Jay Ahearn and the unconventional path to becoming an NCAA captain

When he was 18 years old, Jay Ahearn was at a crossroads in his career.

"I thought about quitting hockey, if you want me to be honest," he told Elite Prospects.

He'd grown up in the New Jersey youth hockey systems, and played on teams alongside future pros like Quinn Hutson and T.J. Semptimphelter, but he didn't find it easy to break through to the next level of the sport, as those players had.

But with the help and encouragement of his family, he forged his own unique path forward. Didn't play high school or prep hockey, and went straight from the New Jersey Avalanche 18U to the NAHL — during the COVID year in which it was one of a select few high-level junior leagues operating in North America, so the competition was fierce — then three years of Div. 1 hockey at Niagara, and finally to UMass Lowell, where he became a captain.

He's closing in on 50 goals and 100 points for his college career, a level of production few NCAA players reach. He says it was mental toughness and a desire to prove himself that kept him in the sport, and moving forward.

"It was all belief, and day after day, I trusted the process," he said. "I never made a national camp, never played in any big tournaments or anything like that. Growing up, I played for the Mercer Chiefs organization. 

We were always a good team, but not the best. Never got drafted to the USHL, never even went to a USHL camp. I just thought about stacking days. Honestly, I didn't play in the best leagues, but I always thought I could play with the best of them."

Ahearn isn't a particularly big player, and his production rarely allowed him to truly stand out from his peers. It's hard to turn scouts' heads that way, but by working on his game. That wasn't always easy because he was commuting an hour each way to the rink from his home in Staten Island, New York, and rarely had extra time to stay after practice. But with his combination of talent and work ethic, he convinced his coaches to keep using him in high-leverage situations, and opportunities to produce at a higher level naturally followed.

"I'm trying to develop all the little details so that when they come, I'm ready," he said. "There were years where I'm [scoring] half a goal a game, and the next year I'm going to over a goal a game. It's just sticking with the process and being detail oriented, not looking at the results. Because the results will come when you don't look for them."

Ahearn thought he should have been in the USHL all along, and instead of sulking through a season, he allowed that feeling to be another motivator. Even after getting offers from colleges like Niagara, where his production grew from seven to 10 to 19 goals over three years, he never let himself become complacent. He told Elite Prospects that playing for UMass Lowell was always his goal, because fellow Staten Islander Joe Gambardella played four years with the River Hawks before embarking on a pro career that saw him appear in over 400 AHL games — and 15 for the Edmonton Oilers, where he got time alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and, briefly, Connor McDavid.

But going from one level to the next, and making yourself impossible for coaches to pass over, takes the classic approach of "one step at a time". Coaches preach it for a reason: Setting out with the goal of captaining a Hockey East program from New Jersey youth hockey and the NAHL is daunting, but at every level, it took belief and hard work for Ahearn to move up a rung on the developmental ladder and become an impact NCAA forward.

"I always felt you've got to dominate at every level before you move on to the next," he said. "You want to be the best player in your area so that it's undeniable, so that you move on."