Jacob Rogers - The Silent Protector [2/2]

[raghas 6]

 

Jacob Rogers - The Silent Protector

 

Jacob Rogers, often referred to by his last name more than his first with his close friends, was born on February 25th, 1999 in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Standing at 6’1” and weighing in at 203 lb., he has developed a reputation in the states for his rough style of play while simultaneously showing a tremendous ability to find and feed his teammates.

 

Early Years

            Jacob was born into an upper-middle class family to his mother Denise and his father Carter. Raised just outside of Cleveland with his older brother of four years Andrew, both brothers were heavily sheltered by their parents after a tragic accident about two years before the older was born that took the life of their first son, Trevor. Despite this, Jacob was a very curious child who still managed to get his fair share of bumps and bruises around the house.

Once the eldest Andrew entered the 5th grade, he introduced Jacob to many of the things that he’d previously had no exposure to, with one of these things being sports. Not only did Jacob fall in love with playing sports, but he actually found himself to be quite competent at more than a few of them. However, once his parents found out that their eight year old son was involved in what they believed to be “reckless activities”, they withdrew him from school and started homeschooling him in order to “provide him with a better and proper environment to learn and grow throughout his childhood” (Jacob quoting on how his mother explained to him the reasoning of his sheltering). Even with this in mind, Andrew would take Jacob “out to the park” once every weekend where they would gather some of Andrew’s friends to play soccer. To quote Andrew: “There were guys not only my age but as many as three years older than me that would come out to play; even then (Jacob) would take them to school and leave them baffled at how skilled he was on the ball.”

 

Middle School and High School

            When he turned 12, Jacob’s parents relented and allowed him to attend a public middle school. Despite his excitement to be able to experience more of the world for himself, his sheltered childhood resulted in his social skills being severely inferior to other kids around his age. As such, he developed a reputation of being a very quiet kid and was not able to make too many friends outside of those who knew his brother. In addition to this, his parents still insisted on prohibiting him from participating in any non-mandatory athletic activities.

            Andrew graduated from high school the semester right before Jacob would begin it, and knowing their parents’ far overly-protecting mindset, insisted that Jacob be allowed to play sports. His parents retorted, claiming that he needed to not only be protected from sports due to their “inherent danger,” but from the other kids who played the sports, as they viewed them as “dangerous children.” After an extremely heated argument, Andrew came to Jacob and made him an offer: “If you want to actually experience the world then come with me. I love our parents but if you stay here you will live your life in solitude and end up just like they have.” Even though socially underdeveloped, Jacob knew enough about his circumstances to side with his brother, and they proceeded to move out of the house and into a small apartment an hour away from their hometown.

            Andrew changed university from his original choice of Miami University to Kent State, as there was a local campus not too far away from where he and Jacob now lived. In addition, he took on multiple jobs to not only support the two of them, but to pay for any expenses related to Jacob’s schooling and extracurriculars. Jacob tried out for the soccer team his first year and while he was not skilled enough to make varsity at first, he skipped over the freshman team and became a starter for the junior varsity soccer team. Then standing at 5’5”, Jacob became an adept left winger and led the team in assists. However, he showed a slight lack of discipline and gave an alarming number of fouls given his position. Despite this red flag, his skills allowed him to become a varsity starter his sophomore year. Over the next three years, Jacob would become one of the figureheads of varsity soccer not only for his school, but the state as well as he developed a very decent reputation. After his junior year season, Jacob began to experience a large growth spurt that saw him grow 4” before his senior season and another 4” before graduation.

            During the final game of the 2016 fall season (his senior year), Jacob took a hard tackle from behind when he was going for a one-on-one with the keeper in the 70’. Even though he did not sustain an injury, Jacob took heavy exception to this, and once he got up found he could not control his anger and threw a punch at the opponent that tackled him, starting an on-field brawl. As a result, Jacob was kicked from the varsity team and handed a 5-day suspension by his school; the suspension was originally supposed to be an expulsion, but was lowered to said level when his parents shockingly showed up to make a case for him, explaining his many social issues due to his upbringing. After defending him, they attempted to reconcile with both Andrew and Jacob, and while neither was ultimately willing to forget what happened in the past and move back in with them, they ended up forgiving their parents. Currently, both brothers still remain in contact with their parents to this day and say that “though the trust has not fully healed, we still love them and know that they are genuinely trying to learn from their mistakes and change.”

 

Hockey Career

            After being kicked from the soccer team, one of Jacob’s former teammates, Gregory, who was also on the varsity hockey team decided on a whim to invite Jacob out to play some pick-up hockey over the winter break. Once he got a good grasp of the rules and learned how to stay on his skates for more than 30 seconds, Jacob showed a surprising amount of skill and could hold his own against the other varsity players. His uncanny vision with finding his teammates was able to carry over to the ice, and his growth spurt allowed him to garner a physical presence. However, due to his incident playing soccer, he was barred from participating in any high school sports. Still, Gregory saw the raw talent Jacob had and after meeting and talking with Andrew, they agreed to help him change his focus over to hockey. Over his final semester, Gregory helped Jacob with his hockey skills while Andrew helped his brother bulk up and workout to increase his physical ability and build. Jacob decided to enroll at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which was not only the school Andrew had hoped to go to, but also where Gregory had earned an athletic scholarship to play hockey.

