The
ties between those cities, however, go beyond that for three ice hockey
players who have taken their game to the next level. Like many talented
players, Drew Baker, A.J. Piplica and Nick Amore met in youth leagues
and played together on travel teams. They became teammates at Tampa
Jesuit High and now don the gold and black of Georgia Tech.
“We’re
kind of the feeder school to Georgia Tech,” said Mark Kroeten, who also
played hockey for the Yellow Jackets (Class of 1986) and coached the
three Tampa wingers at Jesuit.
A
feeder school might be stretching it a bit, nonetheless Kroeten has a
point. Other than the seven in-state players on the current 22-man
roster, no city boasts more Yellow Jackets than the Tampa trio, who
also are engineering majors.
“It
feels good to know that they’re at Georgia Tech and in the same program
that I played in; keeping it alive,” Kroeten said.
Actually,
one among the three has missed the first half of the season. Piplica, a
sophomore, spent the fall semester as an intern in aerospace
engineering at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and plans to rejoin
the team in January.
Admittedly,
Piplica misses spending time on the ice with his teammates from Tampa.
As a student first and athlete second, however, he appears to have his
priorities in order.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Piplica said of the internship in Texas. “What comes first is my education.”
Baker was more succinct, saying, “School’s first, but hockey’s a close second.”
Added Kroeten, “They’re all pretty bright.”
Like the others, Amore does not envision any problems with Piplica fitting in upon his return to the team.
“We
basically know, hockey-wise, everything about each other,” said Amore,
a freshman left winger. “It makes it a lot easier to play.”
Piplica
and Amore lack the experience and success exhibited so far by Baker, a
junior right wing and productive scorer. Through Georgia Tech’s first
12 games this season, Baker had four goals and five assists, good
enough for second in team scoring.
Baker had an immediate impact at Georgia Tech, tallying 13 goals and 18
assists as a freshman before a slight drop-off last season to eight
goals and 10 assists.
With
totals like that, some would think Baker is well-known on campus. Not
so, Baker pointed out, noting that his particular sport does not
attract throngs of fans like the Georgia Tech football and basketball
teams.
“I’m totally satisfied,” Baker
said, shrugging off the lack of notoriety. “I don’t need anyone to
recognize me for playing hockey.”
In
October, the Tampa trio returned to Florida for Georgia Tech’s game
against South Florida played at the St. Pete Times Forum, home of the
Lightning.
Piplica, who took a break
from his internship in Houston to skate for that game, described the
night before that game against South Florida as nervewracking.
“It was worse than Christmas Eve,” Piplica said. “I was really excited.”
For
Baker, he said coming back to play in Tampa as a collegian, was
“really, really special to me. I didn’t care about being the visiting
team, but as long as we got the W.”
The
Yellow Jackets won that Oct. 14 contest, 6-5 and regardless of the
season’s outcome or the individual players’ statistics, all three
describe being college teammates as the experience of a lifetime.
For Amore, choosing to study engineering at Georgia Tech became an easy decision because his friends were there.
“When you go to school and you know somebody, it makes the transition a lot easier,” he said.
Added Baker, “I’m actually in a fraternity right now, but I’d say I’m closer to the guys in hockey.”
Aside
from their parents, no one is more proud of the Tampa trio than
Kroeten, who summed it up by saying, “They’ve all come a long way.” |
