BY STEVEN SOUSA // Oct. 24, 2017 //

14 players from the 2016-2017 Curry College men’s hockey team have been recognized as “All American Scholars” by the American Hockey Coaches Association.

The honor is bestowed upon student-athletes who maintained a 3.6 GPA for the year and participated in 40-percent of their team’s games.

Last year’s freshmen scholar-athletes included Jordan Williamson, Alec Mono, and Anthony Trujillo while the sophomores were Lionel Mauron and Mack Heisinger. As juniors, Ryan Fitzgerald, Phil Kiss, Jarret Kup, and Shane Tracy were honored.

Graduated seniors Robert Cammalleri, Jake Heisinger, Ellery O’Hara, Brett Sinclair, and Tyler Vankleef all came back to campus to receive their certificate.

Colonels’ head coach TJ Manastersky said in a press release last week that he was very proud of the effort his players put in the classroom.

“Our culture is about building leaders and preparing young men to be successful when they graduate Curry College,” Manastersky said.  “Results like this speak to the commitment and buy-in they have towards our team culture. This is a tremendous honor.”

The Colonels’ 14 representatives make up the most out any other team from the Commonwealth Coast Conference. Johnson & Wales University and Western New England University were not far behind with 11 scholar-athletes each.

Curry had 11 scholar-athletes alone come from foreign countries to excel in American classrooms. 10 of them made the trip downstairs from Canada, but forward Lionel Mauron is the lone representative of Switzerland.

All other CCC teams had no more than four foreign-student-athlete on the list.

61 universities participated in the AHCA’s program, but Curry is one of only four schools to feature a group comprised of over 75-percent foreign-student-athletes.

Those nine remaining scholar-athletes inch closer to their first faceoff of the regular season, which will take place this Friday, Oct. 27. UMass Dartmouth will make the trip for a non-conference tilt starting at 6:50 p.m. at the Max Ulin Memorial Rink.