Roger

Roger Dier, BS (English) 1993, has published his first book. “Scarlet Ice” is the story of the 1994-95 Mankato West Scarlets hockey team. One member of the team, John Janavaras, succumbed to meningitis-related bacteria during the 1995 Mankato meningitis outbreak. Scarlet Ice has reached No. 1 on newly released winter sports books on Amazon. com. John Janavaras was the son of Basil and Linda Janavaras. Linda graduated from MSU in the early 1970s and Basil is on the business faculty of MSU. From the back cover: For the Mankato West Scarlets, the winter of 1994-95 was a tumultuous one. As a newly formed high school team in Minnesota—the State of Hockey—the Scarlets lacked the talent and experience of their peers, making every game a challenge of will. Success was fleeting and off-ice conflict pitted underclassmen versus seniors, players against coaches. John Janavaras was the smallest varsity player, but he played with enough heart to draw notice every time he stepped on the ice. At fifteen years old, he was the team’s cheerleader, a fearless and competitive center, and the only son of Basil and Linda Janavaras. When a swift outbreak of meningitis tore through Mankato in January 1995, the city was shaken to its core: in days, seven cases were logged, thousands of vaccinations were administered, and one tragedy left behind a permanent stain. A tribute to John Janavaras and the essence of hockey he embraced, Scarlet Ice chronicles the season that gave meaning to what was lost.