By snoadmin
In Southern California, its usually baseball, soccer or football that family members introduce their kids to at an early age. Not true for Brian Horowitz.
“My grandfather is from Minnesota, so when I was two years old, instead of putting me on ADD medication, he put me on the ice with skates,” Horowitz said.
A couple of decades later, Horowitz is the American College Hockey Association’s top points man in Division II hockey. The junior center has compiled 92 points, with 44 goals and 48 assists this season for the Long Beach State club hockey team. Going into the final week of the regular season, it is a safe bet that Horowitz will win the national points title, with the second place player having 78 points.
But the road from growing up in El Segundo to playing at LBSU was a lot more complicated than a short car ride down the 405.
After playing hockey in Southern California while growing up, Horowitz’s goal was to play for a Division I college hockey program.
Unlike most sports where colleges recruit players straight from high school, most hockey players are forced to play junior hockey for a couple of years on the East Coast, in hopes of catching the eyes of the college scouts.
So that’s what Horowitz did. He started with a team in Michigan and then played for a couple of teams in Massachusetts. Unfortunately for Horowitz, injuries plagued him during junior hockey so he wasn’t always at his best.
He showed enough though to peak the interest of the University of Rhode Island. URI was not a Division I team at the time, but they told Horowitz that after his freshman year the program was going to move up to Division I.
“We had a good team at URI,” Horowitz said. “But after my freshman year they didn’t become a Division I school like they said they would. That was the whole reason why I went there in the first place, and with out of state tuition being so high, I decided to come back to California.”
So he came home and then to LBSU. He found out LBSU had an up and coming club hockey team, and now in his second season at The Beach, Horowitz has been dominant for the 49ers, leading the team to a 20-8 record and a No. 7 ranking in the West Region.
“Brian is such an asset to the team,” said LBSU head coach John Cacciatore. “To have such a dominating player, it’s like having a Michael Jordon or a Wayne Gretzky. It doesn’t matter what level you are at, having a great player like Brian is a huge advantage.”
Horowitz gives a lot of the credit to his line mates, Mike Weber and Sean Hoang for giving him the opportunity to score.
“I played with Mike at URI and was able to convince him to come out here,” Horowitz said. “Sean is a great player and he’s only a freshman. By the time he is done here, he might be the best player this league has ever seen.”
The 49ers will close out the regular season this weekend with two games against UNLV at their home rink in Lakewood, Glacial Gardens Arena.
Even though Horowitz is an offensive machine, he knows his team will have to improve defensively to accomplish his ultimate goal – a national championship.
“We are making too many mental errors,” Horowitz said. “Everyone, forwards and defensemen, have to do better on defense for us to do well in the playoffs.”
