THE DRILL: Trojans' Easton Newman is an experienced hockey player
Nov. 21—WORTHINGTON — Easton Newman's already-long experience in hockey is continuing to grow every season.
His hockey career stretches far back however, to being introduced to the sport 15 years ago. He first learned to play hockey at age 2 from his father, who also played hockey in high school. Newman's older sister and his younger brother and sister also play hockey.
Anyone who has played a sport for as long as Newman has played hockey is bound to learn and grow quite a bit.
Even just since playing at the varsity level, which he's done since his sophomore year, Newman has learned a lot about himself as a player and a leader, both on and off the ice.
"I'd say I've grown a lot, learned more experience and gotten better," he said. "We learn new things about it and overall (I've) just gotten better at hockey."
Newman is heading into his senior season at Worthington High School and the forward is an athletic, versatile player with both the size and speed to excell at the game. He is someone who consistently shows up on the stat sheets.
Another aspect of having Newman's level of veteran experience on the team is that he can be a great asset a team leader. Over the years, Newman has grown quite a bit from a communication and leadership standpoint. He attributes that to watching and learning from previous team captains.
"Ever since sophomore year, looking at old captains showed me more of how to communicate with my teammates," he said. "Because I've played with these guys my whole life, but some of them I have learned to bond more with due to playing high school hockey."
Last season, the Trojans went 3-20 overall and lost in the opening round of the section playoffs to Fairmont, a team Newman would like to beat this year. Looking ahead to this season, Newman returns to a Trojans squad with a good mix of both senior experience and up-and-coming youngsters. Because of that, he has higher expectations of the team and of himself going into the season.
"Expectations, I would say, are we've got a lot of young guys this season, but I'm pretty sure if we work the right way and we start building our chemistry more, I feel that they'll start getting used to high school hockey pretty soon," he said.
Newman was one of the team's top scorers last year. He said he hopes to be even better this year.
"Personal goals this year are probably hitting my 50-point mark this year and honestly just working on my shot...," he said.
The Globe recently interviewed Newman at the Worthington Ice Area during a preseason hockey practice. The full video can be found at dglobe.com, but here is a sample of our interview.
QUESTION: What strengths would you say you have as a hockey player?
ANSWER: "Strengths ... are probably just my size ... and speed probably. Being able to be fast but also be able to forecheck very good and put pressure on guys using my size and basically hitting guys."
QUESTION: If you had to pick one team you'd really like to beat this season, who would that team be and why?
ANSWER: "A team I would like to really beat this year is Fairmont because they were our playoff game last year and it was a really close game, and I would love to just get back at them. We play them in the third game this year, it's our first home game, so I'm sure it'll be a good one."
QUESTION: What's the best piece of advice you've gotten in your athletic career?
ANSWER: "The best piece of advice I've gotten is don't give up. No matter what, don't give up and that was from my coach in Marshall."
