Prep diary with Brendan Smith

No Way Out

    At about this time last year, my classmates at Rumson Fair Haven and I were going through the college applications process. There were many tough decisions involved in the process. What level of hockey would my ability allow me to play? Is prep school my best option? Is junior hockey the right move? Are my grades good enough to admit me into a quality college?
    I held the answer to none of those questions.
    I was a decent hockey player with grades that didn’t fit with my SAT score. I could play junior hockey and take some classes at a community college with the hope I would be scouted. I could try my luck at applying to some colleges. Or, I could apply to prep school and take a year to get my grades up while playing hockey at an intense level. I decided to try my luck at applying to some prep schools. My mom suggested I apply to some colleges, in the case that sometime during the year I had a change of heart about doing a post-graduate year. This convinced me to only apply to preps, because I didn’t want to have the option to get out of it if I were to become lazy during the year. I wanted to keep myself in check and leave no way out of it.

Applying For Prep School

    The prep school applications process wasn’t much different from that of the college process. I had to interview at every campus, meet the coaches, and fill out standard applications. You want to make sure you try to meet with the coaches as early as possible or at least contact them early so that they know you are interested (they do have to watch you play at some point during the year). The process was fairly easy; it was finding the right school that was tough. All the schools were beautiful, and well funded. The facilities at most schools were amazing, and every school had a lot to offer its students. It was after all the visits, interviews, and speaking with everyone I could speak to about prep school life that I decided on a post-graduate year.
     Just as I figured I would, after my senior hockey season, I regretted not applying to any colleges. I sustained a shoulder injury near the end of the season that would require surgery and left me couch-ridden and lazy during the spring. I would have to work ten times harder than ever during the summer to make sure I would be in shape for the upcoming season…while all of my high school friends were enjoying their senior spring and summer. I was the one in early at night, and up early in the morning to workout. It was the hardest summer of my life, and it was my senior summer. I learned that it is a price you have to be willing to pay if you want to play at the next level.

     As the summer drew to a close and my friends started to leave for school; things started getting very depressing. However, this only added to my drive to work hard on and off the ice. My friends were all gone, and there was nothing to distract me from the work ahead. I arrived at school (in shape) in September and had a great first day. Of course, my mom had to come into my room and make my bed and put all my clothes away. My roommate was at football practice, so I had time to myself to contemplate what it was going to be like here. No girls, limited television privileges, and a very structured life style. I was horrified that entire day. It wasn’t until I got up, got out of my room, and met some people that I completely forgot about all of my worries; worries that have yet to come back to me since.

Prep School Life

    After my first day here, everything went smooth. We had a few days off with just the seniors/post grads here to get settled in. In those days I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people, people that were in the same situation as me. Classes started about three days after we arrived and I really enjoy about four out of the five of them. An all guy class setting makes learning a lot easier, and I’m looking at a lot of colleges now that a year ago I wouldn’t have had a prayer at getting in to. The school makes it easier to do well in class as well because there is a two-hour study hall every school night. Most of the prep schools are also on block scheduling so there is time to get things done during the day as well. My average day consists of about three classes, time to nap, time to put a dent in college applications, time to study, time to lift, and time to goof off. It’s very easy to get things done around here.

Prep School Professors

    The teachers at school are great. All of them truly care about seeing their students succeed, and are available for help almost whenever you need them. They all live on campus, so they’re easy to find. You also start to develop great relationships with these teachers within the first month. After all, they’re the same people that keep watch on you, sit down to eat dinner with you, and sometimes advise you. They’re basically taking on the role as parents for a lot of the year. I can already tell that there are a few teachers who I will probably be in touch with for a long time. Matt Rigtrup (from Bergen Catholic) and I had the opportunity to visit the University of Rhode Island last weekend, and spent some time with Jason May who attended Trinity-Pawling in 2003. He had all the same positive things to say about the teachers that I had been thinking since I’ve been here.

On The Ice

    The tough part in the beginning was not being on the ice very often, but that’s not a problem for everyone. There are usually midget or junior teams in the area and kids can play the games on the weekends. For the fall we skated about once a week, and during the week of Nov. 14, we were on the ice regularly. We worked out individually all fall. There are a lot of kids on the hockey team that also play fall sports so we didn’t get to work out with them so much. I’ve gotten to know most of the guys on the team pretty well already, and everybody is psyched for a big year. The greatest aspect of playing at a place like Trinity-Pawling is that most of the players have similar aspirations as each other. Most of us are here to do well and not goof off (whether it be on the ice or in the classroom) so that we can hopefully play at the collegiate level. All in all, that is what makes it so easy to do well here: everybody has similar goals.

