Interview with St. Andrew's College Head Coach David Manning
The storied prep program out of Aurora, Ontario is looking at another big year
The St. Andrew’s College First (or Varsity) hockey team has had a lot of success both on and off the ice during coach David Manning’s tenure at the helm of the hockey program. Heading into Manning’s twelfth year at the school, I spoke with him about the team, their facilities, schedule, top prospects and more.
Some highlights of this season’s schedule include their annual MacPherson tournament (Jan. 31-Feb. 2) featuring the likes of Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Culver Military Academy. They’re also going to the first edition of the True Prep Cup, featuring prep hockey defending champions Kimball Union and upstarts Mount St. Charles at Merrimack College.
Can we start with some of the more talented players you have on your team this year?
Our senior class, the forward group, we’ve got a ton of depth, starts with our [leadership]: up front captain Mark Hillier, Merrimack commit, playmaker probably first — but he’s developing into a real leader on the ice guy who takes charge every shift. Frankie Carogioiello, you know, a speedster… has the ability to make defenses adjust to him because of his speed, intensity to get pucks and move them, put the pressure on people to defend. He’s going to be a handful for teams to contain this year. Our third captain up front is Devlin O’Brien, different from the other two guys where he’s just around the net a lot and makes a ton happen because he’s so smart in tight areas, whether its tipping pucks or looking for rebounds, playing along the boards. He’s one of the best players we’ve had along the boards.
The three of them, then Kienan Draper, new to the team this year, big, powerful skater, great shot. I think he’s going to turn some heads, has the ability to score goals in a bunch of different ways. And then, of the younger forwards I would probably say Justin Ertel is one that is really exciting. Drafted by OHL-North Bay in the 3rd round… big body, really physical, he’s just got the nose for how to play the game. He’s got a great stick. One of the top lacrosse players in Canada for his age. Great stick, good skill, bit of an all-around type of player, so really excited about him for sure. Just our whole forward group in general is pretty exciting for me, we’re going to be tough to contain because of the depth that we have.
Usually you have pretty deep teams, I try to focus on a couple guys and my head’s spinning noticing new players…
Yeah we’re pretty balanced, ton of energy and put pressure on people. The three forward groups, depending on the game, any of them are gonna score, you’re gonna have to kind of pick your poison is my feeling. At least my hope. We’ll see how that transpires when we get to the real thing. That’s the feeling so far.
How’s your goaltending?
Our senior is Lassi Lehti, big 6’3 kid who moves really well, great glove, late birthdate ‘01, so he’s draft-eligible this year. If he’s able to continue to grow and mature as a player, a lot of college teams and maybe NHL teams are going to be really excited, he’s got a level of size to him and his skating ability is great. It’s just a matter of maturing as an athlete and coming into his own. I think he’s going to have an outstanding year. Liam Stevenson is our grade 11 goalie behind him, coming from York-Simcoe. He’s a smaller, quicker style goalie, really competitive and so far he’s looked really good in the games that we’ve had. And then on the back-end, I think we could have the best defenseman at this level in Jack Bar. He’s not even draft-eligible, he’s a late birthdate, he’s a Harvard commit and the plan is for him to go straight into Harvard next year. Right shot defenseman… I’ll be interested to see if any [defenseman] can match him, he’s got the size, great skater, he’s got a great stick, gets shots through, has an offensive game, has a bit of nastiness to him, does a little bit of everything. He’s a future high pick in the 2021 NHL draft if you ask me.
He’s gonna do his draft year at Harvard?
Yeah, yeah. Which is going to be really good for him, he’s going to be playing against some top guys at that level so yeah, like I said I think he’s going to be one of the top guys at this level from what I’ve seen.
What are some of the highlights of your schedule this year?
One of the things we’ve been able to do with the like-minded schools, Shattuck, Culver, Northwood and what not, we’ve been trying to get together and play as much as we can to compete, showcase our schools and kids. So this year it’s pretty exciting, we’ve got a great event happening [after] the New Year with those schools, plus Mount St. Charles, Kimball Union, Gunnery and Nichols. Basically a tournament-style knockout at Merrimack College with some of the best teams in North America at this level. That’s gonna be pretty exciting in the new year, top-notch programs going at it. That’s kind of grown out of what we’ve done with those schools the last few years….
We find when we’re playing for a trophy, the intensity and quality seems to go up another notch. So we wanted to add a competitive element to us getting together. We’re happy to introduce that this year, it’s called the True Prep Cup [named after] our sponsor True Hockey… it should be a great event for our first year.
How’s the MacPherson tournament (Jan. 31-Feb. 2) looking?
