Richie Lucy '24 Recruiting Profile

Short version:  My grades are excellent and I'm really good at stopping pucks. 

The longer version is that I'm committed to my studies and the game and still improving.  At nine years old, when my parents divorced, my mom went to court to try and block me from playing competitive hockey.  I met with attorneys and custody evaluators...all kinds of people who wanted to know what I wanted.  After everything was presented, the judge sided with my dad and I have been playing under court order ever since.  If I had wavered at all in my desire to play and compete, I would not have been allowed to continue.  My dad says that every kid in the world has days they don't want to go to the rink, days they don't feel like getting up....every kid except for me.  I never got that luxury.  I knew that the first time I wavered in my desire to play it likely would all be taken away from me, something I could never let happen.  I love to compete, and I love the game.  When I was three years old my dad had to buy me a knee hockey net with a top shelf because I wanted my water bottle to go on top and the one I had was the lacrosse style and didn't work.  I was always going to be a goalie.

My coach tells me my biggest strength is that I'm the most level player he's ever seen.  Never too high and never too low.  I hate losing, but you can never tell if we're winning or losing by looking at me.   Athletically, my best strength is movement in the butterfly.   My depth and positioning are very good.   I can play the puck.

My grades are very good and I'm very disciplined in my studies.  I am a good time manager and make sure I have enough to time get my work done.  I play for the club high school team and have been an academic all star both years, with an extra emphasis for posting a 4.00 GPA during the hockey season both years as well.   It's club hockey in Utah and doesn't mean a lot, but I did start as a 9th grader, and in Utah 9th graders go to a different school.  Was fun being a 14 year-old 9th grader going to junior high school starting for the high school varsity team and make academic all stars with a 4.0.

I am now among the best goalies in Utah youth hockey, perhaps the best on any given night, and definitely the best when I'm on.  I hope to go on to play junior hockey and then college hockey after that.  I have never chased any teams trying to get on the best one, but with my dad's guidance have tried to pick the right teams for my development.  Up to this point it has worked and I hope I have the opportunity to choose more teams that are right for me in the future.