College is the time in people’s lives that is filled with some of the best memories and moments.
For most, they just need to worry about their classes, but for the players on the Blue Jackets, their college days were spent balancing the difficulty of being both a student and an athlete.
With the upcoming Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game Saturday on Ohio State’s campus vs. Detroit, we reminisced with some of the former college players on the team about some of their best times from their college years – and some of the classes that stood out.
Adam Fantilli - University of Michigan
Fantilli is the most recent player on the Blue Jackets to play in college, skating for the Wolverines in 2022-23. For him, the time spent away from Ann Arbor was what stood out the most.
“Every time we went on the road, it was fun, and every time we went into a new building, it was fun,” Fantilli said. “I loved my time in college.”
He echoed Harris’ realization of how big some of the lecture halls were, whereas he too came from a smaller high school, which averaged 11 students in a class.
“I'd walk in, you got like 300 people in a lecture, and I thought, this is crazy,” he said. “I mean, I'd never experienced anything like that, and it's definitely hard. That's not my forte, but we made it through.”
The specific class that stood out to him was a public speaking course, which he said was one that he still applies to his everyday life.
Sean Kuraly - Miami University
Kuraly is the only current Blue Jacket who went to school in Ohio. The Dublin, Ohio, native grew up going to the ‘Shoe on Saturdays, but many of his best memories are from up the road in Oxford from 2013-16.
“I have a ton of fond memories of college,” Kuraly said. “A lot of my friends and teammates I played with in Miami are still some of my best friends today.”
He was a business management major and enjoyed learning about some of the business leaders around the world and how they operate. He was also interested in those leaders that came from little but made their lives into something more.
“Those were always my favorite classes,” Kuraly said. “Then collaborating with others and working together with others from different walks of life, you know, working in teams was kind of my favorite thing.”
Although classes were important to him, he said he learned a lot more being outside of the classroom than inside.
“There's definitely things you learn in the textbook, then there's a lot of things you learn, I think, not in textbooks in college,” Kuraly said. “Figuring life out without your parents around is obviously a thing.”
James van Riemsdyk - University of New Hampshire
College life may be 16 years removed now for van Riemsdyk, who skated for the Wildcats from 2008-09, but he still looks back on it as the last time he felt like a kid.
“The college hockey experience in general, for me, was amazing,” van Riemsdyk said. “I thought the life balance you get, and it's the last time you kind of really feel like a kid while you are chasing your dream. That was kind of cool.”
Most people remember the friends or the nights out at college, but van Riemsdyk’s best memories stemmed from hockey.
“Any Saturday night home game that we had at the Whittemore Center and anytime you get a big win, you get to get Sunday off. You get to enjoy your Saturday. I would say those are my favorite memories of college,” he said.
The classes that stood out to him mostly were in his major, which was business. However, one elective found him and some of his teammates on the stage.
“Theater and dance was a class that a lot of us took as an elective, so that was way out of my comfort zone,” he said. “There were some business classes that were good. I'm a math guy, so anything math was kind of nice.”
Since he was in college for only two years, he has yet to complete his degree, which is a goal of the 15-year NHL veteran when he hangs up the skates.
“At some point it's something that I would definitely like to finish,” van Riemsdyk said. “We'll see if I get the opportunity.”
Kent Johnson - University of Michigan
It is well-documented just how good the Michigan teams were that featured Johnson, highlighted by three top-five picks in the 2021 NHL draft, including Johnson. As a result, there were plenty of memorable moments for him on the ice during his two seasons (2021-22) in Ann Arbor.
“The Big Ten championship was a big thing for us; obviously, that was really fun,” he said. “Every day, I just really enjoyed. We were all kind of grinding together, like trying to make the NHL and trying to get better and win games together.”
He first realized how good the players around him were during his first week when his best friend from Michigan, eventual No. 1 overall pick Owen Power, pointed out a flaw in practice.
“On the power play, I tried to do it by myself every time the first week,” Johnson said. “(Owen Power) was like, ‘You don't like to pass it on the entries.’ And I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, I guess, I should start using you guys. Like, you guys are pretty good players.’”
Johnson and Power became very close in college, and the two of them took similar courses because they were both sports management majors. Johnson's best story from class was how the two of them opted for a more “efficient” way to learn the material in an economics class.
“It was like the hardest class we took. It was really tough, and we were both really struggling at the start of the class together,” he said. “They recorded the lectures online and you could play them back at 2x speed. We were failing class at this point, and we decided we were gonna stop going to class, train in the mornings instead, and then watch the lectures over in 2x speed to basically just be more efficient.”
This method did end up helping the two Wolverines, as they went on to improve their grades and passed the course.
