{"id":274118,"date":"2026-08-28T18:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274118\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:38:11","slug":"penguins-buckle-up-baby-starts-hockey-journey-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274118\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins’ buckle up baby starts hockey journey in Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penguins\u2019 \u2018Buckle Up Baby\u2019 is all grown up and chasing his own hockey dreams<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n

In 2014, Ty Avolia became known as the “Buckle Up Baby,” a two-year-old Penguins fan cheering on his favorite team.<\/p>\n

Now 14 years old, Avolia is continuing his hockey journey at a high level. <\/p>\n

On Friday, he will leave for Connecticut to play as a winger for the Connecticut Junior Rangers’ 16-and-under team. <\/p>\n

“So, I started skating when I was 2. Played my first organized games at 5 or 6, and it just really fell into place since,” Avolia said. <\/p>\n

Avolia, who will turn 15 in October, is ready to embrace the challenges ahead. <\/p>\n

“It’s going to be something great — have to adjust to,” he said. <\/p>\n

As he looks forward to his hockey career, Avolia also reflects on the moment that sparked his passion for the game. <\/p>\n

“I just remember loving the Penguins since I was knee-high. It was something special that happened to me that night, and sparked my interest in the game,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penguins\u2019 \u2018Buckle Up Baby\u2019 is all grown up and chasing his own hockey dreams PITTSBURGH \u2014 In 2014,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[115260,115267,11119,115269,115257,9374,115259,115265,115268,115262,3618,35053,115264,115258,6007,115263,3834,1902,73360,28,73,75,74,1067,5608,115266,14839,115256,115261,10254,78,33954],"class_list":["post-274118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-16-and-under-team","tag-avolia","tag-baby","tag-buckle","tag-buckle-up-baby","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-junior-rangers","tag-fan-favorite","tag-favorite-team","tag-first-organized-games","tag-game","tag-high-level","tag-hockey-career","tag-hockey-journey","tag-ice-skating","tag-october-birthday","tag-penguin","tag-penguins","tag-penguins-fan","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-place","tag-skating-since-2","tag-teenager","tag-ty-avolia","tag-winger","tag-wtae","tag-year","tag-youth-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}