Hatten takes the long road to Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Hoosier State is all about basketball. If you're a hockey player in Indiana, good luck.

Bryce Hatten found that out when his family moved from the Philadelphia area to Granger, Ind., when he was a young kid. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders defenseman wanted to continue to play the sport he loved, but didn't find opportunities very plentiful.

There are a lot of gyms in Indiana, but not many ice rinks.

'My dad almost said I'd have to stop playing because there wasn't much around,” Hatten said. 'But we were able to find a little youth program around there.”

One thing eventually led to another, and Hatten ended up being invited to play bantam-level hockey with the Michigan Nationals. It's a drive of an hour and 45 minutes from Granger (near South Bend in extreme Northern Indiana) to Kalamazoo, Mich.

Mom, Kim, dad, Patrick, or sometimes both, would chauffeur their son to practice twice a week and to games on weekends. What a sacrifice.

'If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't even be able to play hockey,” Bryce Hatten said. 'Some days, I wouldn't want to practice. I'd have homework or something like that. It's such a long day. But they'd tell me ‘You can study, do homework in the car.' They kept me going at it. They knew I loved it. Even though the rides were tough, I think they liked it, too.”

The payoff for the Hattens is that Bryce will play college hockey at Miami (Ohio). He's also a possibility to get taken in the 2015 National Hockey League Draft over the summer.

The 17-year-old Linn-Mar senior was one of six RoughRiders to take part in this past Tuesday's USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in Dubuque. You don't get an invitation to that unless pro scouts are interested in you.

In an odd twist, he and Cedar Rapids teammate Ben Blacker were on the opposite all-star team as the other four RoughRiders. As was head coach Mark Carlson.

'It was an unbelievable experience. Something I'll remember the rest of my life,” Hatten said. 'It was pretty weird. Some of the guys from the other teams were surprised that we weren't all on the same team. It was just something you had to battle through. Obviously going against these guys in practice and stuff like that helped. I think the most weird thing was going against Coach Carlson. That was something a little different, having him behind the other bench.”

Hatten has the size (6-foot-2 and 190 pounds) that NHL teams look for in defensemen, can skate and move the puck, which also are prerequisite pro skills. He has two goals and six points in 31 games for the Riders, who played Friday night at Green Bay and host the Gamblers on Saturday night at 7:05.

His plus-minus rating is a very solid plus-nine.

'He's got good size, is mobile, moves the puck well,” Carlson said. 'He's pretty aware defensively.”

'I tend to think of myself as a defensive defenseman,” Hatten said. 'I try to do the little things that Coach Carlson enforces and encourages. Things like blocking shots, having a good stick at all times, being in great position all over the ice. Just the little things that I like to focus on. I'm not a guy that gets a lot of points or finds himself on the scorecard at the end of games. I just prefer doing the little things and playing a simple game.”

Ironic, since getting to this point in his career was anything but simple for Hatten.

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