We’ve got Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Culver, Northwood, Boston Advantage, Victory Honda, CEGEP Andre Laurendeau and the Edge School from Calgary, so it’s a good line-up. We’re excited about it, its turned into one of the best, if not the best, tournament around. Last year we had a great line-up, Salisbury, the German team Jungadler Mannheim, Shattuck. There’s not many tournaments with a better line-up, I would say.
I don’t think so either. That’s at your rink in Ontario? Can you talk a bit about your facility? Is it right on campus?
[Our rink is] right on campus. It’s five years old, we’re really proud of it, its been a real enhancer to what we already had in the past… gives our players all the amenities. Our weight room is second-to-none. It’s basically a professional level facility. Gary Roberts runs a summer program out of here with the likes of [Connor] McDavid, [Steven] Stamkos and all those guys, you know... They use our locker room, weight room, all of the other facilities. [Our facilities set us] up really well to give our players all the tools necessary to push themselves to be the best players, student-athletes they can. We’re really proud of our facility and it continues to be a real benefit for us.
We talked earlier and you mentioned some of the players on your roster from Europe, I know you’ve had some good European players in the past. You’ve also had Alex Newhook, other players from Eastern Canada… are there any areas outside of Ontario that you actively recruit?
Nova Scotia, the east part of Canada, that’s where I’m from originally, always been connected [there], that seems to be an area where players tend to gravitate towards us. I can’t see that changing any time in the future. We’ve got a new grade 11 boy by the name of Luke Vardy whose from Nova Scotia, one of our younger defenseman, he’s going to be a great player. The attention the school has gotten recently here in Canada for players like Alex Newhook, Matt Stienburg, Morgan Barron… we’ve had NHL draft picks the last five years. I think that’s vaulted us [into] the consciousness of the players and the families here in Canada. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Is there a younger team at St. Andrew’s or is everyone trying to make that top team?
We have six hockey teams here at the school. It’s a little different here, all of our teams except for the First (Varsity) team, they play for their club teams as well locally. So our younger grade nine and ten kids will play local with their AAA teams and for the school. We have two U16 teams, we have a second senior team called junior varsity or varsity B, and then we have a U14 which is our grade sevens and eights, and then we have a U12 which is our grade 5s and 6s. So yeah, hockey is a big part of the life of the school here. All boys school in Canada… obviously hockey is something the boys really enjoy. We’re happy to have a really strong program.
What’s the typical day for an SAC first team hockey player like?
We start the day in class at 8:30, typical school day, class goes till 3:30 then the hockey day starts after that. So it’s a combination, four to seven PM we’ve got practice whether it’s team-based, or our skating coach comes in, working on skill-work, time in the weight room, that’s a big part of it obviously we’ve got a great facility so we’re in there quite a bit to help these kids continue to build their bodies during and out of the season. Trying to make our players better. Dinner around here [after that], then study hall in the evening time, you know, traditional boarding school, wake up and do it all over again.
That block of four to seven PM, we really push our players to get as much activity as they can, the ice is open for them to go out on their own if they wish, work on their game, we definitely believe in kids taking ownership, accountability in what they do. We help them with learning, support programs, helping them understand where their strengths and deficiencies may lie, and then help them build a plan to tackle that over, usually, their two years with us.
Is there any time for kids to play other sports? Other extra-curriculars?
The boys do play other sports, most are playing on at least one other varsity team, some are industrious enough to try a couple. We make hockey work in the off-season, September to October, and then in the spring time their hockey commitments are built around the other things that are going on here. So we practice on Sunday evening, a couple mornings a week, we have guys playing soccer right now, playing football right now, playing volleyball, in the spring, some are baseball guys, some are lacrosse guys. We encourage that, we want [that], we’ve been able to build a year-long hockey program that definitely enables them to push themselves as hockey athletes but gives them an opportunity to try some other stuff at the same time.
Do you notice that the guys who play other sports, at a high level and especially those who have [played other sports] for a while, that it translates back onto the ice when they play hockey?
Yeah! I think so. It doesn’t hurt them, that’s for sure. I think as long as they and their families take the right approach, for [first team hockey] at SAC it’s typically a two-year thing, they come in as a grade 11 and they are out the door as a grade 12, we prepare them for whatever step, whatever level is next. As long as they take that approach and aren’t too in the moment about individual things, it tends to work out really well when they see all of this as a part of the process for them. The experiences in other sports one hundred percent help them as hockey players. A lot of the tactical things they deal with as a hockey player are transferrable to other sports, it’s just a matter of the hockey side of things, the specific, unique hockey things coming to the forefront.
