Mars resident starts at top
ADAMSTWP — Jeremy Hill climbed the hockey ladder — and stopped at a national championship tournament along the way.
The Mars resident was a freshman center on the California (Pa.)University hockey team that recently competed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division IIINational Championships in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Originally from Brunswick, Ohio, Hill's family relocated to the Mars area a year ago.
"We received an e-mail from him before he moved to the area,"California coach Justin Berger said. "He was looking to go to college and play hockey.
"We went to Cleveland and talked to him. Once we saw him play, we seriously recruited him."
Hill spent two seasons playing for the Cleveland Junior Lumberjacks, a Junior Class B team, before joining the Vulcans.
"I learned so much there,"Hill said of the Lumberjacks. "That's a very high level of hockey and I held my own. It really prepared me for college hockey. I was able to step right in as a freshman and compete."
Hill scored 13 goals and added 10 assists for California this season. The Vulcans were 25-2-1 on the season, losing only to Duquesne and Indiana (Pa.), going into the ACHANationals.
But they dropped three out of four games at nationals, losing 9-4 to Calvin College, 11-5 to College of Canyons and 5-2 to Central Florida before defeating Georgia Tech 6-1 to finish 15th in the 16-team tourney.
There are 150 ACHAteams nationwide.
"We had a bunch of injuries going into that tournament,"Hill said. "One guy had a lacerated spleen, we had two fractured wrists — I was playing with a sprained ankle. We just never got going."
Berger said his team's youth may have played a factor in its struggles at nationals as well.
"We had a handful of guys who had never played in that type of atmosphere before," he said. "We played at a high level to win our conference championships only two days before making that trip, too."
Hill described his playing style as being "a grinder" and looks for more success at California next season. The Vulcans have been a national contender since 2002 and finished seventh in the nation in 2004.
"It seems like I've already played for a million teams,"Hill said. "I'm trying to climb the hockey ladder, so to speak. I want to go as high as I can go."
Berger said Hill's role with the team was to prevent goals more than to score them.
"We used him as a defensive-minded forward," the coach said. "Jeremy checks very well and he's a physical player. I imagine he can succeed in that role at a higher level.
"Our team is considering moving up in class to Division II, maybe even Division I, in a few years. It's because of players like Jeremy that we believe we can do well there."
Hill isn't settling for being known just for defense.
"I have a (hockey) net at our house and I'm going to be firing pucks all spring and summer, trying to get better," he said.
Another Mars resident, sophomore forward Andy Jarrett, played for California this season. He had a goal and five assists in 15 games.
"He was a big help to us killing penalties during the first half of the year. He finished up playing for our (junior varsity) team,"Berger said.
