Sports

Captain Jack

By Matthew Semisch

11/04/2014

When you meet away from the ice many hockey players from around high school ages on up, one of the first things your eyes catch is their hair.

That appearance carries so much weight on society’s rubric for first impressions isn’t itself a flattering thought. It is what it is, though, and many icers seem to play that game on a different level than the rest of us.

In hockey, coming across a player with “flow” - long and curly or wavy hair that spills out of the back of a helmet - is no uncommon occurence.

There are no regulation lengths or styles involved. At any rate, however, all that hair is hard to ignore.

Alex Herman is as aware of this fact as most people this side of Cousin Itt from “The Addams Family.” After all, the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) forward and captain has become a reluctant evangelist for the movement.

Not everyone - not even everyone in the Lumberjacks’ locker room, in fact - is in love with Herman’s mane.

“I really should’ve told him to cut his hair,” DCB head coach Travis Rybchinski joked - maybe - when approached with a pitch for this story.

Other DCB staffers have taken notice, too. Sports information director Dano Fagerlund lampooned Herman’s locks during Fagerlund’s “Yak with the Jacks” YouTube talk show last week with a disheveled look of his own.

To pigeonhole Herman just by what’s on top of his head, though, is to do the Jacks sophomore a gross disservice.

When it comes to how he approaches hockey and his team, he isn’t nearly the free spirit he at first appears to be.

Instead, the 21-year-old’s prior experiences in the sport have helped him become a leader worthy of the C’s sewn onto his DCB game sweaters.

His drive to succeed in hockey is a long-standing one. To learn where he gets it from, you have to go back nearly to the start of his life.

STARTING SMALL IN BIG SKY COUNTRY

Herman was born and raised in Sidney, Mont., hardly 10 miles from the North Dakota-Montana border.

He first hit the ice long before he’d gained the spatial awareness to know how long of a stretch that is.

“I first started skating when I was two and a half or three years old, before I could read,” Herman said. “I was still in diapers just about until then, and I can’t remember life before I started skating.”

His introduction to hockey came about through his idolization of his older brother Chris. Their parents signed Chris up for hockey when he was six, and Alex quickly decided he wanted to play, too.

“My dad was much more huge into basketball,” he said, “But my mom, kind of spur-of-the-moment, decided that my folks would sign Chris up for hockey, and I always wanted to do whatever he was doing.

“I don’t know if she knew that at the time, but I wouldn’t stop complaining about it until I got to start playing hockey myself.”

His on-ice talents drew attention quickly enough, and he played on travel select teams throughout the rest of his upbringing. Once he got to high school, he played for the Richland Rangers, Sidney’s county’s team in North Dakota’s Junior Gold league.

His exploits with the Rangers were prodigious enough that college hockey then became an option. Junior college or club college hockey, he’d decided, was the way to go, and he’d soon have several options at his disposal.

THE LONG WAY ROUND

As a senior in high school, Herman was already no stranger to Bottineau. He had already played several times before at the Bottineau Community Arena in youth hockey tournaments.

He was also aware of the hockey program at DCB. What’s more, he knew that two-time Stanley Cup winner Dustin Penner began life in college hockey as a Lumberjack before moving on to the University of Maine and then the NHL.

DCB and the club team at Minot State were Herman’s preferred options. Before deciding on which way to go, he traveled from Sidney to Minot to see the two teams play each other.

The Lumberjacks were defeated soundly that night by the Beavers, and Herman decided to commit to MSU.

If Herman was to play for the Beavers, however, he’d have to wait another year. MSU head coach Wade Regier wanted to redshirt him for one season and let him play elsewhere in the meantime.

Herman initially had trepidations - fears of, for him, the unknown - about playing junior hockey.

“I wasn’t really too sure what to do at the time,” Herman said. “Redshirting for Minot sounded like a good option, but I didn’t really know about junior hockey at all and what that might be like.

“Still, Minot wanted me to get more experience, so it made sense to go.”

Willing to do whatever it took to keep playing competitively, Herman found Regier’s proposal agreeable. Regier then contacted the Billings Bulls, a junior team in Montana.

Billings was a more than comfortable place for Herman to land. Chris Herman and several of the brothers’ cousins lived there, and their parents often made the eight-hour round trip from Sidney for weekend games.

In the end, Herman never played for MSU. He cut ties with the Beavers after one semester, instead opting to play for two seasons in Billings.

Over 75 games played for the Bulls, he picked up 17 goals and 22 assists and averaged just over half a point per game (0.57).

This opened college hockey back up to him once his time in Billings came to an end. DCB and Williston State were both hot on him, but Herman did his due dilligence and, four days before

DCB’s 2013-14 school year started, he signed with the Jacks.
“He probably wasn’t ready for college hockey out of high school,” Rybchinski said. “He came out of Sidney and then went to Billings and that worked out well for him, and then after that he was ready to go.

“Even last year, though, he wasn’t sure exactly where he wanted to go, but he called me four days before school started and asked if we had room for one more guy. We did, and it’s worked out for us and for him, as well.”

A QUIET LEADER

Herman picked up only four goals and two assists in his freshman season at DCB. The whole team struggled, though, finishing 5-19-4.

Coming into the new campaign, Rybchinski and DCB assistant coach Corey Gorder needed to name a captain determined to help right the ship. Herman, they decided, was their man.

“Once school started this year, there was no doubt who our captain was going to be,” Rybchinski said. “Alex kept impressing us with how he was settling into a leadership role as one of the older guys.

“We normally get the guys’ input on who the captain should be, but I didn’t think it was necessary with Alex because it would’ve been unanimous.”

Away from the Jacks, he is an honor roll student at DCB who works with Bottineau’s youth hockey program on Mondays.

So far, the soft-spoken Herman is enjoying his captaincy.
“I don’t need to speak up too much but, when I do, the guys listen,” Herman said.

“I don’t know where that side of me comes from. It may just be a natural personality thing or something like that, but it makes being the captain easier because you already know how to carry yourself.”

Herman so far has led DCB via his actions instead of through words. That, Rybchinski said, is what’s needed on the ice, the Jacks bench and in their locker room.

“Alex leads by example, and we’ve had leaders before who talk and talk and talk but don’t do the walk and they lose all credibility, but that’s not the case with Alex,” Rybchinski said.

“He’s got the respect of everyone in our room, and he knows exactly what he’s doing.”