FALMOUTH – Five years ago, Ryan Hegarty was in a pretty comfortable spot for being a teenager.

He attended a small private high school in suburban Boston, where he played hockey. He lived at home, where all of his meals were cooked for him and where his laundry was washed, dried and folded every week.

Additional Photos

Will O'Neill of the University of Maine gives an embrace and a head butt to Kieran MacDonald of Levant during a youth public skate Saturday at Family Ice in Falmouth. The Black Bears will meet the U.S. under-18 national team today at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Nick Pryor, a sophomore at the University of Maine, demonstrates the proper way to control the puck to youngsters at Family Ice in Falmouth. Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Ryan Hegarty, who went through the United States under-18 national team program before joining UMaine, signs an autograph on a shirt worn by Logan Fortin, 10, of Fairfield. Tim Greenwood/Staff Photographer

But at age 16, Hegarty decided to place a stronger focus on hockey. That meant leaving everything and relocating to Michigan to join the U.S. national team development program’s under-18 team.

That meant learning to deal with adversity, adjusting to new coaches, new personalities and new classmates, and learning to take care of himself. That meant cooking, cleaning and doing his own laundry.

“It was definitely a wake-up call,” said Hegarty, a junior defenseman for the University of Maine. “I was used to having everything taken care of for me. Going out there, I had to do my own laundry, clean up after myself, live with a family I didn’t know so I had to do my own dishes. It taught me how to contribute to a bigger thing, and that was one of the big steps for me.”

Hegarty faces his former program for the third time in three years when the Black Bears face the U.S. under-18 team at 4 p.m. today in Portland. The Black Bears skated Saturday morning at Family Ice Center in Falmouth in preparation for today’s exhibition game at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“It’s good for us to play them because those guys aren’t older or bigger but they’re very skilled,” said Hegarty. “They’re the best of their age class and it will be fun to see the ability they bring and for them, it will be a chance to see what it’s like at the next level. It’s moreso good for them. I remember playing against the college teams and gaining so much experience from playing against the older guys.”

Hegarty is one of the three Black Bears who have played for the under-18 team, with sophomore forward/defenseman Nick Pryor and freshman forward Kelen Corkum.

Each season, the national team development program selects 20 players from a tryout and brings them together to live and train in Ann Arbor, Mich., and play a 42-game schedule against Division I and Division III college programs, United States Hockey League teams and international competition.

Each player spends a maximum of two years with the program, which has produced Division I college products and NHL players, as well as former Black Bears forward Greg Moore of Lisbon, who plays for Adirondack of the AHL, and goalie Jimmy Howard, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings.

“They prepare players very well for the next level,” Pryor said. “You go through a lot of adversity, too. You work out during the week, and you do so much training. Come Friday and Saturday you play a game, and you have to reach down and find that extra energy.”

Pryor joined the team when he was 15, playing two seasons in Ann Arbor before he joined Waterloo of the USHL in the fall of 2008.

“I was 15 and I remember it like it was yesterday,” Pryor said of his first day. “My parents dropped me off and I kind of sat there in my room with people I didn’t know. Going away at such a young age, you don’t really have a choice. Traveling so much and the schedule we went through was a grind. But that made me a more mature person and it really helped my hockey career out.”

After two years with the team, Hegarty joined the Black Bears as an 18-year-old freshman in the fall of 2008. He was more than six years younger than his oldest teammate at the time, senior captain Jeff Marshall, but believes the experience helped him make the transition to college hockey — even the part about doing his own laundry.

“It taught me how to be a more coachable player, how to develop and how to play within a coach’s system and how to adapt to systems,” Hegarty said. “It was different both years but coming here, I was definitely prepared to step up. I’m happy with what I did. It made me grow up quicker.”

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com