Playing with his brother early in his college career, collecting program-altering upsets last season and stepping into a leadership role this year were just a few minor highlights in senior forward Mike McKeon’s career as a Clemson club ice hockey player. When prompted, he could think of just one way to accurately describe his experience as a Tiger: special.
“I think that’s what’s special about Clemson,” McKeon told The Tiger. “It feels like every day there’s another thing that you’re going to remember forever.”
And there’s no doubt that the rest of the Tigers will remember their alternate captain as fondly as he will remember them.
“I would want people to remember me as someone who cared about their well-being, and put my best foot forward in whatever it was that I was doing,” McKeon said. “Hopefully, people think of me as a good friend who was always up to do whatever and have a good time. Not afraid to make mistakes, or put my best foot forward and give my whole attention to whatever it was that I was doing.”
The Waccabuc, New York, native kicked off his hockey career at a young age, courtesy of his father, an avid New York Rangers fan who put McKeon and his older brother, and former Tiger, John, into the local youth hockey program. As many younger siblings do, McKeon “always wanted to do whatever (his) brother was doing,” so at 4 years old, he laced up his skates — with help, of course — and never looked back.
“I remember doing the cross-ice mites games,” McKeon said. “I always loved doing that. That’s sort of where I ended up falling in love with the game, I think. I remember going to those … I think they call them jamborees. You go and play a bunch of games during the day. I remember doing that with my dad and my brother and getting started like that.”
From age 4 until he stepped foot on Clemson’s campus for the first time as a student, McKeon played for the same club: the Bedford Bears. Though he considers much of his career a success because of the time spent and memories made with his teammates, the forward saw the most on-ice success in high school.
“The stars kind of aligned when I got to high school,” he said. “We had four years of really good teams.”
As a freshman, McKeon’s high school team won the section championship for the first time since 2013. In his sophomore and junior years, when he “played a lot more,” the team won the section twice and made it to the state semifinal, but ultimately fell short both times. By his senior year, McKeon and his squad went “as far as (they) could go” in an atypical COVID-19 season. To top it all off, he won two state championships with his Bears single-A team within those four years.
“Looking back, that was probably the most fun I’ve had playing hockey,” McKeon said. “It’s all fun for different reasons, but my club team … we literally all grew up playing together, and no one ever really left, so we just had the same team every single year, and we got really good. It was single-A, so it wasn’t crazy, but we had a really good team. A bunch of those kids are playing in college now. We won two state championships, which was a lot of fun.”
Funnily enough, McKeon has run into one of his Bears teammates since playing at Clemson: Rich Mugler, a goaltender for Ole Miss’s club team.
“I didn’t get to play him as a junior because I was injured, but this year, we got to play them in that midnight game,” McKeon said. “He didn’t play the second game, but in the first game, we got to play against each other, and I scored the winning goal. We had a good laugh about it after the game … definitely a full-circle moment.”
After those fun-filled four years, though, McKeon had a decision to make about his future. Ultimately, he decided to follow in his older brother and sister’s footsteps and become a Clemson Tiger.
“I thought in high school I wanted to kind of do my own thing when I got to college,” McKeon said. “I had a bunch of other schools that I was really interested in, but it ended up being between Clemson and one other school. I went to visit that other school, but I just didn’t get the same feeling that I did at Clemson when I visited here, so it was kind of a no-brainer to go here. And it was one of the best schools I got into. I don’t regret it at all, and this place is awesome.”
While the same can be said for much of his hockey career, McKeon discovered Clemson’s club hockey program when his older brother joined the team. However, his own love for the program and his teammates was entirely organic.
“When my sister came here, we did a little bit of research to see if there was a club team,” he said. “But when John got here as a freshman, he knew he wanted to keep playing in some capacity … when he started playing, I thought if I ended up at Clemson one day and he was still on the team, then it would be really cool to play one more year together.”
McKeon mentioned that he used to watch his brother’s games on YouTube, thinking that it would be “fun” to play for the club ice hockey team if he decided to go to Clemson.
“I knew I wanted to keep playing, but when I got to Clemson, I kind of thought maybe I was done,” McKeon added. “I think senior year — the whole Covid situation — and how hockey was up North, I was feeling just a bit tired of it. And then when I met everyone on the team here when I tried out for the team, I was like, ‘Well, I kind of remember why I played,’ and it was more just about being a part of a team and a group. Once I made the team, it was kind of a no-brainer to do that, especially because I was in bridge with everyone else.”
Despite initially feeling uncertain about playing in college, McKeon knows now without a shadow of a doubt that he made the right choice.
“It’s gonna be hard for me to think back about Clemson and not just immediately think about this team,” he said. “I tried out maybe a week into being here, and right away, I knew it was something I was going to be a part of for a while. I’ve met a lot of really great people at Clemson — a lot of people that aren’t on the hockey team — but there’s something special about our team.”
McKeon added that the team has fun together and cares about each other a lot.
“Looking back at my time at Clemson, I have to attribute a lot of the good memories that I’ve had here to playing with this team, and not even on the ice, just off the ice with these guys, hanging out around the house or on the weekends. It’s been a really great group to be a part of and to meet other great people at Clemson,” He told The Tiger.
In addition to the countless memories he and his teammates — now some of his best friends — have made off the ice, he’s also made some of his favorites while playing. Most notably, Clemson’s upset win over the Florida Atlantic Owls in the College Hockey South Division II playoffs last spring.
“I think my favorite Clemson ice hockey memory is probably that Florida Atlantic win,” McKeon said. “That was one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of because we were doubted all year, and we knew that we had the team to beat FAU. It was just a matter of, ‘could we play a full game? Could we all just buy in and play a full game?’ And it was the perfect game.”
He said that each player “did their job” and “showed up,” and that the team’s victory in the game was “big” for the club ice hockey program.
“When I think of our team, I think about that game because we’re all still really competitive, and we love to win, but it was like a whole season’s worth of work and grinding, and we all put it together for 60 minutes and beat the team that we were supposed to get crushed by,” he told The Tiger.
As someone who’s witnessed the club hockey program’s immense development over the last four years, McKeon believes his generation of players made great strides toward its future evolution. He’s excited to see how the team continues to develop in the next few seasons.
“I think the culture that we have here — that we’ve created over the last four to eight years — could be one of the best club hockey teams in the country in a couple of years,” McKeon said.
“But, I think it’s important to kind of remember why it is … why we do love it so much. And part of that is the time you spend with each other off the ice. There’s a lot of speculation on what club teams could potentially jump to ACHA D1 or even NCAA D1 … I think a lot of the reason that we love this program, at least the players, is because it is a club,” McKeon continued.
He noted that each of the players love playing hockey, but it doesn’t define who they are.
“I think it’s important to understand why kids love playing club hockey, and why it is that people are starting to come down here to keep playing: because we get to still play and enjoy the game, but the club aspect of it has opened up so many other opportunities for us to just enjoy life and be a part of Clemson in different aspects … This program is in really good hands to continue to do what it has been made to do,” McKeon told The Tiger.
Upon his graduation, the senior economics major plans to return to New York to work in finance.
(via @idjrock/TT)
