Sports

"Mr. Hockey" not done searching for state high school sporting glory

By Matthew Semisch

05/06/2014

For many high school seniors, that final school year often just inches along and makes it seem as though graduation is a lifetime away.

In reality, their time in high school is quickly coming to a close, despite it not always feeling that way. This is especially true for students who aren’t involved in extracurricular activities to help them keep busy after the final school bell of the day sounds.

Harrison Aide hasn’t had that problem.

Aide has been a three-sport athlete for Bottineau High, playing football, hockey and  track and field for the Braves. He gained arguably his biggest notoriety yet, though, in being named “Mr. Hockey” as North Dakota’s top high school hockey player this past season.

His game improved each season in his time with Bottineau-Rugby’s hockey team, and so did his numbers.

Only a few years after putting up 23 goals and 19 assists in his freshman season with the Braves, he netted 52 goals and picked up 40 helpers for 92 points in all in his final year in violet and silver.

He also hit the 90-point plateau in his junior season (34 goals, 52 assists), and that drew attention from junior league teams.

Thankfully for hockey fans in the Peace Garden State, the first team he signed for wasn’t terribly far from home.

Early on in this school year, Aide was approached by the Bismarck Bobcats. The Bobcats play in the North American Hockey League, which is not only one of the top junior hockey leagues in the United States but is also the nation’s oldest and largest.

“They got a hold of me during maybe the  second week of school,” Aide said. “And they just gave me a call to see if I wanted to tender with them.”

Tendering, in such matters as this, means signing a contract that makes a player a team’s property even if that team doesn’t use him or her right away.

In Aide’s case, he was still able to play his senior season with Bottineau-Rugby.

As far as signing with the Bobcats was concerned, he was able to do so in person with the club after breaking his wrist during this past football season and then traveling to Bismarck to have his wrist casted.

“I had talked with them before when I was younger,” Aide said, “But I also went down there this (school) year after I broke my wrist during football.

“I went down there to get my wrist casted, and I talked to Bismarck while I was down there and we decided then and there that I’d tender with them.”

Less than two weeks after the Braves’ season ended Feb. 15 with an NDHSAA West Region tournament loss to Mandan, Aide pulled on a junior hockey league team’s sweater for the first time.

His first true taste of junior hockey then came Feb. 28 during a 5-1 Bismarck home loss to the Aberdeen Wings. Aide finished the game with a minus-two rating because he was on the ice when Aberdeen scored two of its goals, but he also had two shots on goal in the game.

The Bobcats again lost to Aberdeen March 1, with the Wings picking up a 3-1 win in, to them, the friendlier confines of Aberdeen, S.D.’s Odde Ice Center.

What Aide and his supporters will undoubtedly remember most from that second game, though, was the first goal of his junior hockey career.

Aberdeen jumped out to a 3-0 lead earlier in the game, but Aide gave Bismarck a lifeline at 14:05 of the second period on a goal set up by linemate Matt Anders.

“We just broke out of our zone pretty cleanly,” Aide said, “And one of my linemates took the puck down the far end from where I was down the boards and threw it on net, and the rebound came right out to me in the slot.

“I put it away from there, and that definitely wasn’t a moment I’m going to forget any time soon.”

It’s a tradition in the upper levels of hockey that, when a player scores his first goal at that level, he or she gets to keep the game puck.

In case you’re wondering, Aide still has his from his first junior league goal.

“It’s definitely a collector’s item,” Aide joked. “It’s just on top of the dresser in my bedroom, though.”

At any rate, once those two games with the Bobcats were up, Aide returned to Bottineau to join his track and field teammates. He runs in short-distance relays for the Braves, but he’s more known in the sport for his pole-vaulting prowess.

Much of his family is, in fact.

Aide’s three older sisters all vaulted in school and combined for seven North Dakota Class B state titles. Second-oldest sister Kelsey also won four NAIA national championships at Dickinson State while Abby, Harrison’s younger sister, went on to pole vault in college at Minot State.

BHS has had a state pole vault champion each of the past 12 years.

Kelsey Aide still holds the overall North Dakota girls pole vault record at 12 feet, four inches. Harrison Aide’s best is 15 feet even, four inches below father Mark’s best vault in 1972 for Bismarck High.

Mark Aide is now the pole vault coach at BHS. The head coach of the Braves’ track and field teams, David Hoff, is also the school’s head hockey coach and director of athletics.

“It’s a little weird this spring because we’re seven weeks into the track season,” Hoff said.

“But Harrison and I always have a little bit of a late start because we still have hockey events going on, but his hockey stuff is done until track and field is done.

“It gets to a point now for him, luckily where he just has to go to track every day and that’s it, so it’s a somewhat of a weight off.”
Looking at pole-vaulting in particular, Hoff feels there are aspects of that sport that Aide has been able to transfer to hockey.

“Speed in track is obviously a big thing because speed on the runway makes you such a better vaulter,” Hoff said. “But then the speed is translated to hockey and has separated him from other players at the high school level.

“Core strength is big, too, because he’s so hard to shake off the puck when it’s on his stick. He stays on the puck under pressure, and a lot of that is just there’s no weak part in his core, and also, if you want to vault 15 feet, you have to be so strong through the middle of your body, so those things go hand-in-hand.”

Following this year’s North Dakota state track and field meet May 23-24 in Bismarck and then Bottineau High’s graduation ceremony May 25, Aide’s attention will be turned back to ice.

He’s set for next season to join the Virden Oil Capitals of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, a Junior ‘A’ league in Canada similar in terms of level of competition to the NAHL.

Like Bismarck, Virden got in early on Aide, too. The Oil Capitals, who began playing in 2012 after relocating from Winnipeg, first contacted Aide during his junior year of high school and have been in close contact ever since.

Virden, Hoff said, liked what it saw out of Aide on several levels.
“I think the biggest thing is they liked him as a player and they liked him as a person,” Hoff said. “They knew him a fair amount, too, so I think they liked the product they’ve been seeing that way.

“They’ve had a few years now to establish themselves as a franchise and are probably still fairly young that way, but they also have some really good people in their coaching staff that can help him develop as a player, and the other good thing about that group is they want to see their players move on.

“They have that attitude that they want to win hockey games, but I think they also get it that they want to see their players play at the professional level because that’s a feather in Virden’s cap, too, so that’s something that bodes well for Harrison.”

Aide’s dream is to eventually play hockey for the University of North Dakota. He’s not sure yet, though, what he would like to major in once he gets to college.

Looking back on his time at BHS, however, while also looking forward to what’s left of it, Aide remembers fondly his experiences as a multi-sport athlete with the Braves. His hope is he can bring to Virden the approach he’s taken to the sports he’s played in high school.

“High school sports are so much fun, and everyone tells me it’s the most fun you can have,” Aide said. “Hopefully I can continue bringing that sense of fun to hockey as I go forward so that the game never gets old to me.

“Every time I hit the ice, it’s just as fun as it’s been when I’ve done it here in Bottineau, and that’s how it should be. It’s a job, but it doesn’t feel like a job.”