The sound of service March 03, 2021
2018 class valedictorian and former men’s hockey star Braeden Ostepchuk brings voice to ‘Learn II Perform’ podcast
Braeden Ostepchuk, as scores of Norwich University students had before and since, learned the Guiding Values and used them as a behavioral lodestar through academics, athletics and campus life. He succeeded at seemingly every turn, becoming class valedictorian and an ice hockey Academic All-American.
When Ostepchuk’s postcollege life reached a crossroads, the values came through again, becoming a model for drafting his own.
Ostepchuk, a 27-year-old 2018 Norwich graduate who lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, said he chose Norwich partly because of its storied hockey program. At Norwich, he thrived as a goaltender, thrice earning College Sports Information Directors of America All-American honors and once earning New England Hockey Conference Goalie of the Year.
Credit Pensacola Ice Flyers
After a nine-month hiatus, it’s back to the ice for the Pensacola Ice Flyers and four other Southern Professional Hockey League clubs, who are playing a truncated season with fewer teams and fewer games thanks to the coronavirus.
The geographically southernmost teams – Pensacola, the Birmingham Bulls, Huntsville Havoc, Knoxville Ice Bears, and the Macon Mayhem – are playing a 42-game season. Ice Flyers head coach Rod Aldoff says with only one other minor league in operation, the ECHL, there’s been a bumper crop of talent to recruit.
“Obviously, when the league announced the five teams were dropping out, obviously a lot of teams became available from other teams,” said Aldoff. “So our goal was to go after a few guys that we thought would fit well with our team and we did, and they’re here.”