The Featured Player Profile finally kicks off, and this week’s player is goalie Alex Caravaggio.
Alex is in his second year at USC and majoring in Chemical Engineering with a Petroleum Emphasis. Alex, 19, was born in Valencia, California and has lived all over the world. He considers Calgary, Alberta to be his home since he spent his junior high and high school years there.
Growing up, Alex played every intramural sport possible at his high school except for football. He spent most of his time swimming until he was eleven at which point his family made the big move from Texas to Canada.
At first, skating was not an innate skill for Alex. He first tried skating while in Texas, where his brother Dante played hockey. Alex recollects that his first attempts at skating involved more of his holding on to the wall than actually skating. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and soon Alex became a skilled skater. He began taking actual classes when he was eleven and joined his first team when he was twelve. Alex was forced to quit competitive swimming when he was fourteen as he was not able to competitively swim and compete at the highest level of hockey for his age group simultaneously.
Alex credits his older brother (a senior at USC who also plays on the hockey team) for getting him started in hockey. “My older brother Dante got me playing. He has been my inspiration and role model my whole life.” He then quips “Plus…who doesn’t play hockey in Canada?”
The two brothers would practice their skills in their driveway and it was here that Alex realized his love for goaltending, “I fell in love with the idea that I was the last line of defense. Plus, the old Cat-Eye cages and gear that goalies wore was so awesome. It felt like I was a knight or something putting it on for the first time.”
In the final half of high school, Alex played Major Midget AAA where he got to participate in an International Tournament called the Macs Tournament. It is here that many NCAA and Major Junior scouts attend in hopes of finding their prospective team members. “I had several offers to go play for lower tier Junior teams and chase the NCAA dream, but I owe it to my brother to play with him like I’ve always wanted to do since I started playing hockey. We never played together because of our age difference of two years.”
Alex’s fondest hockey memory is with this Major Midget team he played on in High School. Right before the 2010 Team Canada Women’s Ice Hockey team participated in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics they held an exhibition game against his team. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that granted him the opportunity to tend the net against these professional female hockey players. The tournament was televised and had 4,000 enthusiastic fans in attendance. The game ended in a nine-round-shootout when Alex made a splits save and won the game for his team.
In his first season at USC, Alex helped lead the Trojans into the 2010-2011 PAC 8 Conference Tournament, where they secured a third place finish, losing to the eventual champion Washington in a shootout and defeating Cal in the consolation game. At the PAC 8 Awards Banquet, the conference teams’ coaches recognized Alex’s tremendous efforts throughout the season and voted him onto the All-PAC 8 First Team as the league’s best goaltender. The freshman phenom beat out the veteran goaltenders from the two higher-ranked teams, senior Jack Barry from 2nd-place Oregon and sophomore Danny Dougan from Washington.
Alex is in his second year at USC and majoring in Chemical Engineering with a Petroleum Emphasis. Alex, 19, was born in Valencia, California and has lived all over the world. He considers Calgary, Alberta to be his home since he spent his junior high and high school years there.
Growing up, Alex played every intramural sport possible at his high school except for football. He spent most of his time swimming until he was eleven at which point his family made the big move from Texas to Canada.
At first, skating was not an innate skill for Alex. He first tried skating while in Texas, where his brother Dante played hockey. Alex recollects that his first attempts at skating involved more of his holding on to the wall than actually skating. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and soon Alex became a skilled skater. He began taking actual classes when he was eleven and joined his first team when he was twelve. Alex was forced to quit competitive swimming when he was fourteen as he was not able to competitively swim and compete at the highest level of hockey for his age group simultaneously.
Alex credits his older brother (a senior at USC who also plays on the hockey team) for getting him started in hockey. “My older brother Dante got me playing. He has been my inspiration and role model my whole life.” He then quips “Plus…who doesn’t play hockey in Canada?”
The two brothers would practice their skills in their driveway and it was here that Alex realized his love for goaltending, “I fell in love with the idea that I was the last line of defense. Plus, the old Cat-Eye cages and gear that goalies wore was so awesome. It felt like I was a knight or something putting it on for the first time.”
In the final half of high school, Alex played Major Midget AAA where he got to participate in an International Tournament called the Macs Tournament. It is here that many NCAA and Major Junior scouts attend in hopes of finding their prospective team members. “I had several offers to go play for lower tier Junior teams and chase the NCAA dream, but I owe it to my brother to play with him like I’ve always wanted to do since I started playing hockey. We never played together because of our age difference of two years.”
