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Number: 18
Position: Forward
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 200
Birthday: 5.10.79
Hometown: Fullerton, CA
Last team: Miami of Ohio |
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Player Biography
Alex is a Fullerton, California native and comes to the Buccaneers from Miami of Ohio University, where he had 11 goals and 9 assists last season. He says the best advice he ever received was from his father, “You have 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason”! His favorite book is “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein, and he loves “Sportscenter” on ESPN. Alex hopes to open his own restaurant someday.
Also see interview below.
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Interview
Sarah: Welcome back.
Alex: Thanks!
Sarah: It is good to see you again!
Alex: Yeah, likewise.
Sarah: Of course, you played for Miami of Ohio. I would like to have it in your words why you are back.
Alex: Yeah, I think there is a lot of speculations to why I am here. I don’t know if people really know the real reason. Coach Carroll and a few other people obviously know why I am back. Basically, you know, the run down is that I wasn’t happy there. It had nothing to do with playing time. I was playing on the first sheet of power plays, you know. I was getting a lot of ice time. I logged the most ice time my second year there for the team. Ice time wasn’t a big concern. I think it was the social aspect, academics, just having to juggle everything. I think it became overwhelming at times, and it was just something that I felt I needed to take a break from school and pressure of having to perform. My coach put a lot of pressure on me to perform my second year there right after my freshman year. He and I both felt it was a very successful year for myself. He had a lot of plans for me my sophomore year, but they didn’t turn out the way either of us thought they would. Basically, it just kind of crumbled a bit. I came to him and I approached him and I asked him if I could look out for my options and perhaps transfer or take the year off. We both agreed upon that then. It was just basically a final decision for myself to leave that situation. I think that sometimes people find places where they aren’t happy. The shoe doesn’t always fit, you know. Some places aren’t right for some people, and I guess that place was just somewhere where I didn’t feel that I was comfortable.
Sarah: Do you have plans now for what you would like to do?
Alex: I really don’t know. I would like to play college hockey again at a school that is suitable for myself where I could make an impact there. Just being one of the guys is mainly my biggest concern. Also along with that is to get the academic and athletic balance, which is why I chose Miami because I felt that they had the equivalent, you know, the balance of hockey and academics. Hopefully I can find a school with that kind of balance as well.
Sarah: I hope you do. Why don’t we talk about the level of college hockey as opposed to the difference of juniors.
Alex: It is hard to compare. To be honest, the first couple of games I was ahead of the play by a couple of steps, the passes were behind me. It was frustrating; it was very frustrating. Cause I was used to having the puck being, you know, in front of me the whole time. The puck movement is much quicker in college hockey. The guys have head up, you know, the D are able to make quick plays. The D are almost like the forwards. They have great hands, great skating skills. It makes it that much easier when you are transitioning from defense to offense. Also, the size and the speed are a lot different. You can get away with just going half speed here. When you get to the college level, you realize that you can’t do that or you will be left behind. I think each game means everything as well, too. Not that games don’t mean everything here, but you play only 36 games at the collegiate level so you cherish every game. I think there is a little more tradition too with college hockey. After every victory, we say our fight song in the locker room. We do a lot of little things a lot differently. The kids pay more attention to each other, take more of a business approach because they are being paid to play there basically by way of scholarships. They value that and I feel that is something that is a bit different. Juniors is a lot more fun approach. You can get away with doing a lot more things on the ice. Off the ice it is a bit more strict than college obviously. You know, you can’t go out in the night life but you can in college and you really don’t have a curfew, which some of the college guys on our team have a hard time adjusting to – myself, Weber, and Chiodo. That is another aspect I think is different from junior hockey and college hockey.
Sarah: So have you found it hard to adjust coming back to juniors?
Alex: Yeah, it is cause you don’t know what to expect. Teammates wonder, you know, why is this kid back here? He was so good; why isn’t he ripping up this league? They ask a lot of questions like that. You’ve got to kind of roll with the punches, I think. I have answers for some of those questions but I really don’t vocalize them. I try to keep my mouth shut and take this year as a stepping-stone, not a step back but a step forward, which is very hard to do. In the back of my mind, I am always thinking why am I here? I could be playing college hockey. Why am I here? That happens a lot and I think that learning that you can’t dwell on the past but look to the future. Some of the things statistically, I don’t think I would be putting up the same number of points in college hockey. I have had a lot of chances to score; I just haven’t been burying them. I have kind of been too lax, I think, too relaxed around the net. Statistics aren’t that important to me, to be honest. I would rather be a complete player, you know, learning how to just do little things right and that is what is going to get the player to the next level, I think. Stats say something, but when a player goes out there and does every little thing right, that means a lot more.
Sarah: Where do you think the team is headed this season? How do you feel things are going?
Alex: It is kind of hard to tell. I think thus far we have been playing all right, just kind of lack luster I think. Some guys have been showing up, some guys haven’t. Last night wasn’t really a good game, I don’t think. They weren’t very competitive. We played well as a team selectively. The D were making plays, the forwards were hitting and making forechecks and making the plays. I think this week in practice the coach kind of had a different approach to practice. He sat us down and we had a good talk. Basically, he gave it how it was. He let us know how it is, what we need to do to succeed basically as team. I think we took that and kind of ran with it. Right now we are in the process of building a good team, a lot of team unity. I think that’s what is lax in our team right now. It looks like three or four guys are playing a night. Sometimes we can get away with that, you know, three or four guys play. I think we need to start coming together as a team, and we are kind of doing that. We are realizing that it is that much easier to win if you play all together. Hopefully in the near future we can make it to the playoffs, you know, obviously get home ice advantage and take it from there.
Sarah: Thank you.
Alex: No problem.
Special thanks to Lisa Sheehy for transcribing this interview.
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