Her dad doesn’t sit with the dads.
He sits alone and seemingly aloof, far from the dads and moms and anyone else who could possibly see his eyes.
“A lot of times, I’m sure it’s: ‘There’s Laila’s dad, sitting by himself,’” said Scott Anderson at a Chesterfield, Missouri, coffee shop, while tears deluged his eyes like they do during his daughter’s hockey games. “But I’m happy. I’m loving every moment she’s on the ice — I just get emotional. ... I’m ecstatic that she’s loving life. And doing so well. I sit by myself because I’m absorbing it as I’m watching everything. Other parents are hooting and hollering, and I’m just in my own little world. They may think I’m being weird.”
His only child, Laila Anderson, is 15. Yep, she’s that Laila — the optimistic, disease-fighting kid who inspired the 2019 Blues during their run to the team’s first championship. Laila had battled hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis — a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disease — that was isolated in her brain. She underwent 10 weeks of chemotherapy. And she received a bone marrow transplant in January 2019, the same month that the Blues, at the bottom of the standings, began their miraculous run to the playoffs.
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Laila’s unwavering positivity touched the players, notably her friend Colton Parayko, as well as the city that learned her story. And there she was that June, on the ice in Boston, holding the Stanley Cup with a little help from big No. 55.
But how about this twist: Laila now plays hockey, and earlier this month, Laila and her own team won a Cup.
The Blue Note Cup tournament, hosted by the Blues and the Missouri Hockey Youth Division, is an annual showcase of the region’s top youth hockey squads. And Laila’s team, the Chesterfield Lady Falcons, won the Cup in the Bantam (B3) Division.
“It’s such a full-circle moment,” said Laila, who plays forward. “I thought it was cool that we were both the underdogs going into this. The Blues started in last place. And we weren’t the top team. Nobody thought that we would win.”
And while the team they beat in the semifinals was all girls, the team in the finals was co-ed.
At the postgame ceremony, Laila’s Lady Falcons team stood in a line across the ice, awaiting their names to be called.
From ice level, you could hear the public-address announcer say: “No. 88 Laila ...” but his “Anderson” was drowned out by high-pitched shrieking of her teammates. The young girl who fought off death flashed a smile as wide as a hockey puck, and as she skated toward the man with the medals, her grin grew agape and unleashed a proud primal scream.
“Five years after the Blues won their Cup, Laila had just won hers,” her dad said. “I didn’t want to turn around and look at the other parents — I had tears rolling down my face. Even more when Laila and I locked eyes.”
The long trail
Scott Anderson was raised on the ponds in a Minnesota town called Mahtomedi.
“Everyone up there says you skate before you learn to walk,” he said.
After relocating to St. Louis, he passed his hockey love to Laila, tape-to-tape. Yes, going to Blues games for young Laila also meant Dippin’ Dots for dessert. But the game was just so enchanting — she loved the speed and the shots and, well, the chants.
“Prior to like Laila becoming Laila,” Scott said from next to his daughter at the coffee shop, “certain times they would put her on the jumbotron just as a kid having fun.”
“I remember one time I made it in the newspaper!” Laila said.
Wait, this newspaper?
Sure enough, I looked it up. Oct. 7, 2017. There she was, along with the accompanying photo caption: “Laila Anderson, 9, of O’Fallon, Mo., high-fives goalkeeper Carter Hutton after pregame warmups before the home opener.”
Soon after, she became sick.
Her brain condition weakened.
Finally, in September 2018, genetic testing determined the harrowing reason: HLH.
According to an online report from St. Louis Children’s Hospital, “Laila is just one of 15 children in the world who have had a solely neurologic manifestation of the disease.”
During the 2018-19 season, she first connected with Parayko at a Halloween event for Blues fans. Soon, she befriended many of the players.
During the early winter and spring of 2019, Laila wasn’t allowed to leave her house to be in public for four months. But on May 14, a video went viral. It was Laila’s mother, Heather, telling her daughter that the doctor would “let up a little. ... and guess where you get to go first?”
When Laila guessed a Blues game, her eyes erupted in tears of joy.
During the conference final against San Jose, she became an instant sports celebrity for her authenticity and inspiration.
Looking back, Laila said, “Physically, (the sickness) had an impact, but I think it was more emotionally, being separated from my peers for so long, not finishing fourth and fifth grade — that emotionally had a toll on me. And then coming back looking like a totally different person, that was hard. I doubled my weight, I didn’t have hair, I looked completely different. ... I think without the support from friends and family, I don’t know how I could’ve made it.”
Among her friends, she counts the 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.
‘Continues to amaze’
Laila looked at photos from the first time she played hockey and laughed.
“My knees aren’t bent,” she said. “I look like The Tin Man!”
The first day Laila played hockey was Nov. 21, 2020. It was at a Blues event called “Learn to Play.” She was nervous. Her bone density still was compromised. An awkward fall could have repercussions. But she wanted to do this. It was hockey. It was her sport. It was her time.
So she learned to play.
“She continues to amaze me,” her mom, Heather, said Sunday. “I’m so proud of her. ... She got most improved (honors) this year, and she really has come so far just from last year to this year.”
Laila cherishes getting to be her true self. She’s effervescent, even a bit of a goofball. While some teammates wear eye black to be intimidating, Laila uses it to make a mustache, while best friend Libby Manno, as Laila described it, reminds of “Paul Stanley from Kiss.” The coach calls their line “Star and Stache.”
As Kelly Manno, Libby's mom, described it, “Laila always gives 110% on the ice. She never wants to give up on a puck. She’s always cheering from the bench. She gives it everything she can, every shift.”
But Laila never had scored a goal.
In the semifinals for the Blue Note Cup, her team played its rivals: the Lady Cyclones.
“They were chirping at us,” Laila said. “The feeling’s mutual: They don’t like us, we don’t like them. But it was a very back-and-forth game.”
But Scott wasn’t in the stands. He volunteered to help by manning the penalty box from ice level.
Laila’s team trailed 2-1.
“Star and Stache” hit the ice.
Laila went to the front of the net.
She thwacked at a rebound.
Goal!
She punched the air with her right hand and jumped a couple of times in place before the hugs. A video of the goal features a woman screaming: “That was Laila! That was Laila! That was Laila!”
The goal tied the game. Laila’s team would win 4-3.
“After Laila scored and celebrated with her teammates,” Scott said, “she came over to the penalty box and knuckled me at the glass. We were both crying.”
Said Libby’s mother Kelly Manno: “Scott and Laila have one of the greatest father-daughter relationships I’ve ever seen.”
Laila still has some hardships. She still must take numerous daily pills, including one’s seriousness described by Scott as “anti-seizure.” And Heather described some frustrating setbacks diagnosed at recent doctor visits.
“But Laila never once said, ‘Why me?’” Heather shared. “She really takes it like a champ.”
After all, Laila is one.