Hanging Out with Team USA's Colin White

Colin White: WJC Medal Hunting  Nancie Battaglia/USA Hockey

He's the leading scorer of Boston College as a freshman, he's an NHL first round pick, he's a Boston prep kid with parents who were sports stars in America's deep south; his biggest sports passion away from the rink is the NBA; He was named player of the game in USA's upset over World Junior champion Canada, he is 18 year old Colin White.

RinkRap: I'm looking at your bio, your folks have southern roots. How did you become a New England Yankee?
WHITE: Well, they lived in Pittsburgh originally. Then they both went south. My dad's work brought him up here. I lived here, moved to Nebraska for a couple of years because my dad was training for the Olympics out there, and then his work brought him back here, and have been here ever since.

RinkRap: How old were you when your dad was training for the Olympics? Was this track and field?
WHITE: Yeah, Track and Field. Age one to five. I was young, but I remember going to the track with him when I was five.

RinkRap: How important was he to your development?
WHITE: He's been huge. He's talks to me every day about stuff, helps me out. Anything I need, he's there for me. It's really special to have him, someone who's gone through the same thing.

RinkRap: He's a football guy. Is he picking up the nuances of ice hockey?
WHITE: Yeah, he's watching every night to try and help me every way I can which is awesome to have because he cares about it just as much as I do. Seeing him trying to pick up little things, pretty special.

RinkRap: Noble and Greenough, there's a nice little connection between them and B.C. Part of the pipeline? You and Miles Wood got a good thing going on?
WHITE: Yeah, he's my roommate, actually, too. It's pretty funny.

RinkRap: So he must be giving you World Junior advice?
WHITE: He definitely was. He said 'Just have fun with it, every moment, really. It doesn't happen often. But Nobles and B.C., there's a lot of guys there, so it's pretty fun to have in the locker room there.

RinkRap: Miles must have been the first guy to get plucked out of the Flood-Marr tournament to play in the World Juniors.
WHITE: I know, it's crazy, crazy.

RinkRap: I see some of your Tweets about Boston pro sports. What's your number one team you like to follow?
WHITE: I like following the Celtics a lot, for some reason. A good friend of mine has tickets a lot there, so I get to go to a lot of the games, so it's a pretty fun experience.

RinkRap: It's funny, there's not a lot of college hockey guys who would put NBA as #1. What is it that you like?
WHITE: Guys are so big, skilled guys, it's fun to watch if you ever want to get away from hockey sometimes, it's fun to watch different sports.

RinkRap: There are some parallels, the way they play without the ball?
WHITE: The same thing, five guys, moving it around, getting open without the ball, so you can translate it into your game really well watching basketball.

RinkRap: After your two years with the National Program, how cool is it to come back to Boston?
WHITE: Its awesome, I love being back here in Boston. It is home for me. Being able to have all my friends and family around all the time is awesome. So I'm loving it. 

RinkRap: How about playing at The Heights? They are giving you a lot of mature minutes up there. For a freshman, you're kind of a go-to guy. Do you like that?
WHITE: Yeah, I like it a lot. Coach York has a lot of trust in myself, which is great and out team's been doing unbelievable as well. Everyone is contributing, so the key is to keep trying to do that.

RinkRap: You look like you'll be part of history when coach York gets 1000. 
WHITE: It will be when I get back, yeah.

RinkRap: Has this year lived up to all your expectations?
WHITE: It's been awesome. I'm loving it so far.