league!'” Josey says. “They have big aspirations.”
Including Joy, now a sophomore at OSU.
“Yeah, for sure I want to play in the PWHL,” she says. “I’m trying to convince all of my sisters to come out of retirement and make a team.”
That would be quite the ending for a family that’s had a harder road than it might appear from the outside.
“People see the accolades and awards and say, ‘Oh, what a journey it’s been,'” Jincy says. “I’ve probably been cut from more teams than I’ve made. But all of these success stories, I’m really proud of all my siblings because of their incredible resilience.”
“When they got cut, it felt like I got cut, and when they made teams, it felt like we all made it,” Josey adds. “The name of our group text chat is ‘Team Dunne,’ and that’s the best we can describe our family.”
“I’m thankful that this gets to be story and that I get to do it with people,” Jessica says.
Tom jokes that after putting six kids through hockey, he’ll be as old as Methuselah, a biblical figure who was said to have lived to 969 years old, before he retires.
“But it was well worth it,” he says, “and I’d do it again tomorrow.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, NHL, Women's Hockey
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