[Professional Blog] Gregarious Greening

Got a message from loyal reader who thanked us for running a story on Cornell University hockey player Colin Greening in The Weekend Telegram this past Saturday. He wondered why justifiably so weve taken this long to do something on the Big Red power forward. (Going through our records, it had been almost two full years since we last spoke with Greening. Shame on us.) But before that story could hit the newstands Saturday morning, Greening was making headlines of his own on Friday night. At the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) in Albany this weekend, Greening scored the winning goal for Big Red in a 3-2 win over the Princeton Tigers in a single-elimination semifinal. They lost to the Yale Bulldogs in Saturdays championship, but still earned a ticket to the NCAA championship. Ive yet to speak with a hockey player who doesnt credit their parents when speaking about how far theyve come. And Greening was no different. But there was something different in the 23-year-olds voice as he praised his parents. I really want to say how much I love them, and how much they mean to me, Greening said. Ive always worked hard, but theyve always been there supporting me and thats been a big part of it. And you get the distinct impression that theres a touching bond between Greening and his father Fred who grew up playing shinny on Red Indian Lake near Millertown in Central Newfoundland. My dad always joked that I got my skills from him. He said he was pretty good, and hes quite proud of the Red Indian Lake thing. He said if he used to get a breakaway, hed skate the 15 miles down to Buchans. (Special thanks to P.Q. for the heads-up on Greenings big night.)