The Future is Now For Chatham's Brad Houston

As a member of Adrian College’s first graduating class, this game, and the potential to play for the National Championship has additional meaning to Houston,

“It means so much to me and the other 16 seniors on the team. It has been four years in the making, and we are extremely excited for the chance to play in our first Final Four. It’s been four years of hard work and dedication, and it is very rewarding to see it has all paid off.”

Houston and his Adrian College teammates have been focused and preparing for the last month. Last week, they beat Elmira 5-3 in the NCAA quarterfinals, a game in which Houston had 1 goal and 1 assist. Now, Houston says his team is focused on the task at hand, specifically, on doing what they do, without worrying about what their opposition plans to do,

“We will be preparing the same way we have for about the last month now,” said Houston,  “We tend to focus more on what we can do as a team, not what the other team is going to be doing. We never watch video on other teams and are more worried about our strategy and execution. That being said, we did meet Oswego last year, so we do have some idea of what to expect.”

In Houston and Adrian’s last go around at the NCAA tournament, the team was quickly ousted by a strong St. Norbert team, however, they’re using those past lessons to help prepare for the challenges they’ve faced in this year’s tourney, “Last year we learned what it takes to be successful in Tournament games. Going into it, we didn’t know the intensity and battle level that we needed to have to compete. St. Norbert was an experienced, hard-working team, that was ready to compete. We just didn’t have the experience. This year we know what it takes and feel comfortable in the position we are.”

Whether they win Friday’s game and advance to the National Championship game, or lose and Brad Houston’s NCAA career comes to an end, his experience at Adrian College has been one he’ll never forget,

“I would say, that it has been an experience that has surpassed any expectations and playing at Adrian College has truly been an experience of a lifetime.”

Despite the impending end to what has been a stellar NCAA hockey career, he’s not willing to look too far into the future, or at what is next in his hockey life; rather, Houston is remaining focused on the task at hand, beating Oswego State and advancing to the NCAA Final,

“I’m trying not to think about it until the end of the season. Players that come from winning programs obviously get more opportunities to advance, but whether I will move on in hockey after the year, I haven’t really thought about it yet.”

Continue to follow the Chatham-Kent Sports Network for an update following the Frozen Four game, and a follow up interview with Brad Houston.