Western Collegiate Hockey Association
by Tom Reale (Ticonderoga, NY)
SCSU Standout Goaltender Bobby Goepfert Hails from Long Island, NY  |
|
Nov. 8, 2006
St. Cloud State University's Bobby Goepfert is a long way from home.
He can't lay claim to being the farthest from home - junior Andrew Gordon of Nova Scotia and freshman Andreas Nodl of Austria can claim to hail from areas farther east - but the senior goaltender hails from one of the more interesting and unique segments of the continent: Long Island.
"I lived in Queens until I was about ten or eleven, and then we moved out to Long Island," says Goepfert. "I didn't really get too much of a city life growing up. Long Island is pretty much the suburbs, it had its rough areas, but we were in a safe area."
Goepfert and his family moved from the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens to Kings Park, a hamlet on Long Island Sound near the middle are of the island. Demographically, it was a big shift - Ozone Park is eight miles away from midtown Manhattan and is home to the famous Aqueduct Racetrack and had a reputation, at least until the early 1990s, as a center for mafia activity.
"Both of my parents are from Queens, and most of my immediate family was living in Queens. My grandmother lived on the bottom floor, we lived upstairs, and my aunt lived in the basement. It was very close knit, and we all ended up moving out to Kings Park in a three-year span. It was really just a better place to raise a family, and probably easier on the minds of my parents, I suppose."
Kings Park was a much smaller, less bustling area.
"Queens and Kings Park are like two different worlds. In Ozone Park there were a lot of different ethnic groups on my blocks. It was cool, you knew everybody in the neighborhood, you knew all of your neighbors. Everyone was pretty tolerant of one another."
It was in Ozone Park that Bobby Goepfert first began to learn the sport he would come to love.
"I grew up right across from the school I went to, and I started playing
hockey in the backyard. It was a tiny backyard but I'd play with my neighbor
and he'd shoot on me. I started skating as a forward, but I always played in
the back with my neighbor, Joe Rodriguez.
|
|
 |
"There was a park across the street, and it's a lot like you see sometimes in the movies. There was just everything going on, there were basketball courts, handball courts, softball fields, and just people everywhere using everything, and there were always these older guys playing hockey. I think it was when I was seven that I first made that trek across the street and started playing with some older guys. That was really the most nervous I've been. It was really different, they played with a puck instead of a ball. Big step up for a seven-year-old.
"Moving out of Queens to Kings Park was fortunate, but I kind of missed it. I kind of wish I could have stuck around a bit longer. Ozone Park's a bit different now than when I left it, though.
Still, Goepfert maintains fond memories and a close association with New York City despite his separation from the area. Notably, his two dogs are named Bronx and Brooklyn after two of the boroughs of the city.
"Growing up in Queens, and even just being on Long Island, the city's just a train ride away. It's easy to associate yourself with the city because that's the first thing that stands out. When I think of home, I think of flying over Manhattan and seeing all the skyscrapers and just seeing the whole city laid out below as a kind of homecoming. I love where I'm from, and naming my dogs was just a reminder for me of that.
"The guys give me a hard time because I talk about home a lot, but I don't really `live' at home anymore. I go back in the summers and stuff, but I still have that New York pride, so they like to bust my chops over it."
"There's really nothing better than New York pizza. Out here, you see some pizza shops that advertise `New York style' or `New York slice,' but once you've had the real thing, you can't be fooled. I'm also a big deli guy, and there really aren't many good delis out here where you can go in and just get a pretty sweet meal for like seven bucks."
It isn't all a longing for home, however. Since Goepfert first experienced the Midwest when he joined the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL, he's discovered some of the more satisfying trademarks of the region.
"Not to sound clichéd, but everyone back home is kind of focused on themselves more - getting from point A to point B and taking care of their own business first. Here, everyone is genuinely nice. When you walk into a shop it's like `how are you doing today, sir,' while back home it's all business. I'm not saying it's all rough and everyone's mean back in New York, but it a real difference."
Two weeks ago, St. Cloud played host to the battle of the Empire State, as Minnesota State's Dan Tormey, a native of Syracuse, played in net for the Mavericks against Goepfert and the Huskies - but very little attention or burden rested on Goepfert's shoulders for the showdown, and likely just as little on Tormey.
"It's the same thing. Syracuse is six hours away from Long Island... people from the city consider me to be from a different part of the state. Long Island's not the city, and then when you're from different parts of Long Island you're only ten minutes away from being in a very different place. So being so far away from Syracuse, it's really almost like a whole other area even though we're in the same state. New York's really one of the more unique states in the country in that respect.
"When I was in Providence, there was this guy with UMass-Lowell who was from Bayside in Queens. We actually played against each other when we first started out, then we went to different junior teams, so when we played Lowell it was a little more of a rivalry than playing guys from upstate.
"A lot of people don't understand the difference. There's a lot of perception that people from New York are living the street life. Kings Park's not much like that. It's like every little town: it's got its good parts and bad parts, but there wasn't much crime and not really a lot going on there."
Here in Minnesota and elsewhere, the image of a New Yorker seems to be centered on city life, even while certain segments of the state are just as rural and isolated as many parts of the Midwest can be.
"People just don't understand how diverse the state is. Everyone around here gets the perception that I'm some kind of hood rat since I'm from New York, so it's sometimes fun to play that card. I don't really have the size to intimidate, so I throw a gold chain outside my shirt every now and then to perpetuate it a little. Every little bit helps, you know?"
Bobby Goepfert on the "Issues:"
Yankees or Mets?: Yankees, but I'm real close on that. Everyone thinks the Mets and Yankees is this big rivalry, but really the Mets hate the Yankees more than the Yankees hate the Mets. Most of my buddies are Mets fans, and I think I root for the Yankees more just to spite them, but I end up going to more Met games than Yankee games just because all of my friends are in the stands.
Rangers or Islanders?: Isles for sure. They're pretty much how I got into hockey. My dad started watching them when they first came into town and he was really into them when the dynasty years were happening, when they were winning Stanley Cups. He got me interested in hockey and playing because of that, so I kind of inherited that love of the Islanders for sure.
Knicks or Nets?: It's tough to say, but I guess I'm a Knick guy. The Nets are moving to Brooklyn, though, so I'm not opposed to maybe switching. I'm not too loyal on that front.
Giants or Jets?: I'm actually not too hardcore of a football guy. Growing up I actually rooted for the Patriots since most of my friends were Jets fans, just to get under their skin. Then living in Providence for two years, it got a little weird rooting for the same team that Red Sox fans root for. That kinda rubbed me the wrong way, so I'm more impartial now.
Train or bus to the city?: Train. Too easy. It goes everywhere and is way too easy to use and get wherever you want to go in a hurry.
