The crowd goes silent as CJ Armaly ’24 races across the rink, skillfully defending the goal from the opposing team. As the co-captain of boys varsity ice hockey, CJ serves as an inspiring and diligent leader for the rest of his team. In the rink, CJ is a skillful defenseman, putting his thirteen years of hockey to good use. Now nearing the end of his Groton ice hockey career, CJ reflects on the past three years and his outlook for the upcoming season.

Where did your love of hockey come from?

I have an older brother who started playing a year before I did, but my family was never big into hockey, although we were able to get a couple of tickets to Kings games in California. We went to a couple of games when I was younger and it sparked my interest, so I started skating.

What are your favorite memories from Groton ice hockey?

Last year, for our first game of the season, we went up to NYA (North Yarmouth Academy), which is a school in Maine, and it was a long bus ride up, about three hours up and three hours back. We ended up winning and the bus ride back was really fun, so it was overall pretty great.

What are some challenges you’ve faced playing hockey in Groton, and how did you overcome them?

We’ve been a really young team ever since I came here, since we’ve had a group of around eight seniors who we all really like, and we’ve come together and grown a lot on the team, which set an example the last couple of years I’ve been here. We were definitely physically younger and much less experienced two years ago, but now it’s exciting because we’re finally an older team and hopefully we’ll do some damage.

Are there any lessons that you’ve learned from playing hockey?

The little things add up. We play a lot of games in the season, probably around thirty games. Between that and from a bigger perspective, especially just from playing hockey for thirteen years, doing little things every day adds up even if you can’t see the results immediately, but it’s what makes the difference in the long run.

What are you most looking forward to in this coming season?

Winning. Like I said, we’re old this year, and it’s a group that has played together for a long time. I have a lot of confidence in the kids and the coaches this year, so it’ll be a lot of fun.

What role do you want hockey to play in your life moving forward?

After high school, I’ll hopefully play club hockey, and I think it’s definitely a good way for me to get to meet new people outside of school.

How does hockey help you in other areas of your life?

Hockey helps me learn how to trust myself and trust that even if I’m doing the right things and things aren’t going well, it’ll still turn out to be OK in the end.