Friday, February 26, 2016

Why Jimmy Vesey Loves NCAA Hockey

Harvard co-captain writes about his decision to return for his senior year on The Players’ Tribune.

Why Jimmy Vesey Loves NCAA Hockey
Jimmy Vesey was a first-team All-American and Hobey Baker Hat Trick finalist last season (Photo by Laurie Baumbach).

When Harvard’s season ended in the NCAA Tournament last season, the NHL was waiting for Jimmy Vesey (N. Reading, Mass./South Shore-EJHL/NSH). He had the opportunity to join the Nashville Predators, who drafted him in the third round in 20xx, for the rest of the regular season and playoffs.

Turns out, Vesey had already made up his mind: he was returning to Harvard for his senior season.

Vesey explains that decision in a must-read piece for The Players’ Tribune. Essentially, he wanted to take advantage of every minute of his college experience – one he knew he couldn’t come back to:

Some people might not have understood my decision to come back, but maybe they don’t fully understand what the college hockey experience is truly like. For me, I’ve loved every second of my time at Harvard, both at the rink and away from it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still fully committed to becoming an NHL player and having as long a career as I can, but there are certain aspects of college that I just didn’t want to give up if I didn’t have to. Like the two things people always say, “College is the best time of your life,” and, “You can never get those four years back.” So I didn’t really see the rush.

Throughout the piece, Vesey touches on many of the themes that NCAA coaches and College Hockey Inc. highlight in promoting college hockey:

Throughout his career, Vesey has been able to lean on his father, Jim, for advice – himself a former NHLer. Jimmy shares an especially telling bit his dad shared:

When I got a little bit older, my dad used to always tell me that I’d never be on a team closer than the ones in college. And, now that I’m a wise old senior and my college career is coming to a close, I can 100 percent see where he was coming from all those years ago.

Now, with another month or so of his college career remaining, this article makes it clear that Vesey plans to savor every minute of it.