Sam Hodic is the youngest rostered player for the Melbourne Ice. Some would see this as a daunting task, but the 17 year-old is embracing the role.
"When you're the only player wearing a cage on the ice and everyone else is wearing a visor, you tend to stand out a bit more,” Hodic says with a laugh.
Hodic’s passion for hockey began a little over a decade ago, when he and his father Jamie drove past the Oakleigh Olympic Ice Skating Centre and decided to have a look inside. They happened to walk in during a Melbourne Ice game, and young Sam fell in love with the sport.
"After watching that first game, Dad had me on skates a week later," he says.
Hodic started out in the same way most juniors start out, playing in the local peewee leagues. However, before long, Hodic began moving up through the different age groups, building on his skills as a junior and impressing as he went. He represented Australia in the under-18 Division II Group B World Championships in 2012 at age 15, which he says is one of his proudest achievements.
In 2012, his development was taken up a notch after being invited to train with the Melbourne Ice Academy. The MI Academy specialises in the development of young players in all aspects of life as a professional ice hockey player.
By this stage, Hodic was training for hockey six nights a week. As a youngster who was also studying for the first year of his VCE studies, this quickly burnt Hodic out, leading him to take a year off in 2013. Hodic maintains that his love of the game remained intact but the intensity of his hockey training, which included 5am MI Academy training sessions, were becoming more and more apparent.
Coming back through the Australian Junior Hockey League (AJIHL), Hodic represented the Melbourne Glaciers, dominating the under-20’s competition with 10 goals and six assists for 16 points in only 15 games, which was enough to be selected in the squad for the Australian under-18’s World Championship, although he didn’t end up taking his place on the squad.
When word began to spread of Hodic’s return to the ice in late 2013, he was offered an invitation to train with the Melbourne Ice. It was an honour that surprised and humbled Hodic.
The youngster quickly impressed, getting the call up to play in the Ice's first exhibition game of the season, which is one of Hodic’s favourite moments of his career. Since then, Hodic has played in all six of the Ice’s games this season including his AIHL debut in the Ice’s season opener against the Sydney Ice Dogs.
"Even though it was a big defeat, I loved every second of it," Hodic said. “I’ve loved every bit of it so far. Everything is so professional and everyone has been so welcoming. It’s like one big family.”
Despite the loss in the first match against the Ice Dogs, Hodic had a standout performance with head coach Brent Laver saying, “he was the shining light in a pretty dark day”. On the roster with players he has been looking up to the past couple of years, Hodic said he has been enjoying learning from experienced players on the Ice roster like Lliam Webster, Jason Baclig and Matt Armstrong.
“They all try and help me out both on and off the ice,” Hodic said. “They push me to try and get me to the level I should be at.”
Hodic attributes a lot of his rise to the highest level of Australian hockey to former Ice and current Mustangs player Joey Hughes, saying he “pretty much taught me how to play hockey”.
Hodic is driven, disciplined and ambitious. He has his sights set high, hoping to one day pull on an Australian Mighty Roos jersey.
“It’ll be a hard task to achieve, but if I set my mind to it and work hard I can hopefully follow in [teammate] Lliam Webster’s footsteps,” he said.
The balance between his studies and playing with the Ice can be precarious at times, but Hodic acknowledges that a hockey career in Australia is not an easy life. A perfect example came only three weeks ago following the Ice’s two 3-0 victories against the Perth Thunder in Perth.
"Coming off the plane and having to go straight to school without any sleep can be difficult,” Hodic said. “But I know that if I want to keep travelling and playing with the boys I just have to keep doing well and pushing myself.”
With six AIHL games under his belt and his own expectations set high, Hodic said he was thriving on the pressure. A mature 17-year old, Hodic is aware of what it takes to succeed. He knows it’s not easy, and he knows it’ll take blood, sweat and tears to get there. However, surrounded and supported by his family, his teammates, his coaches and the Ice faithful, Hodic has everything in place to take his development up yet another notch in 2014.
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