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Get to Know Joe Gaudet
2/12/2010 8:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Get to Know Joe Gaudet
by Bruce Wood
To understand where Dartmouth senior Joe Gaudet is going it helps to know where he's been. And so let's travel back to the early 1990s when the strapping 6-foot-2 forward was hardly bigger than the pads his dad once donned between the pipes at Thompson Arena.
"I want to say he was 3- or 4-years-old and I brought him on a recruiting trip to Lake Placid," recalls Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet, who just happens to be Joe's father. "It was a junior tournament or USA Hockey or something, and I've never seen a kid just sit in the stands and watch a game the way he did.
"Usually at that point you are playing with Ninja Turtles. But when other kids would be running around playing, he'd be focused on the game. He's always been like that."
Flash forward and today Joe Gaudet is a Big Green assistant captain. Although he has former teammates who have gone on to play in the NHL and current teammates who will be in a hockey uniform of some sort after graduation, Gaudet has remained enough of a student of the game - his, as well as others' - to understand his days as a player are dwindling to a precious few.
Which is not to say he's ready to leave the ice behind. Far from it.
"I'm planning on doing some teaching and coaching at the prep school level next year," says Gaudet, a double-major in government and Native American studies. "That will give me a little taste of both and I'll get to see if I like teaching or not.
That he likes the hockey piece is a given.
"I really don't remember when I started to skate, but for as long as I can remember we've been out there," says Gaudet, whose younger brother Jimmy is a sophomore blue-liner for the Big Green. "When my father coached at Brown we were always on the ice."
Bob Gaudet took over the reins at Dartmouth in 1997 when his oldest son was 10, and young Joey soon became one of the Thompson Arena faithful, cheering the Big Green on from Section 10 and collecting autographs from players like Shaun Peet and Michael Sturgis.
Gaudet went on to star at Hanover High School, helping the 2003 team go 19-1-1 and the 2005 team go 20-2-0 while being named the Class I Player of the Year. But while he was a terrific student, it was hardly hockey's equivalent of a slam dunk that he'd continue his career at Dartmouth.
"When you are younger, that's what you hope for," he says. "But as I got older I didn't think it was possible. It's kind of hard to gauge from New Hampshire high schools what level you fit at."
Bob Gaudet had coached him briefly on a summer all-star team and knew that Joe had enough game. There were two other questions that were more pressing:
Was it a good idea?
And, was Dartmouth the right fit for him?
The first was answered when Gaudet père spoke with colleagues at other schools who had coached their own sons. Their advice: Don't miss the chance if it's the best place for your son.
Whether it was the right place for him was the final piece of the puzzle. Although Bob and Lynne Gaudet are both Dartmouth grads, they wanted to make sure their first-born made up his own mind about where to continue his education and hockey career. Which is why, when the college search process got going, father and son hopped in the car and zoomed off to places like Middlebury and Holy Cross, Colby and Bowdoin.
"He said I could apply to Dartmouth but if I wanted to go somewhere else he would be fine with that as well," the younger Gaudet says. "He wanted me to come, but they wanted me to make up my own mind.
"I decided on Dartmouth and it's been a dream come true."
After hockey's version of a "gap year" working mornings in a law office and helping the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs go 46-4-4 at night, Gaudet suited up for the Big Green a year later. His debut was not auspicious.
"The first shift he ever had for Dartmouth he got a penalty," Lynne Gaudet chuckles. "I remember thinking, 'That's really not how I want this to start out.' But it's gone as well as we ever could have hoped. Joe's personality is low-key and stable. We've been thrilled with how it's worked with other players because you just never know how it's going to go over when your dad is the coach."
And then there was that father-son dynamic, which could have been problematic, but wasn't.
"The best part of that was I didn't have to get to know my coach and we could be honest with each other," Joe Gaudet says. "The hardest part the first couple of years was when he'd tell me what I needed to improve I was a little reluctant to listen to him just because he's my dad. I could go, 'Yeah Dad, whatever.' Whereas if another coach told me the same thing, I would take it completely seriously. But I've adjusted to that over the years."
Gaudet saw action in 16 games as a freshman and earned the team's Most Improved Player award as a sophomore. He was named ECACHL all-academic as a junior and was an all-tournament pick in this year's Ledyard Bank Classic.
"This year it's definitely been different being one of the leaders in terms of what you have to take into account every day," he says. "What you have to think about and worry about. Not just about yourself, but you have to worry about the team as a whole and every individual as well."
That, of course, is what a coach does, and someone who knows him as well as anyone this side of his mother thinks he's going to be a good one.
"It doesn't surprise me that he wants to teach and be a coach," Bob Gaudet says. "When he mentioned it I was glad because he's someone who I think will be able to make a huge impact on kids' lives. I marvel at his ability intellectually to understand athletics. I saw it when he was a catcher and third baseman in baseball. It amazed me because you have to think so many steps ahead and he always had this calmness about him while doing it.
"As a hockey player it's something I really admire and respect about Joe. In the confusion of everything he knows where to be, what to say and what to do. I don't know where he got that from, but it's pretty special."
Something else that has been pretty special: having a front-row seat watching the next coach in the family grow from boy to man.
