BIDDEFORD — At this time last year, Brady Fleurent was known better as Trevor’s little brother than as an extremely precocious, supremely skilled freshman winger. (That assessment would come in due time).
My, how things have changed.
Trevor has gone on to the Portland Junior Pirates, leaving Brady (now a sophomore) to fend for himself.
And Brady isn’t so little anymore, either, having undergone a growth spurt (“about two or three inches”) since playing a large part in the Tigers’ run to the state championship last March.
Taller means more oomph behind his shot, and that means more bad news for opposing goalies.
“I worked out,” said Fleurent. “Did a lot of running. I don’t have Trevor to protect me anymore, so I needed to get bigger.”
“Last year, he was in Trevor’s shadow,” said Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder. “This year, he’s not going to have that shadow. The opposition’s going to put more focus on him. But if anybody’s ready for it, I think it’s Brady.”
The size issue seems to be sorting itself out, as only Mother Nature can.
However, state championships don’t win themselves, and the only thing that winning the Class A championship last year did was leave all the returning Tigers with the thirst for another.
“We’re a young team, but we’ve got to work our hardest,” said Fleurent, who adopted Trevor’s old No. 91 (a la Marc Savard and Steven Stamkos) this year . “We might have a chance again. We’ve got to do our best. That’s all that matters. If we lose, oh, well. But we’ve just got to try our hardest.”
Effort is important, of course.
However, there are a whole load of other components that factor into Fleurent’s success.
“He’s got some of those intangibles,” said Reissfelder. ‘Things you can’t teach, like vision, understanding where is linemates are. He can make a guy better, whether he has the puck or not, just by knowing where to be. He’s constantly a step ahead.”
A step ahead, yes.
And a cut above, too.
– Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.
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