Walking over Rad-iculous odds

The courting ritual between a Division I athletic program and a highly-touted recruit usually ends with a letter-signing ceremony that would be more appropriate in the Oval Office than the high school athletic director’s office.

Matt Radoslovich never signed any letter. He never got his picture in the local paper. He never got a phone call from a coach that would determine his future.

Radoslovich decided to come to Boston University while standing in his parents’ bedroom inside his Wanaque, N.J. home at 11:30 on a Monday night in April 2001. Weeks later, he got word of his spot on the roster not from BU men’s hockey coach Jack Parker, but from his mom.

They were standing in a parking garage.

Welcome to the life of a walk-on.

During his final year of high school, Radoslovich, Bergen Catholic High School’s only senior ice hockey player, did everything he could to get noticed. He tallied 31 goals and 21 assists, including nine game-winning goals, while splitting time at forward and defenseman. He was named to the All-State, All-North Jersey and All-Parochial First Teams while also being honored as the New Jersey Player of the Year. Oh yeah, and his Crusaders won the state championship.

The reward for all his hard work? Absolutely zero interest from any major college hockey programs or minor ones, for that matter.

‘I only applied to four schools, and I got into all four of them,’ said Radoslovich, now a BU junior. ‘And I was deciding between the four of them, and it looked like that Boston and BU would be the best fit for me. And they were also showing the most interest any interest for pursuing my hockey career in college. It was the best school for hockey out of the four, without a doubt.’

While other players of the year were busy fighting off more college coaches than they could handle, Radoslovich was busy filling out college applications just like everyone else. He spent his winter and spring writing essays to college hockey powers like Stonehill College (Division II), Fairfield University (a Division I program that was cut last season) and the University of Scranton (Division III).

After being accepted to all four schools (including BU), Radoslovich did something his mom fully expected. He procrastinated.

‘I knew that it was going to be down to May 1 before he decided,’ Matt’s mom Regina said. ‘With all the schools he had looked at, he really didn’t have a number-one school. He felt he could be happy at any of the schools. He knew in that equation that if he decided to go to BU he may never play hockey for his school.

‘We understood that he wanted hockey to be a part of his college experience,’ she added. ‘We knew when we were looking that it was important for the college to have hockey. The decision was whether he was going to do club hockey or Division III. Division I, we thought, was a really, really long shot because of not being recruited and not having the exposure.’

Exposure. That little word is what any aspiring high school athlete despises. If you’re LeBron James, and ESPN broadcasts your high school games, then exposure is not a problem. But for a New Jersey high school ice hockey player whose biggest thrill in his first college game was the extended pregame warmup, then you may have to work a little to get yourself noticed.

After sending out videotape after videotape and making countless phone calls that went unanswered and unreturned, Radoslovich received a call from Jack Parker just weeks before his decision had to be made.

‘Maybe two weeks before then, Coach Parker had called here and actually I spoke to him,’ Regina Radoslovich said. ‘And I think that was the straw that Matt grasped on to when he chose BU.

‘We tried to make him understand that it might not happen, you might not play, but he was willing to give it a shot,’ she continued. ‘Even Coach Parker, in speaking to him, asked him, can you be happy at BU if hockey isn’t in the picture? And Matt felt that he could.’

Finally, on the night of April 30, 2001, Regina Radoslovich forced her son to pick up a pen and sign a letter any letter.

‘He had just come home from babysitting and it was about 11:30 at night,’ Mrs. Radoslovich remembered. ‘And he says, ‘I’m home, goodnight.’ And I said, ‘No, no, wait a minute!”

There were no newspaper photographers around to watch this signing.

And just like that, Matt Radoslovich was a Terrier. Right?

Wrong.

‘The way it usually works is this,’ said BU associate head coach Brian Durocher, who handles much of the Terriers’ on-site recruiting. ‘What happens is the individual will contact you after being accepted to the school, and we’ll have maybe some knowledge or in Matt’s case, no knowledge of Matt Radoslovich. Then it’s our job to see if he potentially can compete here or if he’s barking up the wrong tree.’

And while Durocher said he and Parker are very straightforward with potential walk-ons, Radoslovich would not take no for an answer. After a phone call to Parker from a mysterious and still unknown New Jersey football coach who vouched for Radoslovich’s character and work ethic, Parker scheduled a meeting with the New Jersey native during his summer orientation. Radoslovich at least had his foot in the door, even if it had yet to be fitted for a skate.

After one face-to-face meeting fell through, Regina Radoslovich ended up sitting down with Durocher while Matt was busy getting accustomed to the joy that is dorm life.

‘I actually met with Coach Durocher, and that was when he mentioned that Matt was going to be on the team,’ Regina Radoslovich said. ‘And I guess my mouth hung open because as far as I was concerned, I didn’t even know if they knew that he could skate.’

Regina raced back down campus and found Matt unloading some things from the car. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him aside to share the good news.

‘He looked at me like I had six heads,’ she said.

Two and a half years later, Matt Radoslovich has gone from a wide-eyed walk-on to a familiar face on the Walter Brown ice. And while it took 14 straight games on the healthy scratch list in 2001 before he saw his first action, it was those two months of practice that helped this hard-working forward feel his way around the boards.

‘I wasn’t looking to get into games right away, and I know I wouldn’t have been ready,’ Radoslovich said. ‘I think that was very beneficial to have those two months just to get accustomed to the guys and just gradually realize that by working at it, I was becoming just like them and able to play at that level.’

After playing a few games on the road, Radoslovich came home and spent a few more contests watching from the wrong side of the glass. But before he ever got to raise the curtain on his days in the home-white sweater, ‘Rado,’ as his teammates call him, got a taste of a somewhat larger stage: The Beanpot.

‘The Beanpot was unbelievable. Just to be a part of that, and to play in the games, that was really exciting and the crowd and environment at the FleetCenter is just unreal,’ Radoslovich said. ‘I don’t know how many shifts we got, but just any time playing, you’re a little nervous but you’re just so excited.’

After his Beanpot premiere, Radoslovich’s ice time was spotty the rest of the season. But that didn’t stop him from working even harder during (and before and after) practice. At 5 feet 11 inches, Radoslovich had to do something to separate himself from the bigger bodies that dominate Division I hockey and especially Hockey East. This was not New Jersey AA hockey anymore.

‘He doesn’t have great size, he doesn’t have great speed, he doesn’t have a cannon for a shot,’ Durocher said. ‘But the things he does have are applicable at this level. And outside of that, you have to put down perseverance as the biggest thing, because when the last player leaves, he’s still there for at least another half hour.

‘He’s persevered and outworked almost anybody that I’ve ever seen in this game,’ Durocher added. ‘There’ve been other great players, there’ve been other borderline players that are hard workers, but he outdoes anyone I’ve ever seen and most of the time the Zamboni had to dictate his departure from the rink.’

But unlike his practice regimen, NCAA rules will dictate his departure from BU in 18 short months. And while he may not be an NHL draftee like 13 of his teammates, this psychology major still hopes to continue his hockey career once he skates out of the new Harry Agganis Arena sometime in March 2005.

‘I’d love to play hockey, if it’s feasible and practical,’ he said. ‘I’d like to continue to do that for a year or two and see how it works out.’

While acting relaxed and comfortable while talking about his hockey career, Radoslovich seemed to get a little nervous when he started talking about life after hockey.

‘I don’t know what I’m going to do when I grow up,’ he said. ‘And until then I’m not going to think about it too much.’

You can excuse Matt Radoslovich for avoiding any discussion about ‘growing up.’

He’s having too much fun right where he is.