November 27, 2011
A native son rise
Cornell’s hometown standout, Andy Iles, is ready to lead the team he grew up rooting for back to prominence
by Adam Wodon/Web Editor
It would appear that Andy Iles was always destined to play for Cornell.
After all, he grew up down the street from the university, he developed into a goaltender good enough to play for the U.S. Under-18 national team, and Cornell is known as a hotbed for goaltending dating back 50 years.
And, lo and behold, there Iles is, getting ready late last month to embark upon his sophomore season with the Big Red, a season filled with high hopes.
But that isn't the whole story. Iles carefully considered more than a dozen schools and narrowed down his "finalists" to about five. He said it was a two-year process of choosing where to go to college, and Cornell was far from a certainty.
"I knew what Cornell hockey was all about, but at the same time, I'm my own person," said Iles, who grew up in Ithaca, N.Y.
"At the end of the day, I made the best choice for me, but it wasn't set in stone that I'd go somewhere eight minutes from my parents' house. My family and I both value the education and I knew I wanted to go to a school with strong academic background. ... But I also didn't want to sell my athletic career short."
Obviously, though, the allure of Cornell – one he knew well -- was a reason for selecting the Ivy League school.
"Cornell not only has (strong) academics, but is competitive for a championship year in and year out," Iles said. "Cornell is like the premier school when it comes to that balance."
Indeed, Iles has been a student of Cornell goaltending since he was a toddler.
"Growing up in Ithaca, Cornell hockey was huge," he said. "I'd go to as many games as I could and follow it closely."
Iles was 4-years-old when Jason Elliott backstopped Cornell to an ECAC championship, in 1996, Mike Schafer's first year as head coach and 10 years since the program’s previous title. Elliott did it again the next year.
"I loved everything about him," Iles said of Elliott. "The first opportunity I had to go into the dressing room, he was there and I had his jersey, and he signed it for me. When he started his pro career, I would go to some games. I went to a game in Rochester when he was playing for Cincinnati. He wasn't playing that game, but I had seats near the tunnel to go onto the ice and he was stationed there, and I got to chat with him the whole game."
Then there was guys like Ian Burt, Jean-Marc Pelletier and Matt Underhill, before Cornell had three goalies who became Hobey Baker Award finalists: David LeNeveu in the Frozen Four year in 2003, David McKee and Ben Scrivens.
"They were two great guys to model your game after," Iles said of LeNeveu and McKee. "Then there was (Ben) Scrivens, and I followed him and knew about his success, and it was a really neat experience when I got to go toe-to-toe with him when I was with the national program.
"LeNeveu was an unbelievable skater and competitor, technically focused on the fundamentals of his game. McKee had strong fundamentals as well, but he was just a gamer. He found a way to make saves."
The one thing Iles doesn't have on all of those other goaltenders, however, is size.
Ever since Ken Dryden broke the mold as a 6-foot-3 goalie for Cornell in the late '60s, more often than not, Cornell's star netminders have been big. Such is not the case of Iles, who rings in at 5-foot-9, maybe.
"(Schafer is) pretty big on not letting my size be an excuse, which is nice," Iles said. "I've heard from different coaches on different teams and some make jokes about it, but I don't really get that here.
"You can have a big goalie who plays small and a small goalie who plays big. It's all about reacting and being patient, staying up off your knees, maintaining your depth, being as big in the net as you can. You have to keep your hands up and your chest up, and create a wall."
Iles went 8-7-2 as a freshman, with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. The Big Red went 16-15-3 overall, reaching the ECAC Hockey championship game before losing to Yale.
He has had a lot of inspiration. First, it was growing up watching Cornell's goaltending greats. Then, at the national program, he went toe-to-toe every day in practice with goaltending partner Jack Campbell, who was a first-round NHL draft pick by the Dallas Stars in 2010.
"Jack's one of my good buddies," Iles said. "We loved being on the ice together, pushing each other. It's one of the best goaltending relationships I've ever had. It made both of us better. He'd say the same thing. There's nothing better being in practice and he comes up big on one end, and then the team goes the other way and you come up big on your end. You feed off each other. It was fun going on the ice with him every single day."
When he got to Ithaca, Iles was again splitting time, this time with Mike Garman. Garman was expected back for his senior season, but decided to leave the team during the summer for reasons that haven’t been made totally clear.
"Obviously, it was unexpected for a few reasons," Iles said. "It was pretty late. But at the same time, you have to respect his decision. He made a decision he thought was best for himself.”
“It didn't change much of my game plan. We had a disappointing end of the year last year, but overall I thought I had a pretty solid freshman year in transition from junior. I was excited to work hard over the summer and get back to it.
"There's competition at every position. So what I'm doing is going out there and playing my game and developing each day so, hopefully, at the end of the day, my name is called and I can help the team win hockey games."
And Cornell is enjoying that its native son is here. The Big Red have had a lot of players make the NHL, and a few that are in it now. Iles is happy to be a part of that tradition.
"A lot of the time now with Cornell's success, it's pretty easy to flip on a channel and find a guy that played for Cornell not too long ago," Iles said. "It's neat. It gives us someone to relate to, who had unbelievable success here. It gives you something to strive for and to realize it's a real dream, when you see the people who've taken your exact path make it."
Adam Wodon can be reached at feedback@nyhockeyjournal.com
