Olympic Spirit

Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Feb. 3: Brooks Orpik's portrait at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Justin A. Rice/Red Line Editorial February 12, 2010

As a high school hockey player in the late 1990s, Brooks Orpik often wondered why his coach fussed so much about the Olympic spirit. As a teenager, Orpik just wanted to play in the NHL.

But at Thayer Academy just outside Boston, coach Jack Foley was all about the wide-open and finesse style of amateur and international hockey.

Now that Orpik, a defenseman, 29, is all grown up and has won a national championship with Boston College and a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he realizes that Foley is one of the main reasons he is one of the only veteran NHL players on the U.S. hockey team that will compete at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The U.S. men face off against Switzerland on Tuesday for their first game in Vancouver.

"I think when you were going through it at the time it's one of those things you think was kind of stupid, maybe you want to overlook that," Orpik said Foley's philosophy. "Growing up as a kid that's just natural. Everyone dreams of playing in the NHL."

The philosophy paid off for one of Orpik's high school teammates, too. Ryan Whitney, now of the Anaheim Ducks, was a late addition to Team USA for the Olympic Winter Games. He replaced the injured Paul Martin a few weeks ago.

Now Orpik and Whitney are members of an elite group of Foley disciples to wear the red, white and blue that includes Olympians Jeremy Roenick, Tony Amonte and Dave Silk.

Roenick and Amonte played for Team USA in the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter Games (the first Games that allowed NHL players) and the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and Silk represented the United States as part of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"We really wanted to produce kids for college and the Olympics," said Foley, 64, who left Thayer in 2002 and currently scouts for the NHL's Dallas Stars. "We thought that was the pinnacle. We played a European style before anyone else did."

Throughout the years, Foley and his predecessor at Thayer, Arthur Valicenti, have been heavily involved in Team USA's youth and coaching program.

Orpik and Whitney also have played extensively within the Team USA system. Orpik, who first met Foley at a Team USA youth clinic, played for Team USA at the 2006 International Ice Hockey Federation World Men's Championship and skated for the U.S. at the 2000 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Whitney was a member of the U.S. Junior Team that competed at the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship and participated in the 2002 IIHF World Junior Championship and 2001 IIHF World Men's U-18 Championship. He was also a member of the U.S. U-18 team within USA Hockey's National Team Development Program.

"It was incredible," Whitney said about receiving the call to represent Team USA. "It's an honor to represent your country in international play. I've done it before, and you really can't compare it to anything else when you're wearing your country's jersey. I've played for the U.S. in the World Juniors, but I can't imagine the Olympics. You're on the biggest stage and it only happens once every four years, so it's a dream come true.

Martin and Orpik text messaged Whitney when he got the call.

"I got to know Paul Martin a little bit during the camp this summer," Whitney said. "He's a great guy. He's a great player. I really felt for him. At the same time, I never wished for him to be injured, but anyway you can get there, you take it. It just happened to be that way for me, and I'm really happy to be part of the team."

Whitney also played with Orpik and Team USA member Ryan Malone in Pittsburgh but was traded to Anaheim just before the Penguins won the Stanley Cup last season.

"It will be cool,'' Whitney said of being reunited with Orpik as a teammate. "Brooks was a senior when I was a freshman [at Thayer], and I kind of grew up with him and Ryan Malone on the Penguins.

"We had a special group. And the three of us were pretty close, so it's really fun. To think you'll be in the locker room, having fun, practicing and playing with those guys again, I can't wait."

The current Thayer Academy community can't wait, either. Tigers coach Larry Rooney is hosting a watch party at the school for hometown fans during the Team USA-Canada game on Feb. 21.

Rooney, who played at Thayer with Roenick and Amonte before graduating in 1987, keeps in touch with Orpik on a regular basis. He hopes to draw 300 to 400 hockey alums to the watch party and garner support for a future fundraising effort to build a rink on campus.

"A night like this might kick it off," Rooney said. "We're trying to get support and figureheads behind this, try to rejuvenate some energy around this."

Orpik, who said he will contribute to the hockey facility (which has an estimated cost of $20 million), also put together a highlight DVD to show at the watch party. He still lives in the area during the offseason and works out at Thayer in the summer.

"A lot has changed there since I was there," Orpik said. "I worked out in their new fitness center. We had a little closet with a couple weights when I played there. Now it's nicer than a lot of college weight rooms. They're pretty spoiled over there."

Unfortunately, when Orpik and Whitney are home in the offseason their old coach, Foley, is on the road during the peak of the scouting season. But the former coach said maybe one of these days they'll be able to get together for a beer on the South Shore of Massachusetts and reminisce about Thayer Academy's Olympic legacy.

"I don't know about any high schools in Minnesota, but for most high schools in the country that's got to be pretty close to the top in terms of number of guys," Orpik said of all the players Thayer has sent to the Olympic Winter Games. "Thayer always has a good hockey program.

"Obviously a little luck is involved (in making the Olympics), but a lot of that goes back to my time at Thayer, learning a lot about myself and hockey. People still ask me who was most influential person (in my career) and I always say Jack Foley definitely was."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Justin Rice is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.