LOCAL JR. COMETS ANDREW MARTINO COMMITS TO CHATHAM UNIVERSITY

The Utica Jr. Comets are proud to announce the commitment of homegrown prospect Andrew Martino to play collegiate hockey at Chatham University.

Andrew, a Utica Native, wrote a brief letter about his commitment. 

Growing up in Utica, playing in the Comets organization, and playing at the AUD has been unbelievable for my hockey career.  The environment in Utica has allowed me to grow as a person, citizen and player.  It allowed me to play hockey at a high level in an area with a deep hockey history that is also looking toward the future of developing successful players.

I've watched the culture of the sport grow immensely in Utica over the years. When I was four years old, I began learning to skate in Utica and continued to develop through youth hockey into juniors. During my senior year of high school, I started playing Premier and worked my way up the lineup, while tying the organization record for points in the regular season. After years of hard work and heading into my age-out year, I jumped to NCDC and had a successful final year giving me a chance to play college hockey in the coming fall.

I am thrilled to be attending Chatham University for the next four years. With an up-and-coming Division III program led by Coach Gershon and unmatched education opportunities, I look forward to my time at Chatham where I will major in environmental science. Chatham's campus perfectly blends that private, quiet feeling with the big city life of Pittsburgh. With all the assets the city and the campus have to offer, I could not resist this opportunity.

As my junior hockey career ends, I look forward to spending time with family and friends before moving to Pittsburgh in August. I'm ready to get to work this summer and prepare for my first college season next fall.

I want to take this chance to personally thank all the fantastic staff at the Adirondack bank center/ Utica memorial auditorium. The staff in the building are second to none and have impacted my life in countless ways and always will be one of the biggest influences on the person I've become on and off the ice.

A special thank you to Rob Esche for believing in me, but never letting me get away with anything less than 100% effort.  My heartfelt appreciation also goes out to Randy Lilley, and Alex Lilley for treating me like family over the years and creating an environment where I and many others feel at home.  I also want to thank my brothers, Jason and Kyle, for pushing me to become the best I can be over all the years. Finally, my Parents Janice and Tony, for being the reason any of this can happen, believing in me since day one, and spending unlimited time driving me around to countless hockey destinations. Thank you all for being the reason I have this opportunity today.

Head Coach Louis Educate was thrilled for Andrew.

Andrew is someone who has worked very hard to get to where he is now. Being a local Utica kid he has not only been a top performer on every team he has played on he has also been a tremendous kid off the ice. Andrew has always been the first to step up off the ice to volunteer for community work and is eager to be involved.

Chatham is certainly not only getting a good hockey player but someone who will do everything that is needed to be done on and off the ice to become a better player and a person. Andrew’s dedication to hockey and community will help continue to grow the culture of the newer Chatham program.

It will be great to watch Andrew’s progression on the ice at the collegiate level. He is a player who has the ability to score in any situation from anywhere on the ice. It’s something that is very hard to find in a player and it is something that any team can use.