umlrecrt01-02

The UMass Lowell Riverhawks have begun their preparation for losing a respectable amount of talent up front to graduation this year, and have received their first verbal commitment for the 2001/2002 season. The Hawks will lose just four players this year to graduation, and possibly others to the NHL, transfers, or to early departure. The four seniors, all forwards, are Captain Brad Rooney (St. Catherine's, Ont), Kyle Kidney (Ithaca, NY), Jeff Boulanger (North Bay, Ont) and Nicholas Carso (Easton, MD). Once again, with not many openings available for next year the Hawks recruiting class will be small.

Forward Gerry Hickey of the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders (USHL) is the first player to commit to the Riverhawks for the 2001 season. Hickey, a 6'3", 180 pounder, is a physical winger, with 55 penalty minutes in just 11 games through November 12. He has 3 goals and 7 assists so far for the Rough Riders. In the 1999/2000 season, The Hanover, MA native played in 56 games with 19 goals and 13 assists and a whopping 180 penalty minutes. There's a chance that many Hawks fans will see Hickey (born on May 23, 1980) become the next Kyle Kidney. Hickey was originally slated to be a recruited walk-on at Northeastern decided to return to Cedar Rapids and work for a scholarship, which he has now attained.

Left wing Brian Boike was the second commit, and should help Lowell have a fourth line that will seemingly spend a lot of time in the penalty box. Boike, a June 1980 birthdate, played for the Valley Jr. Warriors of the EJHL and put up 18-18-36 during the year, with 140 penalty minutes in just 34 games.

The biggest commit so far might be defenseman Baptiste Amar, also from the French National Team. Amar, 5'11", 176 comes in with high expectations, as he's rumored to be a very good defenseman that shouldn't have a problem taking the place of recently departed Junior-to-be Ron Hainsey, who's now with the Quebec Citadelles. The 21 year old Amar (11/11/79) is listed as having played with HC De Riems in France as his last club, but his name is not included in their roster.

The final incoming recruit for this season is Peter Tormey, the younger brother of ex-Lowell player Wil. Peter, from Bourne, MA, is 6'4", played for the Exeter Snow Devils of the EJHL.

LW Jeremy Wilson, W Jeremy Garrison and G David Rathjen also are considered part of this recruiting class, but none of the three can play this year, so information on the three is available on the 2002/2003 recruiting page.