By Christopher Tremblay

Staff Sports Writer

Thank God for his parents’ love for the game of hockey. 

It was Nathan Jarrett’s parents who got him onto the ice at a very early age with the Framingham Flyers and since then, his love for the sport has grown to where he is now a captain for the Hopedale Blue Raiders hockey program.

Having played some six years for his current club team, the Minutemen Flames, Jarrett was always interested in playing high school hockey, but he was not sure his stature (4’ 10” and 120 lbs.) could handle the game.

“During the seventh and eighth grade I always went to the high school games and looked up to the players on the team,” he said. “But at that time, I didn’t think that at my size that I was physically ready to play high school hockey, so I waited until my freshman year to try out.”

Jarrett originally found himself with the mites team, but being so quick on his feet, the coaches eventually moved him into a forward position, something that he enjoyed.

“When the coaches moved me up, at first I didn’t care as long as I was playing hockey somewhere,” Jarrett said. “Of course, I was interested in the idea of scoring goals, and I try to score as much as I can.”

Coming into his freshman year, he figured that he’d give high school hockey a try, but we were coming out of the Covid season and things were still a bit on the stranger side. Athletes did not have access to the locker rooms and the younger players found it difficult getting to know the upper classmen on the team. The hockey players, as was every other athlete, were required to wear masks under their helmets.

“That year I played a lot for the junior varsity team and had fun, but it was very tough breathing through your masks while on the ice,” he said. “My club team didn’t use them as much, but the high school team was much more serious about it.”

Although being named to the varsity squad in his sophomore season, Jarrett did not receive all that much playing time. When he was on the bench, he found himself concentrating on the other players and what they were doing on the ice.

“I did a lot of watching that season, but I got to understand and get a feel for the varsity game,” Jarrett said. “The speed was much different, and it allowed me to take work on my techniques on the JV team, which played at a much slower pace.”

Last year he found himself rotating between the top three lines depending on the game and where the coach needed him to play, and once again it didn’t really matter to him if he was playing center or one of the wings as long as he was on the ice, he was fine with things.

He found himself teamed up with Brady Butler and Jake Frohn and although intimidating to play alongside two huge role models, he had to take his game to the next level to keep up with the talent he was playing with. 

This campaign he originally found himself playing on the top line, but the Coaching staff found them to be too good together and needed to get more production out of another line, so Jarrett found himself on the second line, where he hasn’t disappointed.

“He is a fast and tough kid with a great shot that has worked extremely hard to be a well wounded player who sets a great example for the rest of the team,” Hopedale Coach Mike MacQuarrie said. “This season he has really turned the corner to be our team leader in goals.”

Although early Jarrett leads the Blue Raiders with 6 goals and is hoping that he can string together enough goals and assists to reach the 20-point plateau in his final season with Hopedale.

According to the Hopedale Coach, the new-found goal scorer has been able to put the puck in the net many different ways. 

“He started out banging in a couple of goals on some rebounds on the power play, then he had what I’m calling the goal of the year so far when he was forechecking, knocked the player over in the offensive zone, took the puck and roofed it over the Algonquin goalie,” MacQuarrie said. “It was the perfect example of how he got on the defensive player with his speed, knocked him over with his toughness and then display a great shot.”

The coach went on to say that Jarrett had an opening snipe goal that opened up a five goal first period against Westborough and in a game tied with Longmeadow he was able to stuff home the go-ahead goal on the side of the net for Hopedale and then added an empty netter after blocking a shot in his own zone. 

“Nathan continuing to play great will be a key for the hockey team this season if we want to have success,” MacQuarrie said. 

At this point, Hopedale is only sporting a 2-4-1 record that include some tough losses.

“Our record doesn’t reflect upon us as a team,” Jarrett said. “But I am confident that we will turn things around and start putting more pucks into the net and eventually get our wins.”

As he tries to turn the Blue Raiders season around, Jarrett knows that this will most likely be the end of his hockey career. Upon entering college next year, he says that he will not be going out of his way to play the sport, but eventually may join a club team if the situation is right. 

So, for the time being Jarrett is going to do everything possible to keep his team on the ice as long as he can during his senior season at Hopedale.