Comfortable at home
The USU hockey team boasts players from five different Canadian provinces and six different U.S. states, while four players quietly represent their home state of Utah.
David Reeve, Cody Palmer, Gary Higgs and Cooper Limb are all Utahn — born and raised. Two of them headed to Utah State right after high school, two of them took a different route, but all four are giving kids who play hockey in Utah something to look up too.
The most seasoned of the four skaters is Palmer. The goalkeeper shares starts with Allesandro Mullane and Russell McKay. Palmer is undefeated just as all other USU goalies. The fourth-year player has a .840 save percentage.
Palmer said he first stepped onto the ice as a 4-year-old in Plain City, Utah, a suburb of Ogden. Palmer started by skating out for his teams but found his spot in front of the goal when he was 12. He played for various travel teams in the Ogden and Salt Lake City areas before attending USU.
Palmer played behind Aggie great Greg Finatti his freshman year, but still racked up a .890 save percentage. Now in his fourth year on the team, Palmer provides veteran leadership on a young Aggie goalie staff.
Reeve, a Cache Valley native, said he learned the game playing roller hockey at the Fun Park and then at the Logan Recreation Center.
Reeve said he first discovered the game of ice hockey in 2002, when the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics brought with it the construction of the Eccles Ice Center.
Reeve’s career on the ice began with him as a defensemen, he said, but this year he made the switch to the forward position. Reeve recently moved into the slot to get more shots, and he’s no longer the player chasing the puck in the corners.
“A lot of times he’s the one in the corner,” USU hockey head coach John Eccles said. “We switched things up so he is in front of the net and let the shots come.”
Higgs and Limb took different routes on their way to the talented Aggie team.
Both freshmen grew up in Salt Lake City and both moved away from home at the age of 16 to play hockey. They are now roommates and both call Logan home.
“We grew up playing together on the same teams when we were little,” Limb said.
Limb moved away from Salt Lake City and played for a travel team in Colorado Springs, Co., for a AAA team. Limb said moving away from home was a big adjustment.
After his stint in Colorado, Limb moved north. The forward headed to Alberta, Canada, to play juniors hockey for two years, before moving back to his home state.
Like Limb, Higgs moved away from home at a young age to play the sport around the country. Higgs said moving away from home at such a young age was an adjustment for him, too.
“It makes you grow up really fast,” Higgs said. “You leave home when you’re 16, and you’re kind of on your own. You’re still living with a family, but you’re basically on your own.”
Higgs said he’s excited to be closer to home now that he returned to Utah.
“It’s fun,” Higgs said. “It’s a lot different than the hockey inside the state. It was fun to live away from home for a couple years. It is nice to be back near Salt Lake and so close to home.”
The Utah State hockey team has proven time and time again they are the best college team in Utah. They’ve destroyed in-state opponents BYU, Weber State and University of Utah by a combined score of 79-17.
“The whole purpose is to try and bring the level up across the state,” Eccles said.
The Aggies are currently ranked No. 1 in the American Collegiate Hockey Association western division.
“It’s brought in a lot of great talent to the team,” Higgs said. “You’ve got guys from all over the place — D.C., Canada — all over the place. It’s cool, because there aren’t a lot of teams at this level that have players like that.”
For kids playing hockey in Utah, having the four Aggie players to look up to gives children options. Instead of playing adult league after high school, Eccles said, they are considering playing college hockey.
“It gives kids in the state an opportunity to say we have a chance to go play college hockey,” Eccles said. “Some kids after high school, they think, ‘I’m done.’ So when Utah State’s doing well, or any of the other schools, it gets hockey more notice, and then you see the level at the lower ages start to get better.”
Since the 2002 Olympics, hockey all over the state has seen a jump in participation and interest, but there’s still a long way to go. There are still parents as coaches — something that is difficult to do with a limited knowledge of the game.
“In basketball you can do that because everyone has seen basketball,” Reeve said. “Hockey isn’t big around here. No one has seen hockey, but your dad is still coaching.”
– meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu