Freshman Friday is a Q-and-A feature with new members of the men's hockey team. This is the fifth installment, featuring defenseman Alec McCrea. McCrea's hockey path is certainly unique, having started in Southern California and involving a trip to south central Russia. He talks about his inline hockey roots in metro San Diego, the culture shock of playing juniors in the Midwest and how he's been able to step right into the lineup and make an impact with the Big Red.

Q: You're the first Californian to play for the Cornell men's hockey team. It begs the question — how were you first exposed to hockey?
A: I actually get that question a lot. It happened in third grade. My teacher gave out a flyer for a new roller hockey rink opening up by the house I was living at in El Cajon. One of my best friends at the time was playing hockey, so I decided to go give it a try. I started when I was 8, and I started as a goalie, actually. Then I switched over to ice when I was 9. But every summer I go back and play roller hockey. Some of my best friends growing up were from roller hockey. I'd say the special thing about hockey in San Diego is that down there — and it's growing with the L.A. Kings and Anaheim Ducks and the new AHL San Diego Gulls — we're such a tight-knit community down there. Everyone knows each other and everyone's helping each other out as much as we can. Like I said, with some of my best friends, we play roller hockey together every single summer; play tournaments and what not.

Q: Easy segue: Can you tell us about this tournament you won in Las Vegas a couple years ago?
A: We put a team together at a local arena called Skate San Diego, owned by Joe Norris. He played in the NHL for many, many years and he was actually our coach for the tournament. We won the Under-21 national championship and then stayed there for the international Under-21 tournament, and we ended up winning that as well. That was special, just because we were playing against teams that were sponsored and had been together for a while, and we were just a bunch of guys who grew up together and played every Wednesday night down at the local arena. We kind of formed a team and won both tournaments, so that was really special for us.

Q: All things being equal, if ice hockey and inline had the same organized professional structure, which would you prefer to play and why?
A: I definitely prefer to play ice hockey. I like the pace of the game and it's definitely quicker than roller hockey, which is more of a puck possession game. There's no offsides or icings or anything like that. Also, in roller hockey you get more finesse players, because there's no real hitting or anything. For me, personally, I'd prefer ice.

Q: Did you switch from goalie pretty early on?
A: I switched almost right away. The first practice I saw, there was a pretty good goalie out there and I thought, 'I want to be him.' But then I played it a little bit, and decided it wasn't for me. I was put on the best team, because they needed a goalie, and my buddies were scoring. So I thought, 'I want to be out there and score like that.' So from then on, our coach kind of switched us around, and I decided I wanted to be a skater instead.

Q: With the hockey community so small down there, at what point did you realize that in the scheme of things you might have a future in this sport?
A: I'd say when I was 14 years old. I played Bantam AA in Escondido, Calif. for the San Diego Junior Gulls. We were playing in the NAPHL and had a really good team, and that's when I was first getting exposure to scouts and things like that. We would have tournaments in Boston and Michigan and Minnesota, and that's when college scouts were looking to recruit players. That's when I kind of found I was getting a lot of ice time and people were interested.

Q: You ended up being one of those frontline guys in the college-vs.-major juniors battle after the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats took you in their 2010 draft. It sounded like you entertained that route, but why did you ultimately go the USHL/college route?
A: For one, getting an education was very important to me. My parents have always pushed me to do my best in school and, obviously, hockey. It's something I take pride in. Obviously hockey's going to end one day, so you need an education to fall back on to do what you love to do. The thing is, college allows me the time to develop my game. I want to play hockey as long as I can. Being able to come to college, I was able to play four years in the USHL, and I'll get in another four years here before I have to move on. Having that time to develop to get bigger and stronger is huge. I feel like the more time you have, the better it is for you.

Q: What do your parents do?
A: They own a music store in La Mesa, Calif. My grandfather was in the San Diego Symphony, and he founded the store and my dad took over for there. So they both work there as a little company.  They're a retail store, do private lessons, sell musical instruments …

Q: So this has to mean you're musically inclined, right?
A: I am (laughs). I played saxophone growing up, from elementary school through middle school. I didn't play in high school, just because I was going to be moving away for junior hockey. I haven't played in a while, but I used to be pretty good.

Q: It had to be a bit of a culture shock to move to the Midwest for junior hockey for four years. What was that like?
A: Definitely. That first year in Janesville (Wis., of the NAHL), that was definitely an eye-opener. I remember showing up in my billet house with a couple winter coats and maybe some sweatpants, and my roommate who was from Minnesota kind of looked at me like, 'are you crazy?' But having that experience in Janesville and then Waterloo, Iowa, getting to see a couple winters there, I like it because all of my life I grew up in sunny San Diego where you can wear a light sweater in December or still be going to the beach. I've become pretty acclimated to it.

Q: When you were with Waterloo, you played in the 2012 Junior Club World Cup in Omsk, Russia (just north of Kazakhstan). Speaking of culture shock, what was that trip like?
A: It was something special. It was the first time a USHL team went to the Junior Club World Cup, so we didn't know what to expect. We ended up doing really well in the tournament. We didn't win it all, but we came in second place. We were there for a couple weeks in a little town called Omsk. It was really out there. At the same time, experiencing a different culture and a different way of doing things was really nice. We ended up playing the team from Omsk, and they had about 12,000 fans in the arena when we played them. They were doing their chants and stuff in Russian. I'll never forget that experience. I also will never forget I spent almost the entire two weeks just looking for a Powerade, and I couldn't find one.

Q: You've had a strong start here with a couple of assists in your first two games. What are your impressions of the college game so far?
A: It's definitely an adjustment coming in, playing against faster players and stronger players. I think the pace of the game is faster than junior hockey, obviously. For me, what makes me effective is playing a simple game and moving the puck up to the forwards and letting them go to work. Also taking care of the defensive zone, taking pride in my defensive game. I've been trying to develop my offensive game. That was my focus for the last couple of years in Waterloo, to become more well-rounded as a defenseman. I think our forwards have been doing a great job of getting to the front of the net. As a defenseman, it opens things up for us from the top to where we can just put it down toward the net and the forwards can use their size.

FRESHMAN FRIDAY SERIES
Oct. 23: Luc Lalor
Oct. 30: Mitch Vanderlaan
Nov. 6: Beau Starrett
Nov. 13: Trent Shore
Next week: Chad Otterman