First Semester Advice

    There is a lot of advice I would leave for those interested in prep school as our first semester comes to a close. Get in touch with coaches and admissions offices early, they need to be able to come out and see you play in a game and spots on teams are limited and there is a lot of competition for them. Try to have your mind made up before high school/club hockey season comes to an end; it is so easy to slack off during the spring when you are not sure what lies ahead for the next year. Speaking of spring, work hard during the spring and summer to stay in shape. It makes school a lot easier to show up in shape. Because I was in shape when I came here, there were days that I did not feel bad taking off from working out because of excess school work. It’s a big luxury to have. Once you are here, you learn the routines quickly and fit in right away. I’m about one third of the way through the process and I can already tell I made the right decision. However, different people need different things so learn about the process and decide if it is right for you or not.

Tryouts

   Preparing for the season early paid off. By the time November 14th rolled around, I was ready (and anxious) to get going. The week of try-outs went quite well as I felt I was definitely in the top end of the players, conditioning wise. I knew the pace would be a lot faster, and it was. Finally being on the ice every day got everybody into their grooves and all the players true talents really began to show. This first week hardly even previewed how tough balancing everything during the season would be because we were leaving for Thanksgiving break that Friday. The toughest part of that week was being fully prepared for all of our exams. It also happened to be the most hostile week on campus as there was a lot of animosity between the players on the JV / Varsity bubble. Everybody was putting it all on the line to make the team. We had a scrimmage on Friday against a local junior team to determine the final cuts before going home, and that's when I realized I still had a lot of work to do to climb into a spot on the top two lines.

Thanksgiving Break/Swinging Into Action

      I went home that Friday night quickly putting the work ahead in the back of my head as I was very anxious to see my old friends I hadn't seen in months. It was a fun 10 days, but if I could go back and do it differently, I would. I came back for the four game stretch (including our season opener) and found I had quickly gotten a few steps behind the other players. I hadn't done anything over the break besides shooting around every other day or so and getting on the bike once or twice. When we got back, the roster had been finalized. I remember vividly in our first practice as a team what Coach Foster told us. Coach started talking about how our role at the school exceeded that which we had on the ice. Coach Foster said, "You are the best people in this school." He went on to explain how we were looked very highly upon in the school community, and it was our job to live up to our label. To this day I can't argue that. The hockey team really is a great bunch of guys, and I'm sure it's really no different at any of the other New England schools. 

    I felt terrible on the ice that day and I also began to fall a bit behind in classes that week. The laid back break was taking it's toll on me, and not keeping up in classes killed me. I could've been spending time in the weight room and on the bike after practices trying to get back up to speed, but I had to get back to my room for extra studying. I kept working hard in practice, but had quickly lost my second line spot and dropped to a fourth line spot seeing about two or three shifts a period. We went 2-2 going into the Avon Christmas Classic, so I was content with where we were as a team, but disappointed with the role I had stuck myself with. The Avon tournament was where we began to slide as a team, but in the last game of the tournament I had worked my way back onto a second line and power play spot. I once again had mixed feelings with my increased role on the team and our 3-5 record. We went home for another break and this time I would do it right.

Next Year

    At about this time I was also sending out my college applications. Getting those out was a huge burden lifted, but the school really helped every inch of the way. The people here truly want to see their students succeed and will do just about anything to help. Even at this moment I am still deciding what colleges are my top choices, and whether I would rather do a year of juniors before college. It's just a very tough time where you feel like you have very little control over things. The only advice I can really give anyone is to each part of the application done by the deadlines given to you. I saw a lot of kids get stuck at school for Christmas break for a couple of days because they had not completely their requirements. Talk to coaches, and visit the schools. I can't offer up much advice because for me, it's a decision that will not be made until probably April 30th (decisions are due May 1st).

