Road less traveled: Leonidas Gill's journey from Florida AA hockey to USA National Camp
To understand Leonidas Gill’s dedication to hockey, you need to hear about his final baseball game in sixth grade.
In the middle of throwing a no-hitter as his team's pitcher, he left the game early to go to hockey practice.
“It was time to go to hockey practice,” he said. “I didn’t really think much of it, to be honest."
Four years later, Gill’s dedication to hockey is paying off. Now a 16-year-old, he’ll be participating in USA Hockey’s National 16U Camp next week in Amherst, New York. Over that week, USA Hockey officials will be choosing players for the Under-17 Select National Team that will play at the Four Nations Tournament in Czechia in August.
On the ice, Gill fits the profile. He’s a 6-foot-2 left-shot defenceman who plays physical and has a booming shot. There’s a pretty obvious combination of raw tools that he pairs well with his decision-making, and that helped secure his invite to the National Camp after how he performed at the regional camp in Nashville.
But when you look at Gill’s path, he doesn’t fit the profile that most of the top 2010-born players will bring to the camp.
Gill is from Florida, and he’s played AA-level hockey the past two seasons with the Gulf Coast Flames, splitting his season between the 16U and 18U teams, instead of playing AAA or prep school, like most of the invitees to the national camp.
“I honestly thought I wouldn’t get the invite to the national camp because of that,” Gill said. “I had kind of accepted that because of that, it wouldn’t happen, so when I got the invite, that really felt surprising and special.”
For Gill’s dad, Eric, it was a special thing to watch with his son.
“He had kind of not wanted to even go to the regional camp in Nashville, because he felt, based on the teams and politics, he wasn’t going to get a chance,” Eric Gill said. “So to see how he got that opportunity, it was pretty cool to see him kind of excited about that.”
For the Gill family, hockey in Florida is a central part of their story.
Leonidas was introduced to hockey through a Tampa Bay Lightning learn-to-play program when he was 7-years-old, at a rink about five minutes from their family home. He was instantly hooked and naturally gravitated to defence. One of his first coaches was former NHLer Dan Girardi, who helped Gill establish some of the early nuance for the position.
As Gill improved, he began catching the attention of larger teams and AAA programs, but decided to stick with AA hockey because it allowed him to be both well-rounded and focused on school.
And to be blunt, that choice saved the family a ton of money.
“The difference between AAA and AA hockey is something like $30,000 to $3,000 a year down here in Florida,” Eric Gill said. “And for us, with Leo, it’s always been about helping him be the best person, focus on school too, and AAA just didn’t make sense.”
The Gill family also found an ideal support group with the Gulf Coast Flames. Gill’s coach the past two seasons, Andrew Mathieu, has worked closely with the family and found opportunities for Gill to get extra ice time with other local teams.
“When you have someone who wants to work hard, like Leo, you just do your best to give him the tools to do what he needs,” Mathieu said. “We don’t always have a ton of ice time each week, so when it comes to helping him get as much ice time as possible, or other opportunities, you do what you can for a kid that’s willing to work as hard as he does.”
For Eric Gill, it’s been a blessing to be able to watch and help his son do all of this in Florida.
“I mean, you only get so many years of them at home, right?” Eric Gill said. “If you send them off to a prep school or AAA somewhere else, it’s saying goodbye in a sort of way.”
Gill will remain in Florida next season, but is planning on playing at the AAA level with a new Florida Alliance team being put together by Roberto Luongo for top 2010-born players in Florida. There'll be some more travel and a bit more chaos, but it’s something that Gill said he’s ready for.