Eastside’s captain – second to none

By Brian Kalisher –

As another high school hockey season begins, teams across the state will look for the natural leaders to lead in the locker room and on the ice. Whether they lean on one captain, or are lucky enough to have a stable of leaders, the season’s outcome will rest on the players who can provide a winning attitude for their peers.

Nobody has to look very hard in East Lansing. They have their leader in senior captain Chris Hagan.

“The best thing about Chris is he makes everyone around him better and feel good about themselves,” said Scott Crilly, head coach of the Eastside Stars, a unified high school team comprised of five schools in the area. “Even if they’re doing poorly on the ice he makes them want to get better.  He just couldn’t be a nicer friend to everybody on this team.”

The senior defenseman for the Stars is a three-sport star – hockey, football and baseball – and is a leader on all three. But it is leadership qualities that define him within the sports community as much as his athletic abilities. Those closest to Chris say he is a born leader, someone who brings the very best out in everyone around him – on the ice and off.

“If you have leadership your team is going to be a lot more successful,” Hagan said.  “I think that’s why I try to step up and be a leader.”

Barb Hagan, Chris’ mother, said her son strives to have his teammates follow his example.

“Some leaders [lead] by yelling and screaming and trying to push everybody to do things,” said Chris’ mother Barb Hagan.  “Chris has been writing in his essays for college about a different type of leadership that he believes in – leadership by example and by really showing and talking to kids.”

Barb Hagan said that her son’s leadership abilities were even on full display during a foreign change program that took Chris and 25 other students to Germany.  One of the teachers chaperoning the trip described the group of 25 students on the journey as “eclectic”, with Chris taking it into his own hands to make the trip enjoyable for everyone.  He made sure people on the airplane bonded.  If he wasn’t giving nicknames to the other students, he was mingling, joking around and putting everyone in a good mood.  For the rest of the week the group was like family, according to the teacher.

“She said ‘you don’t understand, Chris just bopped around the airplane talking to each kid, finding out what they like,” said Barb Hagan.  “How did he do that?  I can’t even do that.”

His hockey skills make Hagan that much more of a commodity for his team.  After spending some time playing hockey in the AAA ranks, Hagan decided a better fit for him would be high school hockey, where he could also play football.

“Last year he decided to come back and play high school hockey,” Crilly said.  “He was probably the best thing that happened to us last year.”

Hagan is described as a gritty defenseman that is willing to throw a heavy, but clean, body check if anyone chooses to skate his way with a head down for the unified Stars team.

“He’s a linebacker in football, and he’s kind of a linebacker in hockey, too,” Crilly joked.  “He is a skilled player, but if you’ve got your head down, he’s going to get you.”

Despite delivering game-changing hits, Hagan somehow manages to combine physicality and sportsmanship.

“When I see kids skating down the ice with their head down I’m always like ‘Oh God,” Barb Hagan said.  “And then, of course, do you know what he does?  He helps them up.”

Hagan said that the only thing he struggles with during the daily routine of juggling being a leader both in the locker room and the class room is that there are only so many hours in the day.

“I think the biggest challenge is sleep,” Hagan said.  “I wish there was 30 hours in a day – that would be so nice.”

His mother agrees, and shares some thoughts of her own on the matter.

“Sometimes he doesn’t manage his time well enough to get sleep,” Barb Hagan said.  “His room is never clean anymore.  It used to be always clean because he’s so type-A.  So that kind of drives us crazy around here a little bit.”

For an athlete that so gifted on the playing field, it is refreshing to his parents that academics remain such a high priority in his life.

“I always go grades first, that’s the number one thing in my book,” Hagan said.

“Something my dad always said, ‘I don’t know the percentage of people that makes it to pro sports – it’s really, really few … nobody wants a 5’10” linebacker in the NFL. So just keep up your grades, and go to a really good university.  If you can play sports that would be awesome, but sports can only take you so far, so you’ve got to keep your grades up.’”

However, Hagan has been recruited to play football for different schools at the next level. No matter where he ends up though, his mom is sure he will be successful.

“When I look back and forget that he’s my kid I do think ‘How does a kid do that?” Barb Hagan said.