And they’ve got the summer months, kids these days in our program -- and I’m sure every other program -- are putting in a lot of time in over the summer as well. It’s not like, you know, they’re missing out on things. It’s just a matter of budgeting our time the right way. Being in our environment helps them do that, because they’re not running around and splitting between a bunch of different facilities. We’ve got everything we need, in our opinion there’s no better place for a 16-or-17 year old student-athlete to be than under our roof, getting the benefits of all the resources that we have.
Yeah, I think that’s a great point. Junior hockey, it’s hard for a guy to come in and play at 16, 17, so [St. Andrew’s] functioning as a kind of bridge, it’s a really interesting spot to be. [At 14, 15, 16 years old] there’s a million places to play, but 16-17-18, it’s a lot more complicated I think.
Yeah, for sure. Very few players at 16 can have an impact at the junior level so we offer kids a place to continue to work on their games, be key players, play in all situations. And still be challenged. Like, I think confidence, having a real impact, sometimes gets downplayed. It’s a big part of the development process. Too often people are in a rush to play at higher levels and they’re not prepared, the confidence derived from taking charge, being “the guy”, is a huge element of future success. You’re never gonna know how to be the guy unless you’re the guy, right...
One hundred percent.
Yeah, for me, I firmly believe in that. Having a player come here, obviously, if they’re not being tested and what-not… but they will be. And when they’re ready, they’re ready.
I think Matt Stienburg is a great example of what you’re talking about. Playing his draft year, he was obviously the guy from what I saw.
Yeah, he knows what that feels like now, right? He’s at Cornell now and he expects to have that impact there, if he slides into that role at that level, then he’s going to be able to really thrive, he’s going to know what that feels like. He’s not gonna be, you know, grasping at whatever is thrown at him. I think that’s really underplayed… the idea of knowing what it feels like and having done it before… having the confidence of “I’ve done this before.”
I agree. I think it’s important to challenge yourself but there’s no reason you can’t challenge yourself, improve where you’re at. When you’re ready to go, you go.
Exactly. We haven’t had anyone at our level score more than a couple points a game, if someone’s doing that, then maybe it’s time to move on. But we haven’t had any of that. I think guys who are at this level who are playing well are still going to be challenged.
I wanted to ask about your coaching style, obviously you’ve had a lot of success. What kind of hockey do you like your teams to play?
We really challenge our players to be problem-solvers and we want to play a style of game that shows a lot of thought. We want to force teams to defend us, put them into situations where they’re uncomfortable and have the skill, fore-thought, creativity to make things happen. That’s a real foundation for us, forcing our players to be thinkers. Because of that, I think the style of play is we tend to want to manage the puck really well.
We’re a team that loves to use all five guys and attack, get everyone involved and make sure that we’re really tough to defend because we put the opposing team in situations that are uncomfortable. That’s one aspect. We want to be really competitive, it’s important for us on a daily basis to compete hard against one another, that’s our philosophy, it’s built around that. That competition really fuels an element of intensity and speed, physicality, in a sense that we’re able to be really tough to play against because we’re dogging the puck, hunting pucks, getting to the front of the net, making life difficult for the teams we play against.
That’s important, we want to be a creative, skillful team but we want to play with a level of intensity and competitiveness that makes us really tough to handle.
We talked a little bit about [Matt] Stienburg, you had Alex Newhook at St. Andrew’s before he went to the [BCHL], I was wondering if you could talk about some of the traits that make you excited about them as far as the pro game goes.
Matt Stienburg is a good example of that mixture: skill, competitiveness, little bit of an edge, he’s a unique player in the sense that he has all the attributes… skating ability, good shot, vision, all-around player whose got an edge to him that makes him really tough to play against. It just creates a feeling for the opposition that you know he’s out there and what he’s doing. I think he’s really going to give himself a lot of opportunities… he’s a bit of a throwback, players like him don’t come around that often to be quite honest with you. He’s got a real interesting mix for a coaching staff, for a team to add an element they may not already have.
And then with [Alex] Newhook, I think you see a player who plays with pace, makes skill plays at high pace, he’s got a level of creativity and finesse to his game, and at a high pace that really makes him interesting to watch. I think of a player like Tyson Jost, similar kind of pedigree, and kind of a player. He just has a nose for the game, while playing at that pace he has a real ability to slow things down in his head so he can make some things look really easy that they definitely aren’t. Both have a bright future ahead of them, they’ll both be really good college players and the pro game will follow after that, be interesting to see how it goes for them. Colorado should be excited about both of them.
Thanks for reading and to David for taking the time to do this interview.