By Christopher Tremblay

Staff Sports Writer

Matt Carroll first laced up the skates around the second or third grade, when his mother wanted him to learn how to skate. 

Not long after, he was feeling the competitiveness bug and wanted to be part of a hockey team with a bunch of his childhood friends. However, at the time hockey was not something that a lot of people in Hopedale participated in, so Carroll and his friends seeked out of town programs. 

Carroll began playing hockey with the Central Mass Outlaws and eventually transferred to the Franklin Flyers where he would find his home on the ice. 

“At a younger age, a lot of the kids were playing for themselves; it was basically a free for all on the ice,” he said. “But as I got older, I grew into the sport and became more of a team player where I learned how to play the game.”

As a seventh grader, Carroll found himself on the junior varsity squad and during his freshman year he was a swing player between the jv and varsity teams. Unfortunately, he did not see the ice as much as he would have liked to because of the Covid pandemic.  Teams were not playing as many games as they would have had it been a normal season. 

“That season was definitely weird, and I never really felt right that year,” Carroll said. “Covid didn’t allow us to get a good feeling for the varsity game. The following year I started to become more comfortable with starting on the third line as a wing.”

Hopedale hockey Coach Mike MacQuarrie looks to help his athletes play to their strengths, thus giving the team a much better chance of success as a whole. Playing as a forward, Carroll eventually settled in primarily as a right-winger but would occasionally play on the opposite side if the situation called for it. As a winger for the Blue Raiders, the senior doesn’t really see himself as a scorer.

“I feel that I am more of an assist guy instead of a scorer,” he said. “I’m not that high on that list, but I am definitely a team contributor and that’s just as important making the right choices.”

In the beginning of his high school career Carroll found things to be a little bit intimidating playing with upper classmen as he didn’t want to make a mistake to cost his team. Despite the intimidation factor, the newcomer soon found out that he had nothing to worry about as the seniors were really great and helped the younger players out. 

During his sophomore campaign, Carroll and his teammates had a somewhat successful season as the number five seed in the Division 3 State Tournament. After a handful of wins the Blue Raiders eventually fell in the Round of Eight. 

Last winter the squad found themselves in a tougher situation having lost a good number of their productive seniors to graduation. Hopedale went into the tournament as a 13 seed and fell in the Round of 16 to Nauset 3-2 in overtime. While the team wasn’t as successful as the year prior, MacQuarrie relied heavily on Carroll.

“He’s been playing for us since the seventh grade, six years in the program – not too many can say they’ve accomplished this,” the Hopedale Coach said. “During the playoffs last year if we had a defensive draw, he was out there on the ice. He got the puck out of the zone with great defense and hustle. If everyone could do this, we’d be a great team.”

Although the coach spoke highly of his winger, Carroll was not all that thrilled with his play.

“Personally, I didn’t play as well as I wanted to, I was not as confident as I wanted to be,” he said. “I didn’t want to let the team down so I was more cautious than I should have been. I learned that we win or lose as a team, not individually and that it happens to everyone at one point or another.”

Coming into his final high school season Carroll wants to be able to look back at the end of the season and see that he made a difference not only on the ice but by impacting the play of the younger players. 

“I want everyone to know that they belong on this team,” Carroll said. “If we play as a team and give it our all, despite losing another group of strong seniors, we should be able to have a good season. People are already doubting us and not expecting us to do well. I want to go out and be able to prove them all wrong.”

Coach MacQuarrie made it clear that Carroll is one who works his butt off on a consistent basis and will do whatever he asks of him on the ice. If anyone can lead this team to a successful campaign this winter, it’s him.

When his high school season comes to an end, it could very well be the last hurrah for the senior Blue Raider. Although he has not decided where he plans on attending college next fall, there is still a possible he may lace up the skates again.

“At this point I don’t want to make a commitment to playing sports on the college level,” he said. “Most likely I will play on some type of club or intramural team for hockey and or soccer, but right now it’s all still up in the air.”

For now, Carroll will take to the ice a couple of dozen more times with his Blue Raiders teammates before it all comes to an end. When it does wrap up, he is hoping to look back on yet another productive season, one in which the team went further than it has over the last six years.