Jamie Russell was stunned.
He was in his first season as director of hockey operations for South Kent Selects Academy after coaching at multiple levels of hockey, most notably 20 years as either a Division 1 college assistant or head coach.
In other words, it’s hard to surprise him.
Russell was looking to recruit then-14-year-olds for the next season’s 15U team and Tory Pitner, a defenseman from El Cerrito, Calif., fit the bill. And even though Russell wasn’t a full year into the new gig, he knew how most conversations went with players that young — he could talk as much as he wanted, but the answers on the other end of the line were normally going to be short.
But Pitner was different. Russell’s phone call with Pitner lasted roughly an hour and Pitner was asking most of the questions. In the early conversations, one of those questions Pitner was what the warning label on South Kent was — a stunning inquiry from a 14-year-old.
“That one came from my mom,” Pitner admitted. “She was like, 'You can’t just go on these phone calls and just ask the generic questions like how’s the food?' Which is important. What’s the rink like? You want to know what it’s like when you’re there in February and it’s been 6 degrees for the last two months and you can’t stand anything and want to go home.”
Pitner wanted an idea of what life would be like when the honeymoon phase was over.
“The questions that he was asking me,” Russell said, “having done it a long time, it blew me away.”
Russell replied that the warning label was long days filled with on-ice training, off-ice training and academics. Pitner was in.
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The right-shot defenseman posted 11 goals and 42 points in 53 games for the 15U team. It’s also no surprise he was the team captain. That success paid massive dividends.
For starters, Pitner was taken ninth overall by the Youngstown Phantoms in the Phase I portion of the USHL draft this year. The 6-foot, 179-pound defenseman will head to Youngstown when South Kent has breaks in its schedule, such as at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“Play a few games, practice and just make the transition there as smooth as possible,” Pitner said. “Obviously, the next level of hockey is Tier 1 juniors in the United States. For a player like myself who wants to be in college hockey, there’s no better place to be.”
As Pitner was being drafted into the USHL, interest from Division 1 college hockey programs was heating up. Schools began contacting him on Jan. 1 but couldn’t officially offer until Aug. 1.
Pitner was drawn to UMass, and the 2021 national champions locked up the California defenseman on Aug. 1. Pitner chose the Minutemen for their success, culture and head coach Greg Carvel’s ability to develop defensemen.
“Just in terms of developing defensemen, I feel like no one does a better job of that than Massachusetts,” Pitner said. “Cale Makar, Mario Ferraro, Zac Jones being from [South Kent], Marc Del Gaizo — they’ve paved the path. Even now you have Scott Morrow and Ryan Ufko. These are guys that will be in those same shoes a few years down the road.”
While those are some defensemen that Pitner wants to follow, he grew up an Anaheim Ducks fan, which means closely watching Cam Fowler. Nowadays, that’s changed to modeling his style after Mortiz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings.
“Last year, I feel like every time the Red Wings were on, I was watching Moritz Seider,” Pitner said. “He’s a guy that for me, I like to emulate my game after.”
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Aside from committing to UMass, Pitner garnered even more attention this summer when he competed for the U.S. Under-17 Men’s Select Team in the Five Nations Tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo. The United States came in second place, but Pitner potted two goals and an assist in four games.
“It was an unreal experience,” Pitner said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Pitner and South Kent had a decision to make entering this season: would he move onto the 16U team or play up with the 18U squad?
After some thought, the choice was an easy one: play up with the 18Us.
“We really believe having players go up and play for a weekend when you have injuries when an opportunity presents itself,” Russell said. “I don’t necessarily think it’s healthy for a player to always play up if they’re not getting prime minutes.
“If you have a 16U player that’s with the 16U team, you bring him up for a weekend, he plays a game or two with the 18s and goes back down. I think that’s really healthy for his development. It may not be the case for him to be up at that higher level all year.”
At the start of this season, Pitner was trying to do too much, according to Russell, which led to a video session with 18U assistant coach Ryan Bliss (Chelmsford, Mass.) where the message was clear: keep it simple.
“[Bliss] did a really good job with Tory in sitting down and doing video and saying hey you don’t have to hit a home run every single time,” Russell said. “It’s fine to make a good, simple first pass. Let’s get out of our zone and look to join the offense as the next wave coming up the ice.”
Since then, Pitner has been much better. He leads all South Kent defensemen in goals (five) and points (14).
“Tory’s really done a good job of understanding, OK, when’s the time to keep it simple? We’re very big on game management and puck management and we want players that are offensive and tend towards that type of player,” Russell said. “We want them to beat people 1-on-1, we want people to make plays. As an offensive player, you can’t be afraid to make a mistake.
“Tory’s really made a lot of strides in that area as he’s transitioned to 18U midget hockey.”
