When University of Maine hockey center Brock James from Falmouth scored in the first period of last Friday night’s 2-0 victory at UMass Lowell, he became just the second Maine native to score a goal for the Black Bears in 11 years.
Scarborough defenseman Jake Rutt had been the last to do so on March 6, 2015 at Vermont.
There have been few players from the state to play for the Black Bears during that span but there haven’t been many Mainers to play at the Division I level, either.
James is one of just two currently playing at the Division I level among the 11 Hockey East schools along with Northeastern University junior center and assistant captain Andy Moore, who is from Cumberland.
Westbrook defenseman Carter Amico began the season on the blue line for Boston University but the second round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers struggled and, after 18 games, left BU to play for Muskegon in the United States (Junior) Hockey League.
UMaine does have a verbal commitment from Fort Kent’s Jude Herron to join the Black Bears team in the future. Herron is a center who is currently playing for Charlottetown in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
“I would love to have 26 Maine kids on our roster right now but it’s just not realistic,” said fifth-year UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “It’s nice to have one and maybe we’ll get to two in a couple of years.”
UMaine has had a solid history of in-state players since the program’s inception in 1977-78 but has rarely had more than two on its roster at one time.
All-American Greg Moore from Lisbon and Bangor’s Derek Damon played together at UMaine for four years. All-Americans Mike McHugh from Bowdoin and Eric Weinrich from Gardiner played together. Weinrich’s brother, Jason, and South Portland’s Eric Fenton along with Rutt and Lewiston’s Mark Anthoine also played together for three years in Orono.
Waterville natives Jeff Libby and Barry Clukey played on two UMaine teams together.
Barr explained that virtually all hockey players from the state who seek to play at the Division I level have to leave the state at a young age to get the competition they need to achieve their goal.
But he pointed out that hockey isn’t the only sport that requires players to leave the state, noting that NBA star rookie Cooper Flagg from Newport left after leading Nokomis Regional High School to a state Class A title his freshmen season to attend Montverde Academy in Florida along with twin brother Ace Flagg, who is now a freshman playing at UMaine.
Current Black Bear James never played for Falmouth High School, preferring to play for Berwick Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon prep schools before moving on to play junior hockey in the North American Hockey League and the USHL.
Amico attended Mount St. Charles Academy in Rhode Island before going on to the U.S. Under-17 and Under-18 teams.
Forward Jack Williams from Biddeford, who captained Northeastern a year ago before moving on to play pro hockey, spent one year at Berwick Academy and two at the South Kent School in Connecticut before going to the USHL.
Moore is one of the rare Division I players from Maine who played at his local high school as he spent four years at Greely High in Cumberland Center before moving on to junior hockey in the Eastern Hockey League and USHL.
Not all states have the same experience with homegrown players on their roster. Barr pointed out that when he was growing up in Minnesota, the University of Minnesota’s team was made up almost entirely of home-state players.
That has changed slightly in recent years with the addition of more out-of-state players. But 20 of the 25 players on the current Gophers roster are from Minnesota.
“We would love to have that in Maine but it isn’t realistic because of the size of our population,” Barr said. “The more people you having playing a certain sport or doing a certain activity is going to force more competition within the player pool.
“And the cream always rises to the top over time,” Barr added. “Unfortunately, we don’t have that. It’s just a numbers game. That’s all that it is.”