‘He cared deeply about high school sports’: Noted prep hockey reporter David La Vaque dies at 50
· Yahoo Sports
A foremost voice in Minnesota high school hockey passed away over the weekend.
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Star Tribune sports reporter David La Vaque died Saturday after an 18-month battle with a neurodegenerative disease. He was 50.
“We ask that you keep our family in your prayers and comfort as we navigate,” his daughter, Michaela, wrote on La Vaque’s GoFundMe page. “We ask that you keep David in your prayers, and we know that he is no longer suffering and in a beautiful place now.
“We miss him and love him for a lifetime.”
Michaela added details regarding La Vaque’s celebration of life are “to come shortly.”
In 2020, La Vaque and Loren Nelson co-authored the book “Tourney Time,” which documented the first 75-plus years of the Minnesota boys state hockey tournament. La Vaque was the Minneapolis newspaper’s primary beat reporter for the state’s most high-profile prep sport since 2009. He was featured in ESPN’s “E:60” piece on the fad that is hockey hair at the state tournament.
The 1994 St. Paul Johnson grad studied journalism at the University of Minnesota. While there, he worked the Gophers men’s hockey beat for the student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily.
Sports reporter John Millea, who retired from the Minnesota State High School League last year, worked alongside the then-college student.
“He was kind of quiet back then,” recalled Millea, who also worked with La Vaque at the Star Tribune. “He was kind of watching me and (Pioneer Press’) Gregg Wong, the beat writers. You could see him grow and become more confident. It wasn’t long until he was just one of the media crew.”
Millea noted La Vaque – who worked at the Woodbury Bulletin community newspaper early in his career – was liked by all thanks, in part, to his wacky sense of humor that included recitation of lines from The Simpsons.
“He was a fun guy to hang around with,” Millea said, “and I have so many great memories.”
But it certainly wasn’t all fun and games for La Vaque on the job – far from it. He treated the high school beat with the utmost respect and professionalism. Fellow Star Tribune prep sports reporter Jim Paulsen, a Minneapolis native, described himself and La Vaque as “two city kids proud to represent their hometowns.”
“David always had a great grasp of clever phrases and euphemisms,” Paulsen said. “He had a way of connecting with high school coaches in ways that would develop trust and lasting bonds. He was never looking to take the next step forward. He cared deeply about high school sports, and it showed.”
Sometimes that entailed asking the tough questions to peel back the curtain and uncover and address difficult issues.
“He would push, he would definitely push, but he never went over the line. That’s a great thing about any reporter covering anything,” Millea said. “He ruffled some feathers. … Because Dave did things that other people covering high school sports didn’t, because he wanted to get that story, he wanted to tell the story, and he was very, very good at it.”
There were no stories he told better than those of the state hockey tournaments. High school hockey, Millea noted, “was his thing.” La Vaque called his Tourney Time book “a big love letter to the state tournament.”
It was an apt tribute from man to sport – a bond that was never broken.
It was feared La Vaque suffered a stroke shortly after the 2025 boys hockey tournament. Then the true diagnosis was uncovered – leukodystrophy, a degenerative disorder that damages the brain and spinal cord. La Vaque eventually lost his ability to walk and talk.
Yet there he was back at the state tournament in 2026, sporting a Northern Lakes jersey as the Class A team’s honorary captain for its state quarterfinal.
In the aftermath of his passing, boys hockey programs, coaches and reporters alike took to social media to pay respects to La Vaque the person, as well as his contributions to the sport that takes the state by storm each winter.
“Nobody covered that sport like he did, and you could tell he loved it,” Millea said. “(And) the coaches, everybody involved loved David.”
Though not even hockey could approach the love La Vaque exuded for his daughter.
“He would light up every time you asked him about his daughter – every time,” Millea said. “That was the real joy in his life, you could tell, was Michaela.”
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