Eishockey Forum - From Italian Alps to College Hill

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R.I. HOCKEY REPORT
From Italian Alps to College Hill

He started playing hockey at age 6, often skating outdoors in the remote mountain town where he grew up. He left home as a teenager to play in Montreal, then moved on to Kent, the Connecticut prep school. Now he is in the Ivy League.
Not such an unusual path for a college hockey player.
Except for one thing.
Brown University junior goalie Marco De Filippo isn’t from some isolated Quebec hamlet where hockey is a religion. He’s not from a farming community on the Saskatchewan plains or a mining town on Minnesota’s Iron Range. In fact, he’s not from any of the usual places that produce hockey players.
De Filippo’s hometown is Auronzo Di Cadore, a town of 3,500 in the Italian Alps.
“It’s fascinating, the journey that kid has gone on,” says Brown coach Brendan Whittet.
Brown assistant Mike Sousa, who played pro hockey in Italy for five years, knows better than anyone just how remarkable De Filippo’s story is. When Sousa was hired last year, he told Whittet and assistant Mark White, “You guys probably don’t quite understand how amazing it is that he’s actually here.”
In Italy, Sousa said, “the NCAA doesn’t necessarily exist. It’s a soccer-crazed nation. The kids that do play hockey have a deep affection for the NHL, but they don’t know anything beyond the NHL, for the most part. It’s a credit to Marco that he was able to get out of where he was. To end up at an institution like Brown, we marvel at it, to be quite honest,” he said.
So, how exactly did the 22-yearold De Filippo land on College Hill?
Well, for starters, by Italian standards, Auronzo Di Cadore is a hockey town.
“All my friends played. So I started,” De Filippo explained in his heavily accented English. “Not a lot of people know about hockey ’cause we just play in the north (of Italy). It’s not in the big cities. They don’t have teams. It’s in the smaller towns. In my town, it was pretty popular. There’s a lake, and the lake used to freeze, so we played there.”
As he grew up, “My dream always was to play hockey in Canada or the U.S. I wanted to go so badly.”
With a hand from former NHL and WHA goalie Jim Corsi, who had played in Italy, De Filippo received an opportunity to play in Montreal. “When I got the chance, I decided to go. It was to play hockey, pretty much. But then I kept going to school,” he said.
One of his billet family’s children in Montreal had gone to Kent. De Filippo visited the school, and decided to enroll. After starring at Kent, he headed to Brown. “I thought I had the chance to play here,” he said.
The 6-foot-2 De Filippo didn’t get off the bench much in his first two years, starting a total of just 12 games as the Bears relied on Mike Clemente. But, now that Clemente has graduated, De Filippo can expect a heavy workload. Senior Anthony Borelli is also in the mix.
Last December, De Filippo was at his best in making 39 saves in a 5-2 win at New Hampshire. “He was immense up at UNH. He was just ridiculous. His problem is consistency , but that’s to be expected from a young goalie stepping up a level,” said Whittet.
“The past two years were pretty hard. I train and practice really hard this summer, so I’m really looking forward to this season,” said De Filippo, an economics major who says he loves Federal Hill.
The Brown staff believes that De Filippo’s decision to stay in Providence all summer, instead of heading home, will pay off. “We challenged Marco and he took it upon himself to spend the majority of the summer here training,” said Sousa.
“We expect big things out of Marco,” Whittet said. “You’ve got to understand his background and where he’s from. There’s an adjustment period. I think he feels much more at ease at the college and within our team.
“There’s that bridge that I think we have crossed in terms of his development. Mike (Sousa) and (goalie coach Tony Ciresi) have been huge with Marco. The boy wants to play in the National Hockey League. He wants to be on the Italian National Team. He has that potential.”
Literally and figuratively, Sousa speaks the same language as De Filippo. Sousa played four seasons in the ski village of Cortina, which hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics. It’s not far from De Filippo’s hometown.
“It’s pretty ironic that we ended up here together,” says Sousa.
Early in Monday’s practice, De Filippo wasn’t stopping many pucks. “I was ready to kill him,” Whittet said.
“Then Souz yelled something at him in Italian, and he was unbelievable after that. I asked Mike, what did you say to him? He said, ‘I just told him to stop the puck and compete,’ ” said Whittet.
“He and I have that unique connection,” said Sousa. “I hope it helps him that I understand where he’s coming from. I think he’s going to turn a lot of heads this year.”