By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

Freshman Friday (and, for this year, the Sophomore Spotlight) is a Q-and-A feature with new members of the men's hockey team. This is the third of 14 installments this year, featuring sophomore Jack Lagerstrom.

Q: In some ways, you're like a sophomore – and in some ways, you're like a freshman. With that in mind, how have things been going for you this year?
A: It's been good. I guess you could say I got a little bit of a teaser last year, but it was not really anywhere close to what I'm doing now. It was all online classes; we were practicing maybe once a day and weren't having too many workouts. It was hard. With COVID and everything, we kept getting shut down at times – so we weren't able to skate or work out. But this year's been good. It's great being with a team and knowing that we're playing games, obviously. Very exciting.

Q: You didn't end up playing anywhere else, either – so how did the year play out for you? Were you on campus the whole time?
A: No. I left, along with the other three freshmen (Jack O'Leary, Kyle Penney and Tim Rego), and I just went home and started training there. I didn't think junior hockey was going to benefit me before coming back here, so I decided to work with the really good trainer I have back home.

Q: It's incredibly rare to just have an entirely healthy year off from competition in the hockey world. So what did you ultimately work on?
A: Yeah, we had a lot of time. So I spent a lot of it trying to shed body fat and gain more muscle, because I was bigger and then I was skinnier, so I felt like I needed to gain more strength to play college hockey, because it's a big, hard-hitting game. That was a big point of emphasis for me. And I was doing some online classes, so that helped out with credits and all that. But hockey-wise, it was a lot of skill work. I pretty much just trying to fine-tune every part of my game.

Q: So the year before that with the Tri-City Storm in the USHL, you only got 12 games in. What happened there?
A: In the first preseason game, I actually got cross-checked in the side of the head pretty bad. I was concussed for a while. And it was my second straight concussion, because in my final game of the BCHL (the year before) in the playoffs, I was concussed. So I was out and we lost the series, so that's how my season ended in the BCHL, too. So it was a bit of a longer recovery in Tri-City. But then I got back, got 12 games in, but then COVID shut our season down.

Q: That year in the BCHL was with the Penticton Vees, which was really the first time you went out of your home state of Minnesota. How was that experience, and what was the decision like to make such a move?
A: Talking to the coaches here, I thought it would be a really good place for me to go and develop. I thought the BCHL was a better style of play for my game at the time, and then I could see what I wanted to do after that. And I had already been in boarding school for four years, so I had already lived away from home and was used to that whole thing. But just talking with the coaches, seeing their facilities and then players that they've brought up – I just really thought that was the best option for me.

Q: That boarding school, Shattuck-St. Mary's, is a world-renowned hockey factory – and it was less than hour from your hometown. So when you became honed in on hockey as a next-level option, was SSM always at the forefront of your thoughts?
A: In eighth grade, I was at a smaller, private high school. So I was on the varsity team and I was one of the top defensemen – so it a team where people were very focused on athletics. It was more of just an academic school where they were kind of doing athletics on the side. So I thought that by going to Shattuck, I'd be surrounded by people who had the same intensity and dedication that I had. That helped me further my abilities and further my skills. … Seeing all the people who have gone through there, like (Sidney) Crosby and (Jonathan) Toews, I knew it was the place for me.

Q: At that point, were you set on the NCAA route? Because you were eventually taken in the WHL draft, but with a really late pick – which usually indicates that it was pretty well-known that weren't like to go to major juniors.
A: It had always been in mind that I wanted to go to college, because academics has always been a huge thing for me. Going to a private school growing up and working real hard in academics, that's why I'm here. I immediately told all of those (major junior) teams, 'I'm going to college.' Even though I got drafted, I never went to any camps or anything like that. I was always going to college.

Q: What was the path like between the start of being recruited to when you committed to Cornell?
A: With the exposure we get at Shattuck, I was being recruited even before I got there. Then at Shattuck, I was recruited by all the Minnesota teams and all the major NCAA teams, but I always knew I wanted to get out east and out of Minnesota and the bubble I was in, you could say. Cornell started talking to me during my senior year at Shattuck. I started talking to Ivy League teams by that point, so I knew that's where I wanted to go because I very much value academics. Then I visited here, and I loved it here with the coaches and the atmosphere they have here.

Q: Do you remember the game you saw here?
A: Yeah, against Colgate (in 2018). I shadowed Alex Green on my visit.

Q: You're enrolled in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. What do you hope to do with that degree someday?
A: I've actually started a business with six of my friends from back home. So I'm working in that, and there's a lot of stuff that we're doing in that business that we're also learning in school right now, so that's very interesting. I believe it's helped me a lot with improving the business that I own. I've always wanted to work in private equity or investment banking or whatever it may be. I haven't figured that out just yet, but I'm going to have a lot of options – and those options are thanks to Cornell.

Q: What's your business?
A: Right now, it's just a holding company. So we have an e-commerce store at the moment. We went through a lot of the paperwork and we're working with a business advisor that helps with getting the funds to make other business ventures. For now, we just have the e-commerce store that's made some good profit.

Q: Since fans haven't seen you get to play much yet, how would you describe your game?
A: I would say I'm a two-way defenseman. I can play shutdown 'D' while providing offensive abilities. I love jumping up in the play. I think my shot is one of my strongest attributes, so I try to get pucks on net and make some scoring opportunities. I also think my skating is very good, so I like to mill around in the offensive zone and try to make some plays.

Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is in his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the Cornell men's hockey team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.

Freshman Fridays (and Sophomore Spotlights)

•  Oct. 8: Joe Howe
•  Oct. 15: Justin Ertel
•  Oct. 22: Jack Lagerstrom