By Scott Feldman

Collegian Staff‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

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Scott Crowder’s father was a professional hockey player and a collegiate hockey coach for 14 years. Crowder grew up around hockey all his life and is currently a forward for the Massachusetts men’s hockey team. Despite this, he said that his father was never a ‘hockey dad.’

‘We’ve always tried to keep it just father and son. Our relationship has never been about hockey,’ Crowder said. ‘It was obviously a huge part of our lives, but it wasn’t like ‘you’ve got to go to the gym; you’ve got to stick handle for an hour,’ it was more like ‘have fun, do whatever you want.’ He didn’t force it on me.’

Hockey is in the water at the Crowder household. The entire family lives and breathes hockey in some form. However, when Crowder was growing up with his father, they rarely talked about the sport. Crowder noted that hockey was his dad’s job and after all, how many kids talk about what their father does for a living on a daily basis?

Crowder’s father, Bruce Crowder, played on the Boston Bruins for three seasons, notching eight goals and adding four assists. When his playing career ended, he spent the next 14 years coaching. Bruce worked behind the bench at Maine, UMass-Lowell and, most recently, Northeastern where he was the head coach for nine years. Through his father’s experience, Crowder learned from an early age what hockey was all about.

‘I had the opportunity to go into the locker room and talk with the college kids when I was like six or seven. My whole life was like that ‘- the hockey lifestyle, the hockey everything. Friday, Saturday night I would be driving to either my games or his games,’ said Crowder.

Bruce is proud of his son’s accomplishments on the ice and is happy he chose to follow in his footsteps, but he emphasized that the choice to play hockey was made by Scott.

‘The one thing I told both my boys (Crowder has an older brother Kevin who also played hockey) was that this is their dream. I lived my dream [of playing in the NHL],’ Bruce said.

Because his father had to travel so often as a coach, Crowder didn’t get to work with his father too much and learned the game on his own. He developed his own style and became known for his physical play and non-stop effort. Eventually, Crowder assumed that he would one day play for his father at Northeastern. However, it was not meant to be as Bruce Crowder was fired from Northeastern in 2005, just before Crowder entered college. He did not want to play for a school that his dad was fired from, so he looked at other schools in the same conference (Hockey East) because he wanted to play in the conference he grew up watching.

Luckily for Crowder, many of the coaches in Hockey East were familiar with him due to his father’s position. Crowder has known UMass coach Don Cahoon since he was six years old. The two were close enough that when Crowder was in high school, Cahoon had Crowder babysit his grandchildren while he attended a coach’s convention in Florida. So when Crowder did not go to Northeastern, Cahoon was happy to give him a shot.‘

Despite the family connection, Cahoon did not and still does not give Crowder any special treatment. Several times during his freshman and sophomore years, Crowder was left off the active roster and was forced to attend the game as a fan rather than a player.

‘When you’re sitting up there and you worked as hard as the other guys in practice and you see them playing over you’hellip;’ said Crowder.

The experience of being left out only served to motivate Crowder further to work hard in practice. It also proved to Crowder’s teammates that he was not going to get or accept any advantage from his relationship with Cahoon; he had to put in as much effort as anyone else.

‘He has a rich athletic background in his family, but you would never know that unless you asked him or heard about it from someone else,’ teammate Chris Davis said. ‘He doesn’t use it to his advantage or anything like that because he doesn’t have to. He’s a good player.’

Crowder typically plays on the fourth line and is tasked with preventing the other team’s top offensive threats from scoring. He is not the most athletic or imposing player on the team. Standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 192-pounds, he’s not exactly small, but can’t rely on superior size or strength. His success comes from doing the little things and understanding the game.

‘[Crowder's] not going to score a lot of goals, but his most noticeable traits are more about finishing checks, grinding and making it difficult for the other team,’ UMass coach Don Cahoon said.‘ ‘

‘[Crowder's] a guy who’ll finish his check, get the big hit and get the puck out at the right time, and grind their defense down. He’s just an all-around hard-working guy,’ linemate Brett Watson said.

There isn’t a whole lot of recognition gained from playing on the fourth line. His statistics of one goal and two assists in 20 games this season doesn’t exactly make professional scouts drool, but Crowder and the ‘checking line’ are just as important to the team’s success as talented goal-scorers like James Marcou or Alex Berry. If the Minutemen’s fourth line can stifle the opponent’s best players, it makes the game easier for everyone else. It’s a high-pressure job, but it’s a position Crowder enjoys.

‘You can go out there and turn a whole game,’ Crowder said. ‘You can go out there and drop somebody, and that gets that crowd going, which gets the bench going. That can turn the whole momentum of the game for your team.’

Obviously, Crowder would like to score more goals, but he knows if he makes life tough for the opponent, he’s done his part.

‘If I’m not putting the puck in the net, I’d rather put somebody on the ice,’ Crowder said.

Being raised by a coach did help teach Crowder one thing about not only hockey but life itself. He saw firsthand that effort and consistency are traits coaches and teammates value most.

‘I think with coaches [they care] more about accountability and what you are going to give every night,’ Crowder said. ‘Coaches don’t like players who, one game, will give a 10 [in effort] and the next game give you a two.’

The rink is not the only place that Crowder displays his work ethic. He has been named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team three times in a row and majors in business and sports management, an achievement that makes his father glow with pride.

‘For me, I’m probably more proud of what he’s doing academically than what he’s doing athletically. He’s going to get out there with a dual degree,’ Bruce said. ‘He didn’t take the easy way out academically; he made sure he was taking the full load [of classes].’

It’s likely that Crowder will not get to play in the NHL as his father did, but Bruce could care less. He’s just happy to have raised a good kid.

‘We’re very proud of both our boys, they’ve never given us a stitch of trouble and they’ve been good kids. Once you have kids and you can say that when’s it’s all said and done you did a good job,’ Bruce said.

Scott Feldman can be reached at sfeldman@student.umass.edu.