New era at Mount
Pratt, Baxter excited to play with elite
The ice at Adelard Arena will never be the same as the newly-formed U18 elite team skated for the first time Monday.
WOONSOCKET — For Mount St. Charles senior hockey players Alex Pratt and Chris Baxter, the storied locker room under the stands remains the same.
The bench, with the name “MOUNT” plastered in large red font on the white back wall, remains the same.
Even the color of the uniforms hasn’t changed.
Nearly everything else for the talented Mounties is completely different. While their former R.I. Interscholastic League teammates won’t begin practicing on the historic – albeit cramped – Adelard Arena ice until after Thanksgiving, the duo was skating with some of the top college prospects in the Northeast Monday afternoon.
In an attempt to revive Mount’s hockey fortunes, last August the school brought in former South Kent School national championship-winning coaches Matt Plante and Devin Rask to run the new Mount St. Charles Hockey Academy. While the duo brought in plenty of talented players from around the country – along with a few who needed to use a passport to come to Woonsocket – Pratt and Baxter are taking their shot at playing against the elite.
“It’s a lot different than it was for me last year,” the affable Pratt, a Cumberland resident, said after Monday’s 75-minute practice. “It’s a whole new different coaching style and a whole different playing style, so it’s a lot to adjust to. I’m a competitor and I always want to do my best on the ice, so no matter who I’m playing against, I’m going to play my best. The level of talent out here is exactly what I expected.”
“I love this because this just makes me work so much harder. I can’t take any days off,” Baxter, a rangy puck-moving defenseman said. “If I do take a day off, I’m going to get embarrassed because these guys are crazy. When I’m not going in on a drill, I just watch the talent we have and it’s crazy. Playing defense with these guys, I’m always on my toes and can already feel I’m getting better.”
Just how talented are the new Mounties? Three of the members of the very talented U16 squad – center Kenny Connors (UMass), defenseman Tyler DesRochers (Providence College) and Richard Guillaume (Maine) – have already verbally committed to Hockey East powerhouses. The U18 squad also features plenty of top-end talent, but Pratt and Baxter held their own when the team played an intersquad scrimmage to start the season Sunday afternoon.
Pratt, who scored 19 goals last season for a Mount team that went to the state semifinals, netted a pair of goals, while Baxter played well on the blue line.
“Pratt competes and that’s something I really loved about his game when I watched him at Mount for the high school team last year,” Plante said. “He can rip the puck and he’s got a good shot. He obviously has some things to learn on the management side of the game with his details and habits, but so does everyone else in the locker room.”
Baxter, who had seven points last season, missed big parts of his junior year on the ice and the lacrosse field because of meniscus surgery. It was the second surgery the senior had performed on his knee. Plante believes Baxter has a lot of raw potential.
“Baxter is a big, rangy kid,” Plante said. “He’s still playing a little catch-up because of the knee injury, but he’s not as far behind as I thought he might be. He just needs to get the reps to get better.”
While it’s impressive that Plante and Rask have built a program from scratch in less than 13 months, the bigger challenge is developing team chemistry and finding an identity for four teams full of kids who have never played together before. Monday’s practice comes just four days before all four squads head to Salem, N.H., to play the Neponset Valley River Rats in the program’s maiden contests.
Just a week later, the Mounties play their first home games when the New Jersey Rockets come to Adelard. Pratt, Baxter and the U18 squad will play Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30.
“We’re all new to this and I think that can be good for our team chemistry because we’re all in the same boat,” Plante said. “Kids are moving away from home for the first time and everyone here is in a new environment. The message is we’re going to get through this together because we have a lot of talent. Everyone has to pull on the rope in the same direction and we have to gel as a group. The faster we gel as a group, the faster we reach our potential as a group.”
The first home game in the program’s history will be played by the U14 squad against the Vermont Flames Saturday morning at 10 on Sept. 7. The U14 squad features talented Cumberland forward Kolin Sisson, along with Rhode Islanders Nolan King (East Greenwich), Ryan Nichols (Johnston) and Pat Murphy (North Kingstown).
Rask’s U16 squad, which appears to be the most talented of the four teams this season, features former Mount RIIL standout Joe Caggiano. Barrington centerman Matt Spears is also on the team, which spent Monday’s practice working on breakouts before engaging in high-level two-on-two contests.
“We believe in these kids and we believe in this group, but the key is we need to have a good start,” Plante said. “If we can have a good start this weekend, then that will help with the buy-in and the belief that the goals we have as a coaching staff are attainable.”
And the goals
Plante and
Photo by Michelle Menard the rest of the staff have are lofty ones, because he and Rask didn’t leave a national powerhouse in western Connecticut to struggle. The goal is for the U16 and U18 teams to be in Rochester, Michigan at the beginning of April playing for a national title.
For Pratt and Baxter, the increased exposure from playing in the newly-formed Northeast Pack and the Beast League was worth taking a risk and leaving the familiarity and comfort of the Interscholastic League.
“This is a lot of fun,” Pratt said. “I just want to try to put up some points and get some looks [from scouts]. I hope I can have a good year because I put in a lot of work in the offseason.”
“This is really different, but there are positives to both programs here,” Baxter said. “Last year was an unbelievable bond we had with the team, and I’m going to bet we’re going to have the same with this team. The coaches here have huge expectations for us – we’re trying to win a national championship – and we’re trying to achieve that.”