Senior uses her smarts to excel in girls' hockey

Globe South Sports

Braintree High School’s Justine Hassan (left) is first in her class academically. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / January 3, 2010

Before the hockey season started, Braintree High headmaster David Swanton worried that Justine Hassan had too much on her plate this semester. Six Advanced Placement courses on her schedule, plus hockey, made Swanton’s head spin.

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“I said, ‘Justine, the headmaster just approached me; he’s concerned you’re taking on too much,’ ’’ recalled hockey coach Kevin Burchill, who likes to boast about Hassan’s academic achievements, especially her excellent 2320 SAT score. “She looked at me and said: ‘What do you mean? School’s easy. I’m more worried about hockey this year.’ ’’

With that, the number one student in Braintree’s senior class entered her senior hockey season wondering if it would be her last truly competitive one. Hassan, who also plays lacrosse, has the academic credentials to attend Harvard, Princeton, or Dartmouth, but probably does not have the hockey skills to play in the Ivy League.

The fourth-year varsity forward could possibly walk onto a Division 3 hockey team.

“Even though I love hockey, I’m not worried about the hockey part,’’ said Hassan, who has 40 goals and 34 assists in her career, including two goals and one assist this season. “I just want to get in [to schools]. I know I’ll never play hockey professionally, so I can’t worry about it too much.’’

Picking between Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, and Bowdoin is a pretty good predicament, one that Burchill cannot help but laugh at.

“She’d make a sacrifice [to play Division 3] that in anyone else’s eyes is not a sacrifice,’’ he said. “Amherst, Bowdoin and Middlebury are schools some kids would give their right arms for. . . . She has the world by the tail. She can do whatever she wants to do.’’

Braintree might just be the brainiest team in the area. Almost all 25 players are honor roll students. Sophomore Tori Machado is also at the head of her class, and after being tutored by Hassan, junior goalie Nikki O’Brien made straight A’s.

Hassan’s sister Jessie is also on the team as a sophomore defender.

“That truly makes my job so much easier, because they understand what we’re trying to do,’’ said Burchill, whose team started the season 3-1-1 through Dec. 22. “On the other side, when you’re coaching kids that are not on top of the food chain academically, they do what you say, rather than trying to sort it out and figure out the whys.’’

But even though his team, especially Hassan, has a tendency to overthink the game, rather than playing it instinctually, Burchill said the Wamps did not get competitive until the current senior class entered the program.

They finished with a 14-5-3 record last year, after losing in the second round of the Division 1 state tournament for the third straight year. Playing more fluidly than ever this season, the Wamps feel it is their best shot to make a run at the state title.

“That happens sometimes,’’ Hassan said of thinking too much on the ice. “I get frustrated. I’m almost trying too hard, and that makes me play worse. I’m working on it.’’

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On the other hand, Hassan has college-level calculus, AP psychology, AP human geography, AP physics, AP biology, and her AP language class under control.

She has her eye on an engineering or premed undergraduate track.

After scoring 2320 out of 2400 on her SATs last May, she regrets the day that news of her score spread like wildfire in the school’s hallways.

“I told a couple of people, and, before I knew it, I was walking down the hall and heard people talking about me,’’ said Hassan, who, despite being shy about sharing her score, said she never hides her intelligence. “. . . I don’t try to be dumb, but I don’t try to be a know-it-all.’’

Hassan knew she wanted to play hockey from the moment she pressed her nose against the glass at one of her brother’s youth games.

“All the little sisters would run around the rink,’’ she said. “I was glued to the boards watching the game. I just liked the game from the beginning. I persuaded my parents to sign me up.’’

Despite her parent’s initial misgivings, she played hockey just like her brother, who attends college in Minnesota. Unlike her brother, Hassan’s college choices have been limited by her parents to a three-hour driving radius.

“Luckily, there are many good schools within three hours of Boston,’’ said Hassan’s father, Captain James Hassan, who heads the Area E-5 police station in West Roxbury. “I think she will be a worthy candidate at any one of them.

“She’s at a crossroads determining where she wants to go,’’ he said. “Of course, a lot will depend on which schools will accept her. . . . I used to tell her: ‘Do the best you can. You don’t want your choices to be limited by other people. To make yourself most effective, you make the choices. You’re in charge.’ I guess she picked up on that theme.’’

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