500-word Draft:
Sam Myers
GUST
Prof. Jesse Miller
December 2, 2021
Mack Dyer vs College
It was the middle of February 2021 in Tampa, Florida at the Saddlebrook Resort when Mack Dyer, grizzled junior hockey vet, was finishing up his age-out season in Florida for covid reasons, when he committed to the University of New England to play college hockey. At this time, Mack was playing out the rest of his extremely long 3-year junior hockey career in which he did not do a single assignment for school. After three grueling years of playing hockey as a full-time job, it was finally the first time it clicked in his brain that he was going to be a student again. At the time, Mack was just trying to focus on his season in Florida when he was hit with a tsunami of anxiety just knowing that he was going back to a place that had threatened his sanity all too many times before. You see, Mack was never a standout student in school. He was constantly starting off the year cold and finishing strong when things started to look really bad. But regardless of the start, he always finished strong enough to pass with flying colors.
The start of his tenure at UNE was difficult, as it was impossible to sleep because of the blistering heat and humidity in the rooms, early classes, and of course workouts and practices for hockey. Everything seemed to be going smoothly once he got there with just practicing and working out…until school started. The school year started off in classic fashion with Mack being completely lost in his classes and unwilling to ask for help. It’s a good thing that Mack has an extreme drive to get things done when the pressure is on because he was really struggling. In the beginning, he was taking five classes. Three on Monday and Wednesdays, and two on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After the first week of classes, Mack was exhausted to the point where sleep was the only thing he could think about. He eventually came to a mutual decision with his parents and academic advisor to drop one of his three Monday/Wednesday classes to lighten his workload a bit. That had to have been one of the best decisions Mack had made for himself in a long time. As a master procrastinator, he was pleased to find out that dropping Sociology was giving him more time to do work for classes on the day that the assignments were due because he had a free period for work instead of three straight classes.
Hockey started out great with optional practices and workouts and the prospects of potentially getting a spot in the lineup for the upcoming season.For Mack, these were joyous times since this is what he came to UNE for…to play hockey. One thing that Mack kept thinking about constantly is that UNE recruited a large number of freshmen this year on top of a full roster of guys returning to the team from previous seasons, so the likelihood of playing games consistently as a freshman is pretty slim.
1000-word draft:
Sam Myers
GUST
Prof. Jesse Miller
December 2, 2021
Mack Dyer vs College
It was the middle of February 2021 in Tampa, Florida at the Saddlebrook Resort when Mack Dyer, grizzled junior hockey vet, was finishing up his age-out season in Florida for covid reasons, when he committed to the University of New England to play college hockey. At this time, Mack was playing out the rest of his extremely long 3-year junior hockey career in which he did not do a single assignment for school. After three grueling years of playing hockey as a full-time job, it was finally the first time it clicked in his brain that he was going to be a student again. At the time, Mack was just trying to focus on his season in Florida when he was hit with a tsunami of anxiety just knowing that he was going back to a place that had threatened his sanity all too many times before. You see, Mack was never a standout student in school. He was constantly starting off the year cold and finishing strong when things started to look really bad. But regardless of the start, he always finished strong enough to pass with flying colors.
The start of his tenure at UNE was difficult, as it was impossible to sleep because of the blistering heat and humidity in the rooms, early classes, and of course workouts and practices for hockey. Everything seemed to be going smoothly once he got there with just practicing and working out…until school started. The school year started off in classic fashion with Mack being completely lost in his classes and unwilling to ask for help. It’s a good thing that Mack has an extreme drive to get things done when the pressure is on because he was really struggling. In the beginning, he was taking five classes. Three on Monday and Wednesdays, and two on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After the first week of classes, Mack was exhausted to the point where sleep was the only thing he could think about. He eventually came to a mutual decision with his parents and academic advisor to drop one of his three Monday/Wednesday classes to lighten his workload a bit. That had to have been one of the best decisions Mack had made for himself in a long time. As a master procrastinator, he was pleased to find out that dropping Sociology was giving him more time to do work for classes on the day that the assignments were due because he had a free period for work instead of three straight classes.
Hockey started out great with optional practices and workouts and the prospects of potentially getting a spot in the lineup for the upcoming season.For Mack, these were joyous times since this is what he came to UNE for…to play hockey. One thing that Mack kept thinking about constantly is that UNE recruited a large number of freshmen this year on top of a full roster of guys returning to the team from previous seasons, so the likelihood of playing games consistently as a freshman is pretty slim. But this didn’t keep Mack down. He knew that this season is one for learning and growing in practice and that him and the freshmen class that is here right now is talented and is going to have a ton of success in the next few years. When practices had started, and Mack was starting to pick up on the fact that ten out of the twelve forward positions were locked up unless an injury occurred, he gained motivation from knowing that he wasn’t one of the best players on the team. This is because he felt some relief from the sport he loved for the first time in a long time. Mack had played key roles on his junior teams the previous two seasons and there was a lot of pressure on him to produce every game and be the best in practice day in and day out. Being on the team here right now made him think back to the last time he was in a situation where he wasn’t the top dog which was his first year of junior hockey playing for the Jersey Hitmen. He was a rookie that didn’t play a big role on the team, but was getting better every day in practice and pushing the guys in the lineup ahead of him to be better themselves which was a good feeling. Of course it’s a struggle and a grind to do all of the workouts and practice every day just like all of the other guys in the lineup just to end up watching the game in the stands in a suit very weekend. But for someone that had to score goals for the coach to keep his job the last two years, it could be viewed as a relief.
