Tradition is an important element of sports. Legacies are created, and future generations both cherish and mimic the different aspects of their predecessors. Despite being born into a great pedigree of her sport, Boston College women's ice hockey player Alex Carpenter is creating her own legacy every day.
The freshman center was born into a hockey family. Bobby Carpenter, her father, played in the NHL for 18 seasons with five different teams. He was the third overall pick by the Washington Capitals in the 1981 draft, and he was the first U.S.-born player to go to the NHL straight from high school. After his playing career, he became the Director of Program Development for the Eastern Junior Hockey League's Valley Jr. Warriors.
While many would fear falling under the shadow of so famous a parent, Carpenter has created her own identity and forged her own path in the world of athletics, only using her father's experience to be the best player possible.
She credits growing up in a hockey family as one of the main factors of her development.
"My biggest strength would probably be how much I know about the game," she said. "I grew up in a hockey background with my dad playing in the NHL. I've been around the game. I just know a lot about it, so it's become second nature to me."
Clearly her knowledge of the sport has given Carpenter an advantage over other Hockey East freshmen. As of Sunday, she had registered the most points on the team with 20. She has worked very well at both facilitating her teammates and creating her own opportunities, as she has both 10 goals and assists.
Although most freshmen struggle with their inaugural learning curves, Carpenter has not had too many difficulties. She credits this advantage to her high school, The Governor's Academy in Byfield, Mass.
"It was a pretty easy transition," she said. "On the ice, I think it was very easy. In the weight room, it was a little different. We didn't really have that sort of weight room atmosphere at Governor's. But hockey-wise it was a very good transition. My prep school is a good college transition school, so that prepared me well."
In high school, Carpenter became a well-known figure, due to her strong play. Playing in the highly competitive Independent School League (ISL), the Reading, Mass. native registered 239 goals and 188 assists for 427 points in only 100 games. For all four years she played, her team won the New England Division II Championship.
The center was named to the All-ISL team for all four years, and she captured ISL MVP honors during her junior and senior campaigns.
Carpenter was also a strong competitor on the diamond. She helped lead her softball team to the ISL championship game in 2008 and 2011. Her play as a strong-batted shortstop earned her All-League honors for four years and team MVP in 2009 and 2011.
One important factor during this period was the support of her family, specifically her brother Robert.
"We were actually pretty supportive of each other," she said. "There's a two-year age difference. We were never really competing, but rather helping each other. We'd always go skate in our backyard and help each other with things we needed to work on."
This hockey-oriented background gave Carpenter the ability to mature into her skills more quickly than most. As a sophomore in high school, she played with the USA's Under-18 Women's World Championship team in Stockholm, Sweden.
At BC, Carpenter has quickly become the top scorer, showing once again that her youth does not affect her confidence. She credits this quick adjustment to her veteran teammates.
"All of the veterans have been very good to us," she said. "They've been very helpful on and off the ice. They're definitely people we can go to for help. They're just really good to us. They're just very helpful to us. They understand that they were in our shoes once, and it's kind of hard to be the youngest on the team so they're very understanding."
Despite this support, Carpenter did say that she and her teammates were nervous upon taking the ice for the first time in their college careers. However, the class had a quick turn around.
After a 7-2 season-opening loss to Minnesota-Duluth, three freshmen provided the scoring effort in the second game of the series. Carpenter led the charge with a late-game, shorthanded goal, as the Eagles beat the Bulldogs, 3-2.
"I'd say we lost a lot of the nerves in our second game," she said. "The first game all the freshmen were kind of freaked out. We were out in Minnesota. It was a big deal. We were playing a good team. Then in the second game three freshmen scored. We began to realize that we belong on this team."
Her early season success has garnered Carpenter a lot of recognition by the Hockey East. For the month of October, she led all Hockey East freshmen by averaging 1.38 points per game. This earned her the Pro Ambitions Hockey East Rookie of the Month honor. During this time period, Carpenter also proved herself a clutch player by scoring one game-winning goal and assisting on another.
Despite this great play, the freshman does not want to let this honor get to her head and is very humbled.
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