Ask any hockey player when they first took the ice and the answer will most likely fall sometime around their kindergarten years, often earlier. Ask Ice Dawg rookie Wyatt McAvoy this very question, and the answer may surprise you.
The freshman actually started skating at seven, only picking up hockey two years later when he and his family moved from Towson, Maryland to Sandy Springs, Georgia.
“I started relatively late,” he said.” I started skating [for the first time] when I was seven… and I really, really liked it… I was always skating… When I moved to Georgia, I moved next to their Center Ice Arena in Sandy Springs—It’s like one exit down from my house. I just started going to free skate there, and then they had a Learn to Play Hockey thing. So, I started out with my buddy, me and my buddy started playing Learn to Play Hockey, and I fell in love with it. I played a few years of house league, got a lot better really fast, moved on to travel, and kept going from there.”
He may have gotten a late start on skates, but you would never know it. Over the course of his 11 years in the sport, the forward has played for six teams, taking a gap year to play at the Junior level before coming to Athens.
McAvoy describes himself as a fast-paced and physical player, having notched five goals so far this season.
“I like to play hard and gritty,” he said. “I like to go out there and just play my top speed, forecheck hard. I play pretty physical as well… I’d say I like to use my speed a lot. So, I like to get around guys, drive them wide, make plays through the middle, as well as get pucks on net, too.”
You could say this level of grit and determination shows up in McAvoy’s personal life, as well. The freshman currently studies in the Terry College of Business and is “testing the waters” when it comes to pinning down a major, but he’s actually already started a business of his own with one of his hometown friends.
“It’s called College Boys Home Solutions,” he said. “I started it with my buddy who also goes here—a hometown friend—two summers ago, and I basically work all spring and summer. I advertise through word of mouth, through next door neighbors, and we do pretty well! We get a lot of business. I’m usually working every day of the week, doing different stuff, like we do lawn mowing, leaf cleanup. We chainsaw down trees, pressure wash, paint—we do literally everything.”
Playing hockey at the collegiate level was always a goal of McAvoy’s and according to him, the transition into this Georgia team has not disappointed.
“I’ve loved [UGA Hockey],” he said. “I knew a few guys on the team, just from growing up playing with them in the Atlanta area, so it was cool to have that connection kind of coming in. But I feel like [everyone’s] bonded super quickly. That’s the case for a lot of teams, but there’s a really good culture here. So, when I came in, with my freshman boys, we bonded super quick, and the whole team bonded super quick, too… It’s been a great experience so far, and I’m hoping to keep it going.”
When it comes to his future on the team, McAvoy says he’s excited for the tournament season and the Ice Dawgs’ home opener at Akins Ford Arena.
Big picture though, the first year is eager to make his mark on the UGA Hockey program and leave it better than he found it.
“From my time here, I want to do a good job on and off the ice of growing [UGA Hockey] more,” he said. “Obviously it’s been getting a lot more traction, but with the rink in town, I feel like it can really explode on campus. I feel like it’s kind of my responsibility to do that. To bring more fans into the sport, represent the team as a whole, and keep the culture up, as well. It’s cool that I’ll probably be here for four or five years—I’ve never been a part of a team for like four or five years! Being a freshman, then going to be a senior, maybe even a fifth year. It’s pretty cool to think that I can be here and impact the culture myself, uphold the values we want on the team, and lead the team in the right direction for the guys who come after me.”