            Gregory insisted that Coach Carter, Miami’s hockey coach, give Jacob a tryout so he could see just how much raw potential existed within him. After nearly two months of daily persistence, Coach Carter caved and allowed Jacob to try out. The coach had his reservations at first due to the record of Jacob’s soccer incident, but he forgot all about it within minutes of seeing Jacob on the ice. His precision passing for a player seemingly built more like a grinder (due to his muscle mass and physical presence he continued to display) was arguably beyond a collegiate player’s level; however, Jacob was still raw, and thus Coach Carter was not convinced enough to add Jacob to the roster. Despite this, the impression he left was undeniable, so the coach allowed Jacob to join in for a proper practice every week with Miami’s hockey team.

            Jacob immediately fit in with the rest of the team despite his past social shortcomings, and developed a strong bond with his now roommate Gregory. After consistently showing up to practices, Jacob applied for collegiate hockey eligibility, which was approved right before his sophomore year. Jacob was immediately placed on the second line, where he showed just how far he had come over the past two years. Playing in 36 out of the team’s 38 games, he was second on the team in assists with 24, along with scoring 4 goals for a total of 28 points. His physical presence ended up garnering even more attention, however, following a now infamous confrontation against division rival Omaha in mid-December. After his teammate/roommate/best friend Gregory was hit by a heavy cheap shot after the buzzer for the second period went off, Jacob immediately came right back and leveled the player that took out Gregory, nearly resulting in a physical brawl between the two teams before the referees stepped in. Jacob was hit with a two-game suspension by the NCAA; the Omaha player was hit with four games, though he was out even longer due to multiple ribs breaking when he was hit. After this incident, the entire Miami campus affectionately referred to Jacob as “The Silent Protector,” as his quiet nature still stayed with him throughout his life.

           

Jacob was named an alternate captain by his teammates along with Gregory heading into their junior season. The two wingers became a deadly top line pairing, with Jacob’s NCAA leading 51 assists nicely complimenting Gregory’s NCAA leading 45 goals as they played a full 42 game season culminating in them winning the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament - the fifth in Miami’s history - along with the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship - the first in Miami’s history. Both his parents and his brother were in attendance to witness when Jacob scored the overtime winning goal in the national tournament semifinals against #1 Massachusetts by a score of 2-1, followed up by a 4-assist game in the national tournament finals thrashing of #3 Providence by a score of 8-2. Jacob ended the season with 60 points (9 goals, 51 assists) and finished second in voting for the Hobey Baker award (best NCAA ice hockey player) only to Gregory, who managed to amass 69 points (45 goals, 24 assists). 38 of Gregory’s goals had an assist contribution from Jacob.

 

 

Above: Jacob during his junior season at Miami University

 

Professional Hockey

            Jacob made the tough decision to forgo his final year of eligibility to pursue a professional career in hockey as he joins the expansion Mississauga Hounds in the VHLM. He plans to continue classes at Miami for one more semester to finish his bachelor’s degree in education, though he has been quoted as saying “I am fully committed to this team and my hockey career.”

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by raghas
1. Adding in picture 2. Fixed non-indented paragraphs

[Acydburn 1,607]

Review:

 

Awesome biography. I felt like I actually knew who Jacob was. Absolutely loved the "Silent Protector" story and how it really was the same kid from the start. I just find it interesting that he was able to pick up all the skills necessary in such a short time and translate them. Hard work and skill pay off. 

[Walter Fizz 84]

Review:

 

On 5/2/2019 at 1:15 PM, raghas said:

Jacob was named an alternate captain by his teammates along with Gregory heading into their junior season. The two wingers became a deadly top line pairing, with Jacob’s NCAA leading 51 assists nicely complimenting Gregory’s NCAA leading 45 goals as they played a full 42 game season culminating in them winning the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament - the fifth in Miami’s history - along with the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship - the first in Miami’s history. Both his parents and his brother were in attendance to witness when Jacob scored the overtime winning goal in the national tournament semifinals against #1 Massachusetts by a score of 2-1, followed up by a 4-assist game in the national tournament finals thrashing of #3 Providence by a score of 8-2. Jacob ended the season with 60 points (9 goals, 51 assists) and finished second in voting for the Hobey Baker award (best NCAA ice hockey player) only to Gregory, who managed to amass 69

Nothing wrong with this paragraph. But the picture next to it could’ve been centered or maybe move the paragraph down. If that was intentional, pretty creative. There was no major plot twist which is something nice to see in a bio. Overall it was really good, so props to you.