Spotlights I played on the Varsity team in 5th Grade, which was the first time I had played against bigger kids, and it helped me get better. Although hockey was a big part of my life, I loved being able to play football in the fall and lacrosse in the spring. That whole AllenStevenson coaching staff was such a great group from which to learn. Not only did they love the game, but they loved teaching the game.
C H R I S B RO O K S ’ 9 8
Chris Brooks played hockey at Yale University in addition to playing professionally for four years. He currently works for an industrial conglomerate in Boston focused on product management work. Tell me about how you came to play a sport in college. I started at A-S in Kindergarten, and in 1st Grade, I began skating. I played for a team in Rye, New York—we would go out there on the weekends. At Allen-Stevenson, I played hockey beginning in 4th Grade and had a couple of tremendous coaches in Rich Columbo and Phil Amplo. They loved the game and loved coaching. It was a great experience.
My A-S athletic experience was awesome– I couldn’t have asked for more, especially at a city school. We had a great class of athletes, and there was always healthy competition. There was a ton of fun and camaraderie. We moved out of the city for my dad’s job, but I kept in touch with all of my Allen-Stevenson friends, like Alex and Mike Faherty ’98 and John Flinn ’98, who I played football with while in High School at Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss was a different experience; it felt more specialized. Almost everyone on the hockey team was recruited. It was a pretty competitive school, as most of the athletes were going on to playing at the Division I college level. In my first year, I was initially cut from the Varsity team to then be called up in the middle of the year—where I didn’t see much ice time, which was frustrating, but I was coming from a different world. It was an eye opener because I was a smaller fish in a bigger pond—I had to figure out my role and how to impact the team.
Spring 2021
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From there, I played a year of Juniors in British Columbia. After that, I had the opportunity to go to Yale. My first year I struggled with injuries but was able to come 13 back and adapt. I learned that I needed to be a responsive defensive player, be a good teammate, block shots, and play a really physical game. It was the first time I had to change my style of play. The higher up you get, the more specialized you need to be, which helped me tremendously when I played professionally after three years at Yale. As you know, Allen-Stevenson places a lot of importance on social skills in our PE and Athletics program. How do you think the balance of motor skills, teamwork, respect and communication helped you as an athlete? I had significant learning disabilities coming into Allen-Stevenson, which they really embraced. I had some caring teachers who knew I learned a little differently than other people. I never saw the classroom environment as being separate from sports—you had to do academics well to do athletics. I always felt that our teachers were so well rounded, whether in 5th-grade math class or playing with a soccer ball around the room—there was also something about teamwork and hand-eye coordination. For being a city school with limited outdoor space, there was always an emphasis on casual sports, hand-eye coordination and diversity of experience.
