"I did not realize with all the hustle and bustle of life and the hockey chaos how important it was until people started to point it out," Mercedes said. "Like, 'Dad, I'm going to try my hardest.'" "He said 'I want to see you at the Staples Center,'" Jason said. It's the goal he's set and one that his father wants reached when the Stars visit the Kings twice this season. Jason was the OHL's leading scorer last season playing for Kingston and Niagara and could compete for a roster spot during Stars training camp in September. For Jason, playing in the OHL was the quickest way to get to the NHL, faster than playing juniors in the United States or going to college in America. Living in Northville, the Robertsons often went to Plymouth Whalers games just minutes from their house, and it was an introduction to the Ontario Hockey League. "When they have an application and the admissions person is looking at two applications, and they're pretty much the same but they see that they're able to maintain this grade-point average and still be able to do hockey, and that's able to get them a leg up, that was our motivation for the kids," Mercedes said. But hockey? Ice in the tropical jungles of the island nation? To the family, hockey was a foreign concept. It makes sense, since basketball is the Philippines' most popular sport, followed by boxing. When the family arrived in California, they became Lakers fans and cheered for Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pat Riley during the Showtime era. ("He always had two jobs, and sometimes maybe three over the weekend just to put food on the table," Mercedes said.) Her mother, Ofelia "Shirley" Dano, did data entry in a medical office to help put the kids through Catholic school. Her father, Lee Dano, who is now deceased, left behind a career as a lawyer in Manila to become a taxi driver and real estate title officer in the United States. In the Philippines, the family escaped the martial law dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and believed more opportunity to work would arise in the United States, plus they could help support other family members in Los Angeles. Mercedes, Jason's mother, was born in Manila before she immigrated to Los Angeles as a 3-year-old in the early 1970s.
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