New York City native Robilotti making strides with USHL’s Fargo Force

Former South Kent Select Jack Robilotti is grinding away in the USHL. (South Kent School)

Jack Robilotti wasn’t thrilled.

A diehard New York Rangers fan, the Manhattan native as a 12-year-old was surrounded by the colors and logos of his favorite team’s fiercest rivals as he played for the New Jersey Devils youth club in a game at the New York Islanders home arena, Nassau Coliseum.

“Looking back on it, it’s funny,” the defenseman, now 18, chuckled. “But when I was a kid, I was a little mad to be doing that.”

Robilotti’s anger eventually subsided. His talent, though, remained.

Fast forward to today and Robilotti is now showing off his skills as a member of the Fargo Force in the United States Hockey League. In his first full season in the circuit, the 6-foot-2, 194-pounder has four assists in 22 games. He’s also done a marvelous job of preventing opponents from scoring, which is his priority.

“I understand the game well and, most importantly, I understand my role,” Robilotti said. “I love to play against the other team’s best forwards, shut them down and make them mad. I love the penalty kill; I take pride in that. My favorite part of hockey is getting that opportunity to be out there with a minute to go when we are winning 2-1 and we have a faceoff in our zone. I live for that adrenaline rush.”

Said Force head coach Pierre-Paul Lamoureux: “Jack is very steady. He’s been one of our more consistent defensemen throughout the season. We know what we are going to get from him, day in and day out, shift in and shift out. We want people on our team who want to be out there in high-pressure situations, and Jack is one of those guys

“He’s a big part of our team. He’s a good teammate and quietly leads in his own way. He has a lot of the leadership attributes and intangibles that you look for in people. He’s an honest, down-to-earth, unassuming person who comes from a good, hardworking family. I like the traits that he has away from the rink, specifically his work ethic and his stability. He’s very trustworthy.”

Considering Robilotti’s passion for defense, it should come as no surprise that the Broadway Blue-blooded fan who started playing hockey when he was five years old idolized then-Rangers defensemen Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh. He saw them often in person growing up when he went to Madison Square Garden.

And while living in Manhattan has many perks, such as going to Rangers games, the right-handed shooter quickly found out that it’s not ideal for someone who wants to pursue a hockey career.

“There’s only one program (NYC Cyclones) there, and while it’s getting better, it’s not a top-tier program,” Robilotti said. “The kids who do play hockey in the city don’t grow up with a basement or a driveway to stickhandle and shoot pucks. We have to find somewhere to do that.”

For Robilotti, that somewhere was local parks. His parents, Kim and J.G., also drove him to Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island.

As for ice, Manhattan only has two sheets that are open year-round, at Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers. It wasn’t easy to practice there, either.

“A lot of people want to be on the ice,” Robilotti said, “so it’s hard to get time there.”

Robilotti only played one year for the Cyclones before taking his skates to the Garden State, where he suited up for the Devils youth club for several seasons and the New Jersey Colonials for a year.

A humble young man, Robilotti is forever grateful to his parents for driving him four to five times a week through the Holland Tunnel, especially because NYC-area traffic means short trips take what feels like forever to complete. He’s also thankful for his youth coaches, who began shaping him into the blueliner he is today.

“Being a bigger guy, my coaches always pushed defense on me,” Robilotti said. “After a while, I started to fall in love with the position, playing against forwards and getting under their skin.”

When Robilotti was entering his sophomore year of high school, he moved to South Kent, Conn., to play his 15U season, 2016-17, for Selects Academy. No longer living with his family at home, he required time to acclimate to his new situation, but it ultimately benefited him as a player and a person.

“It was tough at first because I had never been away from home for more than a few days, but it turned me into a man quicker,” Robilotti said. “Being there also helped my on-ice play because I could just go to the rink and focus on what I needed to do. The ice was always available and the coaches were always there to help me work on skills.”

Robilotti stayed at Selects for his 16U (2017-18) and 18U (2018-19) seasons. And while he enjoyed every moment of his three years at the school, the pinnacle of his budding career came in his 18U campaign when he was named captain and led his club to the Tier I 18U national championship in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“That was a really big deal to me,” Robilotti said. “That whole week in Michigan was surreal. We were a good team, and we knew that, but I don’t think other people knew that.”

