Freshman Friday is a Q-and-A feature with new members of the men's hockey team. This is the fourth of eight installments this year, featuring forward Michael Regush.

Q: Welcome to Cornell! It's early in the season, how are things working out for you?
A: Good. Feel like I'm starting to adjust to the pace, the level of play and the physicality. I'm really enjoying it.

Q: What are you studying?
A: I'm in Applied Economics and Management.

Q: Something you've always been interested in?
A: Yeah, my uncle's in finance. He's kind of been a role model for me in the business world. He would take me to his office when I was a kid. So it's just been something I've been interested in since young childhood.

Q: You come from a family of teachers and administrators in education. You have an older brother – what does he do?
A: It's funny you say that, because my brother right now is actually becoming a teacher himself, following in the family tradition. My mom's a principal and my dad's a teacher, so he's actually in teaching school right now after starting in the fall.

Q: So I'm guessing it's fair to say there was a heavy education influence in the family. Was that something that was pushed on you all throughout your hockey career?
A: Yeah, my parents were always pretty on top of me to make sure I was diligent in my studies. School really came first and was prioritized, and then I would get to go to hockey after. That was the fun side of things.

Q: How did you get into hockey?
A: My dad played as a kid, like most Canadians do. When I was 3, I started skating, and then I started playing when I was 4. My brother is six years older than me, and he was playing recreationally at the time – he just wasn't into the competitive side of things. But I would go to his games and saw guys a little bit older playing. Went to my first Vancouver Canucks game when I was 4. Just kind of fell in love with it.

Q: So you work your way up the ranks and end up Delta Hockey Academy. What is that, exactly?
A: Americans who follow hockey are probably familiar with Shattuck-St. Mary's. The hockey academy model where you go to a school with your teammates and then practice and work out with your teammates around your school schedule is becoming more prominent in Canada. We were one of the first classes through that program. It's more developed now, adding different levels of teams as well as a girls team. It just seemed like a good fit. Some guys I knew were going onto that team, so I ended up talking to the director and ended up there for Grades 10 and 11.

Q: Would you say that was kind of the point at which you looked at hockey as a next-level thing for you?
A: I think I always just tried to enjoy what I was doing. I had success with it, for the most part. I didn't get drafted in the bantam draft – where you're really young; you're 14 – and then I got listed by the Kelowna Rockets (in the WHL; a major junior team) when I was 15 that September. I always wanted to do something with hockey, whether it was school or play pro, and I've just tried to enjoy the ride.

Q: How did you end up on the college path?
A: So I went to Prince George's camp (another WHL team) when I was 15; then went to Rockets camp when I was 16. I talked to them, and they said 'we'll kind of see your development.' I ended up having a really good year at Delta and talked to a bunch of different schools – Cornell being one of them. Toward the end of that junior year, we sort of ended up committing to each other. I just realized that was the best route for me. It gave me a little bit more time to develop, and I would get a first-class education along the way. The very first week of my senior year, I officially committed.

Q: After Delta, you moved to the BCHL as you were shoring up your commitment to Cornell. How did that all shake down?
A: I was already committed to play for a BCHL team. Then I committed to here and made everything when I first got to Merritt. I'll be honest – the first year was tough. I didn't exactly have the type of year I was hoping to have – from opportunity to production to moving away from home; a number of things. So that was kind of a year for me to mature. We missed the playoffs, then I came back the following year a little bit more mature and a little bit more ready. I had a more successful year and our team ended up going to Game 7 in the second round against Joe Leahy's team (the heavily-favored Penticton Vees). And then for me personally, my production went up and I played for Team Canada West that year (at the World Junior A Challenge). It was a great experience and I played with some great players. It's always a great experience to play with some of those first-class players and see how they conduct themselves. There are certain things that you do that maybe you can try to emulate in your own game and in your own process.

Q: What would be a specific example of that?
A: I can't remember something specific to the World Junior A, but one thing I noticed was that when I was a kid and we played Shattuck. We were warming up, and they would have their team warm-up and a lot of their guys went off and did their own thing. They were visualizing and have headphones on. You could see they were going away and really trying to lock in on their own process. So some of the guys on Canada West that I would say were the better players, you could see how they locked in on themselves to make sure they were fully mentally ready to go first. And the other thing you see from those great players is that they're generally pretty humble, too. They don't talk about themselves a lot, and they're very team-oriented. I think at Cornell, we have a lot of team guys, and I think that's one of those things that's in our values. You see those great players do that and it's something that you want to bring to the rink as well.

Q: After a strong year at Merritt, are you now fully confident coming over stateside to play with Youngstown?
A: It was originally borderline if I was going to come in (to Cornell) after that year. But the way it worked out, I didn't come in and Youngstown drafted me. It was a tough decision between staying in Merritt and going to the USHL, but I felt like the USHL was a better league with a new challenge and maybe a better opportunity for me. So going there, I felt like I could achieve this. Things didn't get off to a great start – I was kind of bouncing around between the third and fourth lines; playing a little wing, playing a little center. It took me a little bit to prove myself to the coaches so they could see would I could do. And then going into Christmas, I started to play center with a couple guys who were really good – both in college right – and we ended up clicking and really just went from there.

Q: I saw you attended the Minnesota Wild's prospect development camp in 2017. What was that like?
A: That was a great experience. I took a lot away from it. I met Alex Green there, who's now a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect. It was a funny story, because when I met him we were doing an escape room exercise. It's where you have to solve clues and escape, and he was in my group for that. So we ended up meeting and talking about how we were both committed to Cornell. Now we're on a team together. Other than that, you're learning from fantastic coaches, and it's a good chance to see what first-class players do and how the organization handles itself. It's good to know what the expectations are at the next level.

Q: So how do you get to the next level? How would you describe your game and who do you model your game after?
A: Coming in here, I didn't really have an idea if I was going to play wing or center. Obviously, I'm open to play whatever role to help the team win. But for me, I typically try to see myself as a center. Two guys I try to look at are Patrice Bergeron and Mark Scheifele. They're bigger, right-hand shot centermen; they're pretty good on draws. Bergeron's a guy who plays both ways with his skill. Scheifele is a bigger body and uses his size.

Q: Particularly as a center, have learning Cornell's systems been a challenge?
A: It's never easy learning systems, but I had fantastic coaches last year (with the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms). A lot of our centerman's habits transferred over. There are still certain things I'll need to adjust and improve upon – you always have to – but there are certain habits that were already in place, and that's definitely helped the transition.
 

Freshman Friday Archives

Oct. 12 — Misha Song
Oct. 19 — Joe Leahy
Oct. 26 — Nate McDonald