Skating on a different path after NP

TOWAMENCIN- Many high school graduates eagerly anticipate that envelope of acceptance from their top college choice. Some just hope to have some choice.. What if instead, you did apply to college and you got accepted into Penn State, Towson, and were offered to play baseball at Widener but you decided to turn down all of those offers. This was the case with North Penn alumni, Alex Peterson, who deferred for a year in order to pursue a career in hockey.

“Once everyone started going off to college, I instead went off to training camp from my junior hockey team at the end of August…And now I’m hoping to end up getting a scholarship to play hockey out of Juniors,” said Peterson.

From attending North Penn High School from 2013-2016 and attending North Penn District for only one year more, Alex gained a reputation for his athletic prowess while still managing to maintain strong academics.

“I feel so privileged to have gone to North Penn at all because I went to Corpus before North Penn and for a while it was uncertain if I was going to continue with catholic school and I didn’t,” Peterson explained.

Playing for both the varsity baseball and varsity hockey teams, he was always a big name in the student-athlete world. From the beginning of his NP hockey career, he was unquestionably the Sidney Crosby of both the SHSHL and each North Penn Hockey team from the 2013 through 2016 seasons respectively. In his freshman year, the student section even coined the chant of “freshman, freshman” when he scored hat tricks upon hat tricks of goals against opposing schools. His junior year, after having one year of varsity hockey under his belt, he became an assistant captain and achieved the rank of captain his senior year.

In the world of high school baseball he made just as big of an impression. Being called up from Junior Varsity his sophomore year because of an injury to a varsity player, Alex took his lucky break and ran with it. He rarely ever came out of the lineup againl until the end of his time at North Penn, contributing to a conference title his sophomore year, a state title as junior and leading his team into the playoffs his final year as a senior.

After graduation, when one would normally be off to college, Alex began training for the Philadelphia Little Flyers, a tier I junior league hockey team in Aston, Pa. His final goal being to receive a hockey scholarship out of juniors. What a life you may think, to defer for a year in order to play a sport you love. Well it is but you may be surprised to learn that it requires just as much, if not more hardwork and dedication, as it would have been to attend a University. Alex’s team, the Little Flyers, practice four times a week Tuesday through Friday, for as long as an average school day, as well as having two or three games over the weekend. Practice entails vigorous lifting regiments, video review of prior games, and an on ice drills. Monday is an off day, with the caveat that his team played well over the weekend.

“There’s only five local kids on our team and everyone else lives with host families. We have a lot of kids from all over the country. Actually, we have a few kids from Europe too. It’s pretty cool.” said Alex

About every other weekend, Alex is traveling (six hour bus trips) to play teams as far away as New Hampshire and Vermont. But when he is “away” for one of his games, at least one of his teammates may be “home”. He is only one of the five players on his team that is from Pennsylvania originally. The rest one his teammates that stay with billet families, are from all over the States in addition to a select few that are from Europe. With this diverse group of players, Alex’s teams is first in the league, ranked number one in the country, and has achieved a record of 31-1-2.

With his season ending in April assuming the Little Flyers will fight their way through play offs, Alex has a considerable chance of receiving a hockey scholarship to a brilliant school.