It takes a great amount of commitment to get to a high level in hockey, and Mathew Berry-Lamontagna is a perfect example of this commitment. Having started playing the game at an early age, he has been to many towns and a part of many leagues — including the highest level of junior hockey in Canada — before coming to SFU to join their hockey team.
“I would have been probably around four,” said Berry-Lamontagna on when he started playing hockey. “[I] played in the basement with my dad and just started skating around. He was the one that really got me into it. I’ve been playing ever since.”
From there, Berry-Lamontagna was picked up at 16 by the Prince Albert Raiders, a team in the Western Hockey League.
“I was playing Major Midget in my region, which is the Vancouver region. I played two years there, when I was 15 and 16. In my second year, I kind of had a bigger role [. . .] I was captain, got to develop a bit more.
“[The team] approached me after one of the games — I guess they had been watching me for a while, they had put me on their 50-man protected list, so I became their property, they owned my rights in the WHL. I went to spring camp, and then the main camp in the fall, and they offered me a contract.”
In Prince Albert, Berry-Lamontagna had the chance to play with and against elite level players, including teammate Mark McNeil, a first round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It was really cool,” he said. “You get to play with some really highly talented players. First round picks, guys that are sent down from the NHL back to their WHL teams. I kind of learned what it’s like to be a professional, see how those guys conduct themselves and work ethic, and stuff like that. So that was good learning experience for me.”
After two years in the WHL, it was off to the BCHL. He played a full season for the West Kelowna Warriors, before being traded to the Coquitlam Express, and again midseason to the Cowichan Valley Capitals. That made it four different cities in three seasons for Berry-Lamontagna.
“It’s really cool, actually. You get to meet people you probably wouldn’t get to meet otherwise,” he said on moving around so much. “You live with billets, so these people open up their homes to you, to live with them and experience living with a different family and living away from home for the first time.”
We have a pretty special team this year and there’s guys that we want to win it for.
“My first time I was away, I would have been 16 when I went to Prince Albert. [. . .] It makes you grow up pretty quick. But all the families I stayed with were great and made my transition really easy.”
Players “age out” once they hit 20 in junior hockey, meaning they are no longer eligible to play. That’s when SFU Hockey Head Coach Mark Coletta came calling.
“Mark Coletta contacted me my last year of junior. [It was] kind of getting to the end of the year and around the time where he starts his recruiting. I got a call from him, we talked, went through the recruiting process, and decided this was a good spot for me.
“I had never met [Coletta] before. Just through the phone calls. My coach in Cowichan at the time, Bob Beedie, he had known Mark, so I kind of had an idea what he was about, knew he was a good guy, good intentions, so it made it a little easier.”
It has turned out to be a good decision. Berry-Lamontagna has become an integral part of the team, and a constant on the back end. He is third on the team in scoring, with 19 points in 23 games this year, including a three-goal, six-point performance earlier in the year against rivals Trinity Western. The hat trick was the first of his career. “That was kind of cool, something that doesn’t happen too often for a defenceman,” he said.
“It was a weird game, a high-scoring game. [. . .] Our play play went four for five, we scored on our first four ones. It’s one of those things where everything seemed to be clicking, especially for myself. Shots from the point sometimes don’t get through, sometimes they get blocked, but that day they were getting through and hitting the back of the net.”
With the playoffs approaching and their spot ensured, the team is solely focused on winning the elusive BCIHL championship, something that came very close to happening last year before they fell to Selkirk College.
“I know the guys here, from last year especially, are pretty bitter about it. We got guys [like] Jono Ceci, he’s been here for five years, all-time leading point getter in the BCIHL, and he hasn’t won it yet. We don’t talk about it too much, but I think everybody knows that we have a pretty special team this year and there’s guys that we want to win it for, like the senior guys. We have a special team, but it’s going to be a lot of work.”
After school, Berry-Lamontagna plans to try to make it professionally, wherever that may be.
“I’ve kind of always liked the idea of trying to go play pro somewhere overseas [. . .] I’ve put so much time and hard work into the game I think it would only be fair to myself to give myself that opportunity if it came. Obviously school, to get my degree comes first. But after school is done, I’d like to try to do that.”
Fun Fact
Mathew Berry-Lamontagna is no muggle. “I’m a big Harry Potter fan, to be honest with you. I grew up on the Harry books. I was a big Harry Potter fan when the movies came out.”
