In our Campus Conversations, we sit down one-on-one with some of our alumni playing Division-I NCAA hockey. They offer candid comments and insight into the world of hockey after high school, including life in juniors and the process of getting to the next level. Check out their first-hand accounts of triumphs and successes as well as struggles and failures along their journey to playing college hockey.

This week, we feature Rochester United alum and current Air Force Academy forward, Max Harper.

A member of the 2015 class, Harper played three seasons of varsity hockey for RU, playing in 73 games while scoring 75 goals and 166 points in his high school career. He was named  Division-I First-Team All-State as a junior and again as a senior, even after a broken collarbone brought his 2014-15 season to an abrupt halt.

After graduation, Harper went to the NAHL where he spent two seasons with Topeka. He played 118 games of junior hockey including a playoff run in 2016 in which the Roadrunners were eliminated in the second round.

Harper played his entire high school career with fellow RU standout and lifelong friend Marshall Bowery, and the duo dominated over the Oakland Activities Association for some time, winning three straight Red Division championships. Together, they went to Topeka and continued the tandem in junior hockey. So it was only fitting that when it came time to making a college commitment, both Bowery and Harper settled on the Air Force Academy, extending their friendship into collegiate hockey.

Bowery was featured in last week’s Campus Convo, so we met with Max this time around to compare and contrast how their journeys may be similar on paper but drastically different in their successes and struggles.

This Week’s Campus Convo with Max Harper:

Hub: What factored into your decision to play -- and then continue to play -- high school hockey?

MH: “I played high school hockey because I was kinda done with it, I was gonna play baseball. So that’s why I played high school hockey. But then when I got there, I got a lot of confidence in my game and I just developed as a player. My hockey skills increased and I just got better and better at hockey and worse at baseball. Then I got offered a tender by Topeka and I took that and then committed to Air Force.”

Hub: You said your confidence grew while at RU, why? What do you attribute that to?

MH: “Craig Staskowski definitely helped with my development. I just think I gained a lot of confidence playing high school hockey. I don’t want to say it was easier, but it was easier than going the triple-A route and then that just gave me all the more confidence I needed to become the player I am now.”

Hub: You mentioned high school came a bit “easier” to you, so what was the biggest adjustment making the jump to juniors where things aren’t so “easy”?

MH: “Definitely the speed of the game was a lot different. There’s so much less time to make plays. You’ve just got to think the game a lot faster.”

Hub: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome throughout your career?

MH: “Probably just battling every day. Once you get to juniors, you don’t have an automatic spot, so every day this is a battle just to get into the lineup. It’s the same in college right now.”

Hub: What advice would you give a younger guy who’s going through that now? How did you get through the everyday battle?

MH: “Just have confidence in your game. I remember when I first got to Topeka, I was really nervous about getting cut. I didn’t really know if I fit in there talent-wise but I just had to stick it out and kept working hard every day.”

Hub: In terms of junior camps during the off-season, how much did you do while you were in high school?

MH: “I had never gone to a junior camp, I was just focused on baseball until about the Fall of my senior year. I played in the MDHL and I did the Top-80, and that’s when I started to get talked to by the junior teams.

“Topeka came out to one of my games and a week later, I broke my collarbone. I was like, ‘Oh God.’ I thought my hockey career was over, it was terrible. Then they offered a tender about a week after that.”

Hub: You mentioned the MDHL and Top-80, what do those out-of-season opportunities offer you as a hockey player?

MH: “Just the exposure and then playing against better kids, proving yourself at a higher level instead of just in the regular-season high school games.”

Hub: You and Marshall (Bowery) played together throughout high school, played together in juniors and now you’re playing together in college… Are you two sick of each other yet?

MH: “We went to preschool together and then we played double-A on the Rochester Rattlers together until high school. We’ve been together pretty much since preschool. It’s funny, I see him every single day, and I have for the past six years. It is crazy, our story, but I’m not sick of him yet.”

Hub: Did it help being able to go through the process with someone you were already so close with?

MH: “For sure, because you know someone is going through all the same stuff you’re going through. Leaving home for the first time, we both did it together and we could call each other, support each other. It was even bigger when we had to go through basic training together here at the Academy. You just know that someone’s out there doing the same stuff you are. It makes it a lot easier.”

Hub: Interesting, you mention going through basic training. How does that type of workout compare to a hockey workout?

MH: “It’s a lot different. It’s not as hard as the hockey training but it’s more of a grind just because the days are so long. We wake up at like, 4:30 and go to bed at 10, and do it for six weeks straight.”