Christmas Break/Discovering My Role

    Once home, I committed myself to being very disciplined. I was in early on the nights and really didn't mind it too much. There was plenty of time to be spent with friends. I also made sure I was in the weight room just about everyday. When I was on the (which was also about everyday) I did more than just play around with a puck. I kept up my foot speed and worked on the things I needed work on. I can't put into words how much a disciplined break helped me. Over the break I also began to realize how important a good diet and adequate sleep were to a hockey player. Both make a bigger difference than I ever thought they did. Aside from the hockey, I also made sure I got my assigned readings done. I wasn't going to have to worry about playing catch up on my grades this time. 

      The sleep habits carried over from break and I got into the swing of early nights at school. This was a lot tougher to do here than at home though. My roommate was out of his football season mentality and was just getting into his late nights. We worked out a solution where he would leave the room from 8-about 10:30 to give me time to get to sleep. He understood it was my season and respected it. As we got back into the swing of the season, I kept my spot on the second line, power play, and even earned a penalty kill spot (which I didn't even think I wanted at the beginning of the year). I was beginning to excel and finally our second line started scoring. However, we were still losing. We got through January with two wins, closing the month at 5-12. What was even worse was that we know/knew we had a good team, we just did not work well together on the ice. Don't get me wrong, we all got along great, there was just very little chemistry. Injuries and inconsistent goaltending also plagued us. Injuries: something that can ruin any great team's chances at success and are a lot of times not preventable. It is easy to lower the chance of injury by sleeping and eating right.

Injuries/The Mental Side of Hockey

    I found myself reasonably healthy (especially compared to the rest of the school through the winter) and didn't encounter my first injury until a practice in mid February. Ironically I'm writing this article with a broken wrist. It came at a truly terrible time too. If you were to watch a practice from back in December and watch one from mid February, you wouldn't think it was the same team. We had finally begun to click as a team. Also ironic about the time of the injury was that it came in the Monday practice after our big Saturday night win over Kent in which I had one of my better games of the year. It was the case all year, every time a player on our team had a big game, they would get injured the next day (and usually by one of our own players). I missed a 9-3 win over Millbrook that Wednesday, but returned that Saturday for a 2-0 loss to Hotchkiss at home.

    For me, playing through an injury such as the one I have now basically sums up the biggest things I've learned (on the ice) this year. Coach Foster has gotten more out of me than any coach I have ever played for. It wouldn't show on the stat sheets, but on the drenched jerseys after practices and games. No coach ever had me working as hard as Coach Foster because I didn't know how to work this hard. So what if your legs hurt...they're supposed to, you can rest later. So what if your wrist is sore...play through it, you can ice it after. There was just something about playing for Coach Foster that got me to push a little harder and dig a little further. I can't even explain what it was except maybe I was finally placed in a situation where I needed to work that hard to earn a spot. I came off the ice everyday more exhausted than the day before, and the day before was more exhausted that I'd been in my life. The other very important element that Coach Foster instilled in my mind was confidence. When I started to play well at the Avon Tournament, it was for no other reason than I was playing with much more confidence. I finally got it in my head that I belonged out there, and it helped more than anything else could have. Hockey truly is more mental than anything else.

There's Still Class ... Right?

    So I learned a lot on the ice, don't you still have to keep attending classes? Yes, but the school does make the winter season a lot easier on the athletes. School days are shortened during the winter and sit-down dinners are minimal. Once the season gets in full gear everybody realizes there is a lot of illness around the campus and the teachers do their best to accommodate you. I'm still enjoying all of my classes and teachers, and they enjoy watching us play hockey. Your performance on the ice doesn't go unnoticed the next day in classes, either. Teachers love to take a few minutes in class to talk about the previous game, but you are still expected to work to your potential in class. That's a good thing though. You'd be surprised how a couple boxes of 'Cup Noodles' can get you through writing papers in the winter. It's just like doing homework back at home in the winter. The learning environment really doesn't change much except that the school day is shortened by about 45 minutes; teachers are still always available for assistance.

   As I write this, we only have one game and one tournament remaining. That leaves 4 games at most. We realize that we can't come out of the season with a winning record, but we've also learned to try to find positives where you can. With our four remaining games we have a chance to improve to 11-15 which at this point I would consider a success. I've made some great friends on the ice this year, guys I know I will be in contact with for the next twenty years of my life. Throughout the winter we were on the ice everyday together, and ate just about every meal together. I consider us nothing less than a family. We've come a long way as a team, and hopefully we can go four games further.