In the wee hours of fall and winter mornings for the last three years, Matt Radder could be found at the West Seneca Town Ice Rink.
His team, West Seneca East, started practice at 4:45 am, but Radder, a goalie, would be on the ice even earlier — at least 15 minutes earlier than the rest of his team.
“With practice early in the morning, the ice was open,” Radder explained. “The practices weren’t at night, so we didn’t all go at the same time and stuff like that. I personally went to the ice 15 or 20 minutes before anyone else showed up and just did my own thing — some goalie drills, stuff like that, so I could put in some extra time before practice because I knew that after, I had to go to school so I didn’t have the time. So I would wake up extra early before anyone else and put in my own work.”
Radder actually spent about half of his senior season with the Niagara Falls Canucks of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League just across the border in Ontario, but playing in Canada had its challenges, and Radder returned to finish the season with West Seneca East.
“I was playing with them for about half a year,” Radder explained. “I wasn’t playing many games because it was tough for me because I was an American. The Canadians and the Americans don’t really get along, so I wasn’t playing and I wasn’t happy. I was practicing, but I wasn’t developing my game, so I made a choice to leave and play high school and get some games in.”
He played three games for West Seneca East, including a tie against rival West Seneca West that might have ended differently if not for Radder standing on his head through overtime. The goaltender spent his three years on the varsity team working hard to be the best goalie he could be, and graduating this spring didn’t change that.
Before graduating, Radder had already taken steps to begin the next chapter of his hockey career. In early April, Radder attended tryouts for the Northern Cyclones, a junior hockey team in the Eastern Hockey League (EHL).
“I skated on Sundays with my goalie coach and a few college shooters, and one of the kids played for the Northern Cyclones,” Radder explained.
“And he goes, ‘Hey, you know, you’re really good, you got a lot of potential, you could play college. My team is looking for a goalie. There are tryouts next weekend in New Hampshire; try out for them.’
“So I tried out, and there were like 10 or 15 goalies from all of Boston, from Michigan, kids that were really really good, and out of 15 goalies, they picked me. And I was thrilled obviously because I work really hard and I think I deserve it, and I was so happy.”
The Northern Cyclones are located about an hour outside of Boston, and Radder will have new living arrangements, a new rigorous schedule, and new teammates when he arrives. He knows that he’ll have to make some adjustments, but he’s as excited as he is nervous.
“There’s definitely a lot of adjustments because next year I’ll be living with a family,” Radder said. “It’s gonna be very weird. I’m gonna have to get adjusted to it because I’m so used to living at home. I’m a home boy for sure, so everything’s gonna be different. I’m literally gonna be on the ice seven times a week, literally every day, and working out, going to the weight room for after ice workouts with my team. The kids on the team are literally from all over. They’re from Boston, Michigan, Florida. I haven’t even met them yet, so I’m super excited and I can’t wait to get the season started.”
He’s set to leave on August 24 to join his new team, and Radder’s plan is to spend two years with the Cyclones before, he hopes, continuing to play hockey at a Division I college.
“I’m expecting to be there for at least two years,” Radder said. “This year, I’m hoping to really develop my game and make it better and be the best goalie I can be, and be the best goalie for my age group in the area in Boston because there’s so many teams. My goal has always been to be the best; I don’t want to be second. That’s just how I am. We go on showcases and stuff like that to different colleges, and hopefully I play there really well for two years and hopefully go Division I. I think I can go Division I, and I think the way I am and the way I put my mind to things, I think I will go Division I. I know some people don’t think I can, but they think there’s a lot of things I can’t do, but I’ll do it anyways.”
Radder took some time before leaving to celebrate his West Seneca East hockey career and his time as a Trojan with his teammates at their banquet at the end of May, and of course there was time for some reminiscing. The East-West rivalry is something Radder won’t likely forget.
“Just being around the whole high school hockey atmosphere just was awesome to me,” Radder said. “Some of the home games we had, like the East-West games, I’ll never forget it. I wish I could play in more of them. Obviously this year we didn’t win. We tied, so that wasn’t the result we wanted, but it definitely helped me a lot. I had some really good coaches, and they helped me a lot, and they were all supportive of everything I wanted to do, and they helped me a lot.”
Radder was one of just a few seniors in his final year with the team, and he was close with fellow seniors Eric Korczynski and Ryan Krzykowski. His hope is that the three of them left a lasting impact on the team to help them reach goals in the future that were unattainable in Radder’s three seasons there.
“It was awesome,” Radder said. “I had some really cool teammates — Ryan was a funny guy, Eric was a great guy. I think me, Ryan, and Eric all really connected because we all work really hard. In the three years we were on the team, we never achieved the goal of making it to First Niagara Center, and obviously sophomore year and junior year, we had really really good teams, and we didn’t go to First Niagara Center. It was disappointing, but we knew that the years after we were on the team, we would set a footprint on how the hockey team plays and how we work and stuff like that, so it was good. I liked it a lot.”
But that’s left up to the rest of the team now while Radder moves on to bigger things. Hockey, of course, is the constant, and that’s Radder’s plan for his next chapter — “playing hockey and living life.”