Over the past calendar year, Belmont forward Cam Fici has become a big name in Massachusetts high school hockey.
The talented center is looking to follow up a junior season that admittedly surpassed even his own expectations. Fici was named co-MVP of the Middlesex League’s Freedom Division after logging 35 goals and 13 assists, helping the Marauders reach the quarterfinals of the Division 1 statewide tournament.
After a breakout performance during the first full post-pandemic season, Fici is now at the center of every opponent’s game plan — a trend surely to continue when Belmont embarks on an MIAA playoff run in March.
“I have a lot to live up to after last year,” Fici said. “I know the expectations are high and I really have to live up to them, so I skated a lot more and have played for two excellent teams (in the Boston Knights and Valley Junior Warriors over the past two fall seasons). I’m feeling even better going into this year than last year.”
Fici certainly got his final winter in Belmont off to a roaring start, potting five goals in a season-opening rout of league foe Stoneham and two more against Catholic Conference power BC High on the way to totaling 12 (and 18 points) over the team’s first six games.
Upholding expectations after a junior season like Fici’s can be challenging, but the fact that he has is no surprise to coach Tim Foley.
“His tenacity and his work ethic (separate him), and he’s just strong in all aspects,” Foley said. “His forechecking, his backchecking, I think it’s all a step ahead of a lot of other players. It doesn’t just come. He works at it. … Not that other players don’t work, but his work ethic is off the charts for a young man of his age.”
Foley and the Marauders are lucky to have a player of Fici’s talent back for his senior year. There were prep and junior options available for Fici, who previously was schooled at Fessenden and Belmont Hill and has seen the game slow down over the course of his “normal” seasons in a Belmont sweater.
Even the coach wasn’t necessarily expecting to have his star return to the fold, but Fici — who looks up to the skill and shiftiness of Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand — finalized his decision a few weeks after last season ended with a playoff loss to Xaverian.
POPE FRANCIS: Prospect notes and takeaways from the Pope Francis Invitational
“(My teammates) have not only helped me become a better player, but they’ve helped me become a better person and friend,” Fici said. “That’s why I stayed in Belmont this year. They’ve done so much for me and I didn’t want to just leave them. They’ve given me the support and the roots that I need to be the player that I am.”
Fici has been classmates and teammates with fellow senior captains including linemate Shay Donahue and defensemen Peter Grace and Joe Gaziano for years. Donahue, a 25-point scorer himself last season, and Grace are reigning Middlesex League All-Stars.
Despite spending most of his life in private schools and returning to the high school only as a sophomore, Belmont always has been Fici’s home. His presence both on the ice, in the locker room and away from the rink means everything to those around the Marauders program.
“He’s been monumental,” Grace said. “He fit into the system right away, but the past two years he’s been on the first line, the go-to guy. He just changes the game for us, and he’s also a great leader. The younger kids really look up to him, which is huge because we’re obviously not recruiting kids into the program.”
As Fici has attracted more attention from opposing defenses, his teammates are also benefiting on the scoresheet. He still puts the puck in the net with the best of them while making the rest of the team better.
“He’s a sniper, but he’s sacrificing, drawing people to him and making passes to his teammates who are actually scoring the goals,” Foley said. “That’s a way his game has evolved, and I think it comes with how teams are covering him. Almost every team has had at least one player shadowing him, trying to bother him.”
Though Cam has only recently left his imprint in the record books, the Fici name is not new within the Belmont program. Cam’s brother, Ben, was a four-year Marauder who served as a senior captain in 2020-21.
A year earlier, Ben was a key member of the team that emerged from the competitive Division 1 North field, scoring the deciding goal against St. John’s of Shrewsbury in the title game. The team, which also included then-freshman Peter and older brother Thomas Grace, was set to play Walpole for the state championship at TD Garden just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cam was a spectator throughout that run. He was on the outside looking in at experiences that younger players dream of. In Foley’s view, it all left a mark.
“It was a great year for us, so I think he saw the fun, the genuine excitement and just what it’s like to play for Belmont and many other public schools out there,” Foley said. “I don’t think he wanted to leave that. … When he became a part of it, I think he wanted to stay a part of it.”
The community atmosphere surrounding the team in Belmont and throughout the state helped convince Fici to return to his hometown.
LATEST EDITION: Click or tap here to access the full January/February 2023 magazine
“I really wanted to be a part of a team that fights for each other and for the town,” said Cam, who also is a Middlesex League All-Star in golf in the fall. “That environment and knowing that the team wanted me to come back made my decision so much easier.”
As much as his play, his pride for Belmont and sticking with his hometown program for one final season is an inspiration in itself to the players around him.
“I know kids who are pursuing their careers at Dexter Southfield and other prep schools, so for Cam to stay and still have the option to try to play at the next level is really inspiring,” said Grace, who also is a soccer and lacrosse player. “We want to continue having success here, and having the younger kids stay is the only way to do that. Cam gives others a person to look to when they’re making that decision.”
What the future holds is uncertain for Fici, as the junior hockey route is not as appealing as starting his college life immediately.
Fici is still exploring options for continuing his hockey career, but he couldn’t be happier that all the roads led back to Belmont. The Marauders wouldn’t want it any other way.
