Feature Story
Steady as he goes: Sioux City’s Crandell
Steady as he goes. That’s just one way to
describe the play of Sioux City Musketeers defenseman Matt Crandell.
From his first day in the USHL as a rookie a year ago to this season where he
offers a veteran presence on the blue line, Crandell
has been a steady and steadily improving performer.
And although he might fly under the radar
to some because he doesn’t put up gaudy offensive statistics, Crandell is the type of player that most coaches would
consider to be indispensable, his coach among them.
“Matt has been a solid contributor to our
team since his rookie season where he partnered up with Mike Beck to form our
number one unit. He has continued that pace this season as an assistant captain
and our plus/minus leader and one of our leading scorers on defense,” said
Musketeers Head Coach Dave Siciliano. “He is equally
effective on the penalty kill and power play and is one of two defensemen every
coach wants on the ice at the most critical time of the game.”
Crandell got to this point, as one of the best and most consistent
defensemen in the USHL, after an early start. He began playing the game at age
three, following in the footsteps of his older sister who played. And it was
also pretty early that he knew he had a future in the game.
”It was probably my Squirt year or my
first year of PeeWees, I played really well and
that’s when I knew that I’d be able to go far in this,” Crandell
said.
His sophomore year of high school
provided him with some clarity as to what his next step might be.
“During my sophomore year I got a tryout
with Tri-City and at that time I knew that I was eventually going to play in
the USHL,” Crandell said. “Then the next year
The combination of the USHL,
“It’s been exciting, a lot of fun. It’s kind of a grind playing 60 games, but
living hockey is a lot of fun,” Crandell said. “
Crandell played in 59 games as a rookie in 2006-07 and scored
7-13--20. In his second season, the
“It means a lot to me knowing that people
selected me as one of the best defensemen in the league and it’s a real great
honor. I’m really excited about it,” Crandell
said.
Crandell also hopes to use the event to solidify his plan for next
season, as he is still in the midst of the college recruiting grind.
“The process has been a little bit
frustrating but it’s also kind of exciting. It’s been fun talking to schools
and seeing what opportunities they have,” Crandell
said. “I’m looking at a few different schools. Nothing really big is coming up
right now but you might see something in the near future possibly that’s
speeding up and could include my commitment.”
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