If Bence Stipsicz did not play hockey right now he would probably be nervous about being accepted to medical school. Instead he is preparing for his next step in his hockey career, a move to the USHL and from there hopefully to the NCAA.
What is your dream? Most hockey players would answer this question by saying that they would like to play in the NHL. For Bence Stipsicz his answer sounds more like someone from a hockey hotbed like Minnesota or the New England area, for him it's the NCAA.
“Because of my father's work when I was younger we lived in Princeton, New Jersey and NCAA hockey is very popular there. The Princeton hockey team is pretty good and we happened to practice on the same ice as they did, because of this we had discounted tickets. I was swept up by the environment at my first game and that's when I decided that I wanted to play in the NCAA in the future. There are a number of players from that Princeton team that have made it to the NHL. Also next to playing at a high level you are also working to get a higher education”
Bence has just finished up his final exams, because of the A-Pool world championships he did not have as much time to study as he would have liked to but he is still very satisfied with his results. He would have been applying for med school if hockey was not such a large part of his life, both biology and chemistry are two of his stronger subjects. He feels that an education is important because he knows that he can not be a hockey player for the rest of his life. He has not decided yet what he will pursue after hockey however there is a chance that he will follow in his mothers footsteps of working in the field of biochemistry.
Right now his next step is playing well in the USHL, one of the feeder leagues into the NCAA. He will be opening training camp with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.
“Three weeks ago I was invited to a tryout where there were about 80 players in total. We were split into teams and we scrimmaged against each other, the coaches were looking at our physical strength in the beginning. We were cut down to 40 players, and split into two teams for the “All Star” game. The coaching staff had individually talked to all 40 of us before the game. The coaching staff was very happy with my play and conditioning, they had also kept in mind that I had just played in the A-Pool World Championships.”
There are a number of teams looking at Bence with three schools offering scholarships right after the camp, Western Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha and Cornel.
Bence Stipsicz most likly will not be back with MAC Budapest, his club from last season.