His wild mane is well known to the Peitinger ice hockey fans: Ty Morris has been storming for the league club since 2015.
But the 37-year-old is not only an enthusiastic athlete - he is also a thoroughbred girl-dad.
Hohenfurch
- There is a pleasant calm.
Ty Morris comes out on the terrace.
In t-shirt and shorts.
The sun does a great job this winter morning.
“It's nice and quiet here,” he says with a smile.
Because today, after a long time, there is only one daughter in the house: Lou, barely a month old.
She sleeps.
The view through the garden gives an idea that things are sometimes different here.
A slide goes down from the tree house.
A self-made garden shower invites you to splash around, a skateboard is standing around, behind the fence the children have built a small camp.
And on the meadow next to the terrace there is an ice hockey goal, next to it are two tarpaulins on top of each other, maybe three by six meters.
The last drops are just drying off.
Morris had splashed water on it when the temperature was below zero so the girls could ice-skate in the garden.
"Lotte was there three times a day."
Lotte, seven years old, is his second oldest daughter.
The family also includes Mama Verena (40), Leni (12), Lexie (4) and Lou, who was born at the end of January.
So Morris has a whole gang of girls in the house on the outskirts of Hohenfurch.
In the cabin of the EC Peiting there was one or the other pointy remark.
And of course the word "Bixnmacher" was used.
Typical Upper Bavarian male humor.
The 37-year-old smiles.
Nobody can annoy him with that.
“I think it's good that they're all girls.
It all just fits together, ”he says.
"I couldn't be happier."
Tattoo with consequences: All names begin with "L"
Morris takes a sip from his cup.
"Familytime 2019" is written on it, including a family picture.
The coffee is good for him, he looks a bit tired.
It's not because of little Lou.
“She's a good baby, sleeps well,” he says.
Ms. Verena also looks after the little ones at night.
Still: sport, job, four children - it is exhausting sometimes, Morris admits - without complaining.
Because he wants it all.
And because he knows that there is someone who does a lot for him: Verena.
“She is a strong woman,” he says.
"What it does is madness."
That she and Ty Morris would one day have four children was never planned.
“We weren't talking about numbers,” he says.
First Leni was born.
The desire to have children remained, even after Lotte and Lexi.
And every time the couple was curious again, wanted to know what gender they would be during pregnancy.
The doctors' answer was always the same.
That's a good thing, thinks Morris, who can of course also tie a braid.
"I have a bun myself."
It was originally not planned that all children's names begin with the same letter, as was the number of children.
But after mom and dad had an "L" tattooed for Leni, they continued the series.
And were looking for names "that my family can pronounce," says Morris, who was born in Canada.
A country crazy about ice hockey.
In 2006 he met his future wife
Even as a family man, the 1.82-meter-tall striker is on the ice almost every day in the winter months - unless there is a corona-related forced break, as is currently the case.
He's gone for a few hours in away games.
"It only works because Verena makes it possible for me, because we stick together," says Morris.
+
This is how the fans know him: Ty Morris in the jersey of the EC Peiting
© Holger Wieland
The Hohenfurcherin knew what she was getting into.
She met Morris in 2006.
The year doesn't come to mind right away, but she does: “It was the World Cup,” she says.
Morris nods.
“That's right.” It was just over when his plane landed in Germany.
But much was still decorated.
“And there was a painted cow on every corner.” At that time, Morris entered a new world.
The Canadian didn't know anything about Peiting, except that ice hockey was played there - and the team wanted him.
In the stadium he saw Verena now and then, and later at a party.
He liked her.
"But she didn't make it easy for me." Three, four, maybe five times that Morris asked to meet.
"At some point it worked."
After the season it was unclear how Morris would go on.
He flew home and went to work in Canada.
Girlfriend Verena Herold visited him - just as the contract offer from Peiting's competitor EC Bad Nauheim arrived.
“We flew to Germany together.” Into a common future.
Learn German for a common future
In which, however, German also had to be spoken.
This was made clear to Morris by future father-in-law, Hans-Helmut Herold.
"At Christmas dinner he told me that I have to learn German if I want to have a future with his daughter." He wanted to, started cramming.
And decided to only speak German in the cabin.
“Of course they laughed at first,” he says of the teammates.
“But they also saw: I'm trying.
And helped me. ”The striker has long spoken good German.
The Canadian accent belongs to Morris like the full beard and long hair that peeks out from under the helmet.
His knowledge of German helped him gain a foothold professionally.
Morris trained as a carpenter.
The Canadian knew his way around wood, but the German terms gave him a headache.
After the final exam, "my heart pounded with excitement for a week until the results came," he says.
He had passed.
“An amazing feeling.” Morris now works for the ice hockey supplier “Warrior”.
After all, Morris knows what the right bat is all about.
Dad is allowed to go to the ice rink, the daughters are not
The crowd favorite has been part of the Peitinger team since 2015 and is therefore a long-running favorite.
Thanks to the German passport that he received in 2012, he does not have to compete with other foreigners for the coveted contingent positions.
Citizenship "secured my ice hockey life in Germany".
Even if it's not always easy with four children, Morris remains loyal to the time-consuming winter sport.
“Ice hockey is in my blood.
As long as I'm ambitious, I'll keep going, ”he says.
"Verena would never tear that away from me either." The children, however, are already a little jealous this year that Dad is allowed on the ice.
“They quickly realized how unfair it is that I am allowed to play and they are not.” Because of the corona pandemic, Leni and Lotte, who play in the youth team at EA Schongau, are not allowed into the stadium this winter.
Father Ty does, because the Oberliga Süd is a professional league.
“That went wrong,” says Morris.
"First the children should have been encouraged before the adults were allowed to play."
He can't change that.
That's why he takes out the garden hose on icy days and creates his own ice surface on the lawn.
Even four-year-old Lou was on ice skates this year.
The big three are wild, "active and always outside," says Morris.
He's proud of his gang of girls.
"Our life couldn't be better."
More sport:
By winning the
bronze medal in the team competition at the World Championships
in Cortina d'Ampezzo, 27-year-old skier Andrea Filser from SV Wildsteig achieved the greatest success of her career.
That was the reason for the sports club to receive Filser together with Mayor Josef Taffertshofer on their return to Morgenbach.
Skier
Nadine Kapfer (21) has been nominated for the Junior World Championships in Bansko
.
The Peitinger is looking forward to the challenge - and is ready to show her skills in all disciplines.
Ski racer Simon Jocher
won the combined title at the DM in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The Schongauer had to do without the top trophy.