With the struggles came a turning point though. The decision to drop that class had seemingly made a huge difference later into the semester as Mack was becoming more and more able to finish his assignments and turn them in on time. This change in schedule led to better sleep, more free time, and decreased anxiety which also led to Mack performing at a higher level in hockey. Eventually, Mack got to play in his first NCAA game at Suffolk. He was anxious about the game going into it because he knew that he was in the lineup because an upperclassman got injured. This allowed Mack to go out there without caring about how many points he was going to score and how much ice time he was going to get and that he was playing on an all-freshmen line. Instead, he had the mentality that he was going to go out there and play a grindy, physical game and outwork the other team. Mack didn’t end up with any points at the end of the game but he viewed the game as a success because he did exactly what he was supposed to do; he didn’t overthink and get in his own way before the game and then went out and played hard and helped the team win.
1250 word draft:
Sam Myers
GUST
Prof. Jesse Miller
December 2, 2021
Mack Dyer vs College
It was the middle of February 2021 in Tampa, Florida at the Saddlebrook Resort when Mack Dyer, grizzled junior hockey vet, was finishing up his age-out season in Florida for covid reasons, when he committed to the University of New England to play college hockey. At this time, Mack was playing out the rest of his extremely long 3-year junior hockey career in which he did not do a single assignment for school. After three grueling years of playing hockey as a full-time job, it was finally the first time it clicked in his brain that he was going to be a student again. At the time, Mack was just trying to focus on his season in Florida when he was hit with a tsunami of anxiety just knowing that he was going back to a place that had threatened his sanity all too many times before. You see, Mack was never a standout student in school. He was constantly starting off the year cold and finishing strong when things started to look really bad. But regardless of the start, he always finished strong enough to pass with flying colors.
The start of his tenure at UNE was difficult, as it was impossible to sleep because of the blistering heat and humidity in the rooms, early classes, and of course workouts and practices for hockey. Everything seemed to be going smoothly once he got there with just practicing and working out…until school started. The school year started off in classic fashion with Mack being completely lost in his classes and unwilling to ask for help. It’s a good thing that Mack has an extreme drive to get things done when the pressure is on because he was really struggling. In the beginning, he was taking five classes. Three on Monday and Wednesdays, and two on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After the first week of classes, Mack was exhausted to the point where sleep was the only thing he could think about. He eventually came to a mutual decision with his parents and academic advisor to drop one of his three Monday/Wednesday classes to lighten his workload a bit. That had to have been one of the best decisions Mack had made for himself in a long time. As a master procrastinator, he was pleased to find out that dropping Sociology was giving him more time to do work for classes on the day that the assignments were due because he had a free period for work instead of three straight classes.
Hockey started out great with optional practices and workouts and the prospects of potentially getting a spot in the lineup for the upcoming season.For Mack, these were joyous times since this is what he came to UNE for…to play hockey. One thing that Mack kept thinking about constantly is that UNE recruited a large number of freshmen this year on top of a full roster of guys returning to the team from previous seasons, so the likelihood of playing games consistently as a freshman is pretty slim. But this didn’t keep Mack down. He knew that this season is one for learning and growing in practice and that him and the freshmen class that is here right now is talented and is going to have a ton of success in the next few years. When practices had started, and Mack was starting to pick up on the fact that ten out of the twelve forward positions were locked up unless an injury occurred, he gained motivation from knowing that he wasn’t one of the best players on the team. This is because he felt some relief from the sport he loved for the first time in a long time. Mack had played key roles on his junior teams the previous two seasons and there was a lot of pressure on him to produce every game and be the best in practice day in and day out. Being on the team here right now made him think back to the last time he was in a situation where he wasn’t the top dog which was his first year of junior hockey playing for the Jersey Hitmen. He was a rookie that didn’t play a big role on the team, but was getting better every day in practice and pushing the guys in the lineup ahead of him to be better themselves which was a good feeling. Of course it’s a struggle and a grind to do all of the workouts and practice every day just like all of the other guys in the lineup just to end up watching the game in the stands in a suit very weekend. But for someone that had to score goals for the coach to keep his job the last two years, it could be viewed as a relief.
With the struggles came a turning point though. The decision to drop that class had seemingly made a huge difference later into the semester as Mack was becoming more and more able to finish his assignments and turn them in on time. This change in schedule led to better sleep, more free time, and decreased anxiety which also led to Mack performing at a higher level in hockey. Eventually, Mack got to play in his first NCAA game at Suffolk. He was anxious about the game going into it because he knew that he was in the lineup because an upperclassman got injured. This allowed Mack to go out there without caring about how many points he was going to score and how much ice time he was going to get and that he was playing on an all-freshmen line. Instead, he had the mentality that he was going to go out there and play a grindy, physical game and outwork the other team. Mack didn’t end up with any points at the end of the game but he viewed the game as a success because he did exactly what he was supposed to do; he didn’t overthink and get in his own way before the game and then went out and played hard and helped the team win.
Mack had it pretty easy in the early stages of the school year with only four classes compared to most other kids that had five. The first couple of months went smoothly but there eventually came a point where the amount of work he was being assigned was catching up with the amount of screwing off he was doing. Mack had a number of weeks in the semester in which he had to do all of the work he was supposed to be doing the previous few weeks in just one week. Of course, very stressful. But why would Mack care? The kid knows that not doing his work and playing XBOX is the wrong thing to do but he just doesn’t care. But Mack always comes through and puts in the work in the end. Mack remains optimistic though, that one day he will learn to take the least stressful route to getting assignments done and not wait until the last second, but for now, the stress is real.
