Anders Smith '22 Recruiting Profile

I have been playing hockey since I was seven years old. I love playing hockey and I love being a goalie.  I have been training every day, some days three times a day. I attended Wang School for athletes in Oslo Norway and played 8 years for Lørenskog Norway. But I had a dream, I wanted to go to the USA and play hockey.  My dad is from the USA and we had been back many times, and I have participated in camps and showcases there. This little taste of American hockey just made the dream burn even more. In 2019, I was selected to the regional All-Star team where we won the national All-Star game, and I was voted player of the game in the finals. Now the dream was burning even more.

  As the season was coming to an end, my team had played its way in to the Norwegian National Championship tournament. This was huge. We were competitive and made it all the way to the finals. The other team was tough, we had beat them before and they had beat us before. In the end we lost, but the disappointment of the loss did not last long. At the end of the game, came the prize for the player of the game, I could not believe it they choose me! Then the top players for the season were to be announced. The number one 2004 goalie of the season Anders Smith, me, I was shocked. 

May of 2019, I had signed with my first team in the USA Connecticut Elite. Everything was new and took some getting use too, billeting for the first time and being away from my family at 15 years old was difficult but I was able to overcome and have a good season. Since then I have moved on to play for the New Jersey Titians.

Like all hockey players, I have faced many ups and downs. One that stands out occurred during my second year of U16. It was my first season playing at Titians the team was short of players and COVID 19 kept changing everything.  We were out played night after night. I faced more than 40 shots per game and had some games where my confidence was low and it was hard to get motivated for games. However, going through that experience pushed me focus on ways to improve my game and not just focus on winning. I have developed a mental and physical preparation routine that I have use prior to and during each game.  The ups and downs I have faced allowed me to improve and become a confident goaltender as well as a better teammate and student.

My goal is to take the dream as far as I can go. I want to move into Junior hockey in 2022 and hope to commit to a D1 school and see where this will take me.