Cole makes the most of his RoughRiders opportunity

CEDAR RAPIDS - Justin Cole didn't have a Plan B. There was no alternative option.

Had the first-year forward not made it as a 'free agent” with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, he had no idea what the next step in his hockey career would have been. Or if there would have been a hockey career.

'I don't know,” Cole said, shaking his head back and forth. 'Obviously I think I would have continued with playing, but I don't know how.”

It's something the 19-year-old from Bryn Athyn, Pa. (a Philadelphia suburb) doesn't have to worry about. Talk about making the most of an opportunity.

Cole got an invitation to RoughRiders tryout camp this past summer and impressed enough to be called back to a team 'conditioning” camp later in the summer. He then got the nod to come to fall camp, leading Cedar Rapids in scoring in the preseason.

He had a goal in his United States Hockey League regular-season debut last weekend against Lincoln. The RoughRiders host Fargo on Friday night at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena and Madison on Saturday night.

Opening faceoff both nights is approximately 7:15.

'Yeah, I would have liked to have been drafted,” Cole said. 'I just really tried to go out and have fun (at tryout camp) and work as hard as I could. It was a good experience to come out here for the camp and see what it's about. And especially to make the next one.

'If you work hard, you've got a shot. That's what Coach said.”

Cole isn't the only guy not taken in the USHL draft to make the RoughRiders roster this season. Forward John Snodgrass also had a goal last weekend in the opener and forward Zac Robbins committed last week to Brown University.

In early May, the RoughRiders had USHL rights to 57 players, and Cole, Snodgrass and Robbins weren't any of them. That's fairly amazing and a credit to Coach/General Manager Mark Carlson and his staff for looking here, there and everywhere for talent.

Cole played two years at Vermont Academy prep school. He has good size at 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds.

'We had a chance to see him play a little bit,” Carlson said. 'He came to our camp and did well and seems to just keep getting better all the time.”

Cole seemed rather flummoxed when asked to give a scouting report of himself.

'I'm a big guy,” he said, after a pause. 'I like to get to the net.”

That was it, and that's enough. The RoughRiders seem to have unearthed a good player, one that no other USHL team contacted.

'He's talented, has good size and can skate,” Carlson said. 'He has good hands and can shoot. I think he's just going to keep getting better. That's the exciting part about it. We've seen what he can do.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com