The road to the title was arduous. Having failed to win the New England District tournament and an automatic berth at nationals, his team had to battle to claim an at-large bid.

“Losing helped us in the end because we became a better team from it,” Robilotti said. “That entire year everyone worked because our national bid was uncertain.”

Once his team found out that it had clinched a spot, the group still wasn’t happy.

“We were a lower seed in the middle of the pack,” Robilotti said. “We all knew we were better than that.”

And his team proved it, as Selects defeated Shattuck-St. Mary’s in the quarterfinals, the Yale Jr. Bulldogs in the semifinals, and the North Jersey Avalanche in the final.

“It was like a fantasy when you look at the teams we played against,” Robilotti said. “Against Shattuck, there was a lot on the line as far as which is the better prep school program. The Junior Bulldogs are our biggest in-state rival. In my 15U year, they beat us in the semifinals at nationals, so it was a revenge game for us. And the Avalanche, as everyone knows, is a really good team.”

The final was a roller-coaster ride in its own right. Holding a 2-0 lead with under a minute to play against North Jersey, it seemed like sealing the deal was going to be smooth sailing for Selects. But the dream quickly morphed into a nightmare as the Avalanche scored a pair of goals to force overtime.

In the end, though, all was well for Robilotti and Co., as they prevailed in the extra session.

“I was on the bench when we scored the goal, and I didn’t think it happened,” Robilotti said. “I was amazed and in shock at the same time. We finally did it. We worked three years to finally get one, and when we got one, it was amazing. Our headmaster at school gave everyone the day off so all the students could watch the game, and there are videos of kids going crazy. To know we had all that support from our school, our teachers and our fellow classmates was great to see.”

The championship wasn’t the only memorable moment for Robilotti during the 2018-19 season. He also got his first taste of the USHL when he was promoted to play for the Muskegon Lumberjacks, who had selected him 138^th overall in the 2018 USHL Phase II draft.

“It was good to get that experience,” said Robilotti, who appeared in four games with Muskegon. “There are no pushover games in the USHL, and you realize that quick. Guys are in the right spots more often and everybody can make plays. If you’re not on your game, it’s going to cost you, as opposed to 18U, where you can make a mistake and probably make up for it.”

His brief spell with the Lumberjacks served him well, preparing him for what it was going to be like to compete in the USHL this season with Fargo, which acquired him from Muskegon in mid-September.

And although Robilotti wishes his point totals this campaign were higher, Lamoureux has seen improvement in the offensive aspect of his game, although it remains a work in progress.

“It’s a big step from prep school to the USHL, especially for first-year defensemen,” the coach said. “We’ve been expecting more out of him offensively than he probably thinks he’s capable of, but a lot of times his offensive output isn’t showing up on paper. He spends a lot of time in the offensive zone and knows how to get pucks to the net and how to find lanes to the scoring area. It’s an area he needs to continue to improve, but that’s the biggest point of growth for him.

“We also are getting him to understand that there’s another level of intensity and detail in the defensive side of the game that he has to get to on a game-to-game basis. We are pushing him outside of his comfort zone, and he’s steadily improving in that area, too.”

The next stop for Robilotti will be the College of the Holy Cross, where he’ll begin playing next fall.

“Education is important to me and I know I’ll get a good one at Holy Cross,” he said. “I also wanted to go to a smaller school since the schools I went to growing up were smaller. Plus, being in Massachusetts, it’s close to home. Lastly, coach David Berard and his staff have been amazing to me. They’ve created a wonderful culture and I’m excited to help them.”

Robilotti is also eager to share a fun fact with his future friends. Although his name appears as “Jack Robilotti” on hockey rosters, his birth name is James Gerard Robilotti, just like his dad, grandfather and great-grandfather.

“People think that’s interesting,” he said. “When I meet people, I try to bring that up to them.”

And Robilotti does so with a smile, a far cry from his facial expression six years ago during that infamous game on Long Island.