Every day in the run-up to Amherst College’s season-opening game on Nov. 19 at Hamilton, sophomore defenseman Connor McGinnis received a text message from his father.
“He sends me texts every day,” said McGinnis. “They’ll say, ‘X amount of days until game one.’ He’ll be there.”
Go back a little more than two years and it would seem highly unlikely that McGinnis, who’d received a good share of Division 1 recruiting interest coming out of the NAHL, would be making his college debut with Amherst.
Or that Scott McGinnis would be alive to see it.
Sometimes life’s path follows blind curves. It certainly did with Connor’s. But in his case, the destination was the reward.
“First and foremost he’s just a fantastic kid,” said longtime Amherst coach Jack Arena. “We’ve talked to him for I don’t know how many years. We followed his path along the way, and the way it evolved it seemed like his path would take him to Division 1.
“But we kept touching base, primarily because we just loved him as a kid.”
A 6-foot-3, 190-pounder from Troy, Mich., McGinnis is a complete defenseman who’ll be used in all types of situations for the Mammoths, who started recruiting him back when he was a high school junior but bowed out as the Division 1 interest intensified.
After a two-year courtship. McGinnis opted for Air Force Academy. His late grandfather had served in the Air Force. He liked the regimented life of a cadet — “I’m up early,” he noted — and thought it would be a great path to set up a career in medicine.
He was two weeks away from flying to Colorado Springs with his dad to begin his college — and college hockey — career in the summer of 2019.
Then he got the phone call.
“I was heading home from the rink and got a call from my mom, saying, ‘Your dad’s in the hospital. It’s not good,’ ” he recalled.
Scott McGinnis, who’d played college football at Central Michigan, had been feeling the symptoms of some kind of illness in the weeks prior but kept them to himself. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the most advanced stage of that type of cancer.
Connor’s family, including his mother and two sisters, was devastated. Still, he was encouraged to report for Basic Military Training at Air Force and begin the next chapter of his life.
He lasted a week. In a demanding program designed to prepare cadets for life at the academy, his mind had trouble focusing, and he found the lack of communication with home unbearable.
“It was tough,” he said. “Physically, I was fine. Mentally, even for someone in my shoes who didn’t have stuff going on back home, it would be tough.”
After a series of meetings and conversations with higher-ups, he received an honorary discharge and headed home to rethink his future. Eventually, he ended up in the USHL for a final season of juniors with Sioux Falls — where his younger defense partner was Florida Panthers second-round pick Evan Nause — and later Omaha.
His father was making progress in his battle. But before the season was up the cancer had returned, forcing him into more chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant.
Wherever he ended up playing his college hockey, Connor knew more than ever what he wanted in his professional future: to be a doctor and attack situations like this head-on.
“After seeing my dad go through what he went through, it really reinforced what I wanted to do in medicine,” he said.
Some Division 1 interest was still there. So was Amherst, which would gladly offer him a place, if not a scholarship. He liked Arena and the coaches. He felt the neuroscience major would set him on the right academic track. He decided to come.
Hockey-wise, his freshman season was mostly a washout, limited to practices. NESCAC decided early that it would not have a hockey season due to COVID, though many D-3 teams got games in and Division 1 played a more traditional season.
Regrets?
“It’s funny,” said McGinnis. “I wouldn’t say there was any regret because I knew I was here for the right reason. But yeah, it was tough seeing some of the opportunities that I had, seeing those teams playing and winning. It was frustrating, but there wasn’t any regret.
“I’m happy here. I love the coaching staff and I love everything about Amherst.”
The Mammoths might not be on the shortlist of favorites in the competitive NESCAC — a list headed by Trinity and Williams — but, as in most years, they could contend.
A big reason for that is the defense. Senior Pieter von Steinbergs is a dynamic player, and juniors Joey Verkerke and Greg McGunigle (Melrose, Mass.) are solid. Conor Breen (Barrington, R.I.), a transfer from Middlebury, makes the unit even stronger.
And so does McGinnis.
“He’s really complete,” said Arena. “There’s no one part of his game that stands out; he’s good at everything.
“He’s good defensively, he moves the puck well, he has good offensive instincts. Most kids that are good at everything don’t end up at this level.”
Over the summer, McGinnis worked with an Amherst alum in a lymphoma lab, researching the type of cancer that had struck his father, who is again in remission, this time for the longest stretch yet.
And texting his son daily.
“The opener will be cool,” said McGinnis, “and I’m sure it will be emotional for him and me.”
This article appears in the November/December print edition of New England Hockey Journal.
@MikeZhe603
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