Alex’s fondest hockey memory is with this Major Midget team he played on in High School. Right before the 2010 Team Canada Women’s Ice Hockey team participated in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics they held an exhibition game against his team. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that granted him the opportunity to tend the net against these professional female hockey players. The tournament was televised and had 4,000 enthusiastic fans in attendance. The game ended in a nine-round-shootout when Alex made a splits save and won the game for his team.
In his first season at USC, Alex helped lead the Trojans into the 2010-2011 PAC 8 Conference Tournament, where they secured a third place finish, losing to the eventual champion Washington in a shootout and defeating Cal in the consolation game. At the PAC 8 Awards Banquet, the conference teams’ coaches recognized Alex’s tremendous efforts throughout the season and voted him onto the All-PAC 8 First Team as the league’s best goaltender. The freshman phenom beat out the veteran goaltenders from the two higher-ranked teams, senior Jack Barry from 2nd-place Oregon and sophomore Danny Dougan from Washington.
Get to Know Alex:
1. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? Subway!
2. If you could trade places with any NHL player, living or dead, who would it be and why? Patrick Roy, he revolutionized goaltending
3. If you could time travel to any time before our own, which would it be and why? Back to the time of the dinosaurs, so I could tame a Tyrannosaurus Rex to do my bidding
4. Cats or Dogs: Dogs
5. Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla
6. Favorite pasta shape? Fettuccine
7. What is your favorite language other than your native language? French
8. Your favorite color M&M? Red
9. The Zombie Apocalypse is here! Who on your team survives, is the first killed, the one who has a plan to survive such an event, and the one who has secretly been a zombie all along? My brother and I survive with our foolproof plan that will only be shared with our closest acquaintances, and DP would absolutely be the first killed while probably trying to get other people killed, too.
10. Favorite holiday? Why? Christmas, normally has the longest break and I prefer the cold
11. If you owned your own hockey team, what would you name it? “The Subs”
12. Coke or Pepsi? Water :)
13. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? Cold
14. Do you have a nickname? Not that I know of
15. What is your signature dish? Footlong Chicken Breast on Wheat
16. Most recorded show on your DVR? Velociraptor
17. What super power would you have? Control time
18. Your favorite meal? Subwaaay!
19. Favorite NHL team? Calgary Flames!!!
20. Motto or saying you model your life after: It is a part of a prayer called the Prayer of Serenity, truly words to live by:
"Grant me the serenity,
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference."
21. Who is your inspiration? Without a doubt, my older brother Dante. I might not be playing hockey, I might not be studying engineering, I might not even be getting the incredible experience I am getting here at USC without him supporting and encouraging me every step of the way.
1. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? Subway!
2. If you could trade places with any NHL player, living or dead, who would it be and why? Patrick Roy, he revolutionized goaltending
3. If you could time travel to any time before our own, which would it be and why? Back to the time of the dinosaurs, so I could tame a Tyrannosaurus Rex to do my bidding
4. Cats or Dogs: Dogs
5. Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla
6. Favorite pasta shape? Fettuccine
7. What is your favorite language other than your native language? French
8. Your favorite color M&M? Red
9. The Zombie Apocalypse is here! Who on your team survives, is the first killed, the one who has a plan to survive such an event, and the one who has secretly been a zombie all along? My brother and I survive with our foolproof plan that will only be shared with our closest acquaintances, and DP would absolutely be the first killed while probably trying to get other people killed, too.
10. Favorite holiday? Why? Christmas, normally has the longest break and I prefer the cold
11. If you owned your own hockey team, what would you name it? “The Subs”
12. Coke or Pepsi? Water :)
13. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? Cold
14. Do you have a nickname? Not that I know of
15. What is your signature dish? Footlong Chicken Breast on Wheat
16. Most recorded show on your DVR? Velociraptor
17. What super power would you have? Control time
18. Your favorite meal? Subwaaay!
19. Favorite NHL team? Calgary Flames!!!
20. Motto or saying you model your life after: It is a part of a prayer called the Prayer of Serenity, truly words to live by:
"Grant me the serenity,
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference."
21. Who is your inspiration? Without a doubt, my older brother Dante. I might not be playing hockey, I might not be studying engineering, I might not even be getting the incredible experience I am getting here at USC without him supporting and encouraging me every step of the way.
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