“It was a fun grind to do together,” Johnson said. “We were probably a little overmatched. We're not at Michigan because we're smart at math kind of thing, but we had to kind of grind together. That was a really fun class."
Jack Johnson - University of Michigan
The other Johnson on the team that went to Michigan, Jack was the No. 3 overall pick in the draft but always knew where he wanted to play before he went to the NHL.
“Best couple years of my life,” said Johnson, who grew up in the Detroit area. “I always dreamed of playing at Michigan. I got lifelong friends and lifelong memories there.”
Because he was drafted so highly in 2005 by the Carolina Hurricanes, he was in college for only two years (2006-07). However, he loved going to school at Michigan so much, he had to go back and graduate, earning his degree in 2022.
“It meant a lot to me to be at school there, so I went back and graduated,” he said.
The class that stood out to him most was an 8 a.m. Not only an 8 a.m., but one on Monday morning.
“I remember a bunch of us, we had a biology class on Monday morning at 8 a.m. That one was a tough one,” he said. “Fortunately, we had one guy on our team, one of my close friends, he's a pretty sharp guy, and he kind of helped us along.”
One thing that he’ll remember is the elite pedigree of Michigan and how he was surrounded by other great athletes.
“Going to class with other athletes around campus, that was a special thing,” he said. “Walking the halls with Olympic swimmers, wrestlers, Heisman Trophy candidates, that was really cool to be surrounded by other elite athletes.”
Dante Fabbro - Boston University
Similar to Kent Johnson, Fabbro grew up in British Columbia and elected to attend Boston University from 2017-19 instead of playing in the Western Hockey League, a decision he will never regret.
“When I ultimately made that decision to go to college, I haven't looked back on that decision once,” Fabbro said. “Just being able to play with some great players and get to kind of go through those experiences with yourself being a student-athlete, you get the best of both worlds.”
His greatest memories from college consist of the Frozen Fenway outdoor games he experienced and playing for a chance at a national championship in the NCAA tournament.
“We were able to play some outdoor games at Fenway Park, which was really cool, and made the tournament all three years,” he said.
His favorite class was a coaching course he took with seven other members of the BU hockey team. Fabbro and his teammates would chirp each other throughout the semester on their answers to the professor’s questions.
“Most of them were freshmen with myself, and just being in there, we obviously got to make fun of some of the guys with their answers and whatnot,” Fabbro said.
As a communications major, Fabbro did not have to attend too many STEM courses, but one of the most interesting courses he took was on bacterial growth in soil.
“I would say that was probably the weirdest one, just because it had nothing to do with my major,” he said. “It was just kind of an elective sort of thing, but it was cool."
Zach Aston-Reese - Northeastern University
Some of Aston-Reese’s best memories from his four seasons at Northeastern (2014-17) were his games in the Beanpot – the annual tournament among the four major college hockey teams of the Greater Boston area, Northeastern, Boston University, Boston College and Harvard – and the two outdoor games he played, including one at Fenway Park.
“I wish I could have done another year at college,” Aston-Reese said.
As for the student part, he was an art major and was able to spend more time working on his hockey game because of it.
“My classes were nice,” Aston-Reese said. “They only met once a week for three hours, so I had a lot more time to spend at the rink, which is actually really nice. I was by myself a lot, so it's kind of nice to meet new people and have friends outside of the team.”
The classes in his major would get fairly hard, however, when they pushed him outside of his comfort zone. Some of his more random ones were the most memorable to him.
“We had to do, like, a jazz class, which was super random,” he said. “I had one about, like, all the oceans. I forget what it was called, something like, oceans and coasts.”
Jordan Harris - Northeastern University
Harris spent four seasons at the school as well (2019-22) and said he loved the camaraderie of college. His best memories were of being with his teammates on and off the ice.
“I feel like you have a lot of team and school spirit, the guys are so close,” Harris said. “Honestly, some of my best memories are just being with my roommates and teammates all the time, whether it's in the dining hall, the dorm, or just sitting in the locker room after practice. You're just always with your buddies and teammates, and I feel like you play really hard for each other.”
As for his more interesting classes, he took one that helped with his hockey game and one that gave him a realization that most college students have walking in on their first day.
“I took a sports psychology class, which was really cool,” Harris said. “A bunch of athletes were in that, so just getting a chance to talk to them and learn more about the mental side of sports was really cool.
“My first semester, I took a chemistry class. You walk in the first day, and you're like, ‘Oh my God, there's like, 150 people in there.’ That was just really mind-blowing and took a little bit to get used to”
His favorite classes were those in his major, psychology, which helped him learn more about his mental state and how to keep in the right headspace no matter the situation.
“I think one thing that we talked a lot about and that made me start thinking about sports a little differently, was just mental talk and like, how important your self-talk is,” he said.