"It's been a real blessing to see him go to Dartmouth and get a great education, and to be able to be a part of it," Bob Gaudet said. "To see how he's matured from freshman year to senior year and the way he's lived his life? I couldn't be more proud."
by Bruce Wood
To understand where Dartmouth senior Joe Gaudet is going it helps to know where he's been. And so let's travel back to the early 1990s when the strapping 6-foot-2 forward was hardly bigger than the pads his dad once donned between the pipes at Thompson Arena.
"I want to say he was 3- or 4-years-old and I brought him on a recruiting trip to Lake Placid," recalls Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet, who just happens to be Joe's father. "It was a junior tournament or USA Hockey or something, and I've never seen a kid just sit in the stands and watch a game the way he did.
"Usually at that point you are playing with Ninja Turtles. But when other kids would be running around playing, he'd be focused on the game. He's always been like that."
Flash forward and today Joe Gaudet is a Big Green assistant captain. Although he has former teammates who have gone on to play in the NHL and current teammates who will be in a hockey uniform of some sort after graduation, Gaudet has remained enough of a student of the game - his, as well as others' - to understand his days as a player are dwindling to a precious few.
Which is not to say he's ready to leave the ice behind. Far from it.
"I'm planning on doing some teaching and coaching at the prep school level next year," says Gaudet, a double-major in government and Native American studies. "That will give me a little taste of both and I'll get to see if I like teaching or not.
That he likes the hockey piece is a given.
"I really don't remember when I started to skate, but for as long as I can remember we've been out there," says Gaudet, whose younger brother Jimmy is a sophomore blue-liner for the Big Green. "When my father coached at Brown we were always on the ice."
Bob Gaudet took over the reins at Dartmouth in 1997 when his oldest son was 10, and young Joey soon became one of the Thompson Arena faithful, cheering the Big Green on from Section 10 and collecting autographs from players like Shaun Peet and Michael Sturgis.
Gaudet went on to star at Hanover High School, helping the 2003 team go 19-1-1 and the 2005 team go 20-2-0 while being named the Class I Player of the Year. But while he was a terrific student, it was hardly hockey's equivalent of a slam dunk that he'd continue his career at Dartmouth.
"When you are younger, that's what you hope for," he says. "But as I got older I didn't think it was possible. It's kind of hard to gauge from New Hampshire high schools what level you fit at."
Bob Gaudet had coached him briefly on a summer all-star team and knew that Joe had enough game. There were two other questions that were more pressing:
Was it a good idea?
And, was Dartmouth the right fit for him?
The first was answered when Gaudet père spoke with colleagues at other schools who had coached their own sons. Their advice: Don't miss the chance if it's the best place for your son.
Whether it was the right place for him was the final piece of the puzzle. Although Bob and Lynne Gaudet are both Dartmouth grads, they wanted to make sure their first-born made up his own mind about where to continue his education and hockey career. Which is why, when the college search process got going, father and son hopped in the car and zoomed off to places like Middlebury and Holy Cross, Colby and Bowdoin.
"He said I could apply to Dartmouth but if I wanted to go somewhere else he would be fine with that as well," the younger Gaudet says. "He wanted me to come, but they wanted me to make up my own mind.
"I decided on Dartmouth and it's been a dream come true."
After hockey's version of a "gap year" working mornings in a law office and helping the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs go 46-4-4 at night, Gaudet suited up for the Big Green a year later. His debut was not auspicious.
"The first shift he ever had for Dartmouth he got a penalty," Lynne Gaudet chuckles. "I remember thinking, 'That's really not how I want this to start out.' But it's gone as well as we ever could have hoped. Joe's personality is low-key and stable. We've been thrilled with how it's worked with other players because you just never know how it's going to go over when your dad is the coach."
And then there was that father-son dynamic, which could have been problematic, but wasn't.
"The best part of that was I didn't have to get to know my coach and we could be honest with each other," Joe Gaudet says. "The hardest part the first couple of years was when he'd tell me what I needed to improve I was a little reluctant to listen to him just because he's my dad. I could go, 'Yeah Dad, whatever.' Whereas if another coach told me the same thing, I would take it completely seriously. But I've adjusted to that over the years."
Gaudet saw action in 16 games as a freshman and earned the team's Most Improved Player award as a sophomore. He was named ECACHL all-academic as a junior and was an all-tournament pick in this year's Ledyard Bank Classic.
"This year it's definitely been different being one of the leaders in terms of what you have to take into account every day," he says. "What you have to think about and worry about. Not just about yourself, but you have to worry about the team as a whole and every individual as well."
That, of course, is what a coach does, and someone who knows him as well as anyone this side of his mother thinks he's going to be a good one.
"It doesn't surprise me that he wants to teach and be a coach," Bob Gaudet says. "When he mentioned it I was glad because he's someone who I think will be able to make a huge impact on kids' lives. I marvel at his ability intellectually to understand athletics. I saw it when he was a catcher and third baseman in baseball. It amazed me because you have to think so many steps ahead and he always had this calmness about him while doing it.
"As a hockey player it's something I really admire and respect about Joe. In the confusion of everything he knows where to be, what to say and what to do. I don't know where he got that from, but it's pretty special."
Something else that has been pretty special: having a front-row seat watching the next coach in the family grow from boy to man.
"It's been a real blessing to see him go to Dartmouth and get a great education, and to be able to be a part of it," Bob Gaudet said. "To see how he's matured from freshman year to senior year and the way he's lived his life? I couldn't be more proud."
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