West Lebanon
He was struck by details and the way it explained the world around him. Last summer, his interest drove him to take a two-week engineering course at Georgia Tech, where groups of students built trebuchets and conducted experiments, solidifying in his mind that an engineering degree was something he wanted to pursue in college.
Gariepy’s passion for hockey began much earlier. Though he has played soccer and baseball for the Raiders, the Lebanon senior has a calling for the ice. This season, his game has taken off, an exclamation point on a high school career that has put him among Lebanon’s career point leaders.
The Raiders, in the midst of a late-season playoff push, finish their regular season with games today and Saturday. Gariepy, when all is said and done, will be third on Lebanon’s all-time points list. He may also set a Raider record for points in a single season — although he’s 11 points away — and finish with the most points in NHIAA Division II.
Engineering, Gariepy said, has not only opened the door to a potential career path. It has also changed the way he sees the game.
“If you’re in a game and something isn’t going the right way, you can look at it from a different angle, look for a different technique and see what you can do differently,” Gariepy said before a Thursday morning practice at Campion Rink. “In baseball, you go up at-bat, you see a curveball. … I don’t know if you look at it with an engineering mind, but you definitely think about it differently next time you go up to bat.
“(I like the way) you can think creatively to make new technology, try to make current technology better,” he added. “It’s really interesting. … It opened my eyes to how you could think in a different way.”
In December, Gariepy became the first Lebanon player to score 100 points since Ryan Houston reached that mark in 2007. The senior currently leads all D-II players with 47 points (53 including Lebanon’s holiday tournament), 10 more than D-II’s second-leading scorer, Bow’s Doug Champagne, and is Lebanon’s top scorer with 19 goals and 34 assists. Entering Thursday, Gariepy has 145 career points with 54 goals and 91 assists, which is third on the all-time list behind Marc Gattie (177 points in 2001) and Tyler Simms (163 points in 2005).
Lebanon coach Gary Smith has noticed the difference in Gariepy’s game in the past year, seeing a more intellectual player with a broader view of how things can get done on the ice.
Since Gariepy has caught the engineering bug, Smith said, he’s become a better player.
“I think this year, and even last year, he’s done a lot of things differently,” he said. “I think his freshman and sophomore year, he was definitely very offensive-minded. But over the last two years, he’s gotten better in the defensive end … and realizing that it does take a team. I do think it has a lot to do with (engineering). I just think he sees it differently.
“He’s talented, but he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the teammates around him,” Smith added. “Kind of like engineering, everyone has to buy in. There’s no way Gariepy would be where he is without his teammates. At the same time, we wouldn’t be where we are without Gariepy.”
Lebanon boys soccer coach Rob Johnstone also said Gariepy has evolved into a more knowledgeable athlete.
“The smallest details are super-important to him,” Johnstone said on Thursday. “He’s a thinking player, and that’s as far as, ‘How do you break down this defense? How do you best deliver this pass?’ … Honestly, that’s not something you see a lot of at our level.”
Smith set lofty goals for Gariepy as an eighth-grader after seeing first-hand his dedication to hockey. Smith told him he had the potential to be one of the top scorers Lebanon has ever seen. But Smith has been most impressed with the evolution of Gariepy’s game over the years, a transition that has turned the Raider sniper into a more dynamic, two-way player.
Gariepy is now where Smith always thought he would be: on the cusp of breaking records.
“He’s meant a lot to the program,” Smith said. “When I met him, I knew right away that he had the talent to be here and that he wanted to be here and wanted to commit to this team for four years. That’s something special.”
Lebanon has won four of its last six games after a midseason losing skid pulled the Raiders out of the playoff picture, making essential their next two games (tonight against Oyster River, Saturday versus St. Thomas, both at Campion). Gariepy is hopeful that the team can find a way to make the playoffs, if only to stretch the season a little longer.
Gariepy has slowly come to grips with the end of his high school hockey career; the last few weeks, he said, have been emotional. Gariepy hopes to play club hockey in college while pursuing an engineering degree, but said he hasn’t chosen a college just yet.
“The last couple of games — hopefully we make the playoffs with this last push going into this last stretch — has been like any other season,” he said. “But knowing it’s the last one, I’ve been putting in a little extra effort.”
For Smith, Gariepy’s success on the ice has contributed as much to Lebanon’s success as it has off the ice and the Raiders veteran coach hopes that can help drive Lebanon youth hockey players for years to come.
“It’s awesome for the program,” Smith said. “We haven’t had (a 100-point scorer) since 2007, so I think the program needed one. We have had a lot of talented kids come through here. But I think it says a lot, like you can be a really good player if you want to stick around and play for your high school.
“And it sends a message to the younger kids. There are other kids who are seeing Gariepy and they’re saying, ‘I want to score 100 points. What can I do?’ I think it only helps make the program stronger.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.