April 29, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
For Will Toffey, his memories go as far as back as the wee toddler stages — not too long after he learned to walk.
Tyler Green thinks he started just a little later, around the age of five. Jeren Kendall was the late bloomer, picking it up when he was in the seventh grade thanks to his cousins.
Though all three now reside on the Vanderbilt baseball team, they have another thread connecting them — hockey.
“It is definitely a bond we have,” Green said. “We like to talk about it and live back the glory days with hockey.”
On a team chocked full of baseball talent, Toffey, Green and Kendall also displayed elite skill on the ice until they hung up the skates when high school ended.
Toffey was recruited by numerous Division I universities in the Northeast, including several who wanted him to play both sports. Green had Division III schools showing interest before he stopped playing travel hockey and decided to focus more on baseball. Kendall saw hockey as his winter sport and reprieve from baseball — a sport in which he was named the Wisconsin Player of the Year his last two years.
“When I wasn’t playing baseball — and that was very rarely — it was hockey,” Kendall said. “Hockey was just a way to get away from baseball a bit, get away from the swing, get away from the arm and take a break. I loved hockey.”
For Toffey and Green, hockey trickles through their families.
Toffey’s older brother, John, played baseball and hockey at UMass-Amherst (after transferring from Ohio State). He was selected in the ninth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played three years professionally in the East Coast Hockey League — two tiers below the NHL.
He is currently the baseball and hockey coach at Salisbury School, a boarding school in Connecticut — the same school Will went to. Serving as his high school coach, John had a strong influence on Will, especially when it came to the college decision and which sport to choose.
“I was looking up to him and he told me to pick one and go with it,” said Will, a native of Barnstable, Mass., whose father, Jack, played baseball at Rollins College in Florida.
Will, a First-Team New England Prep hockey selection who helped Salisbury to two New England Prep championships, certainly had his pick of the litter when it came to choices. Along with the numerous baseball offers, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound defenseman also received interest to play hockey from Ivy League institutions Cornell and Yale along with Hockey East schools Vermont and Maine. Several offered him to play both baseball and hockey.
“I was definitely split between liking (hockey and baseball) pretty equally in high school and as I was growing up so it was definitely a really hard decision,” said Toffey, who started at third base for the Commodores the first two games this season. “I just felt baseball is a better opportunity for me. I could see myself playing baseball in college more so than I could see myself playing college hockey.”
Green also grew up in a hockey family just outside of winter weather haven Buffalo in Williamsville, N.Y. In fact, every winter the Green family built an ice rink in the backyard.
“Buffalo weather, the winters made it easy — a lot of snow and a lot of cold,” he said, smiling. “We always had friends over and played on the backyard rink. It is the main sport in Buffalo. So when winters come around it is the big thing to do.”
His father, Sean, played collegiately in New York before playing professionally in Europe. Tyler’s younger brother, Owen, just 17, is playing professionally in Canada in the Ontario Hockey League for the North Bay Battalion.
At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Green looks the part of a hockey bruiser. He proved his versatility, playing forward, center and wing and was an all-conference selection and captain while leading Williamsville North to the New York state championship in 2011.
“I miss the high school games and the great school spirit we had,” Green said. “It was a lot of fun to play for the high school.”
Green played travel hockey all the way up to high school and continued to played for his high school team through his junior season. He received some interest from Division III schools but it “never got to anything serious.” Baseball was the favorite for the three-sport athlete, who also played tight end on the football team.
“I liked baseball better,” he said. “It was just kind of a feeling. It was not that I didn’t like playing hockey or any of the other sports, baseball I just always liked it a little more so I tried to pursue that.”
Basketball really didn’t pique the interest of Kendall. So looking for a way to spend the Wisconsin winters indoors and off the baseball diamond, Kendall picked up hockey in seventh grade when he started playing with his cousins.’
Like Green, his family built a hockey rink in the backyard every winter.
“That was nice — just playing a sport that was different than most people think,” said Kendall, who grew up in Holman, Wis., just across a lake from Minnesota. “I love telling people that. `Oh yeah, I’m a hockey player.’ Just because people are like, `What?’ It is either football, baseball or basketball so it is cool telling people I play hockey.”
Kendall never received much interest from colleges about playing hockey nor did he want it. Baseball was his sport; hockey was for enjoyment. He believes his younger brother, Justin, 16, will be the hockey star in the family as he is already getting looks from junior teams.
“I left that for my brother,” he said. “I’ve played baseball my whole life. My dad said I was hitting off tees when I was 3.”
Though hockey is no longer an everyday occurrence for the three, they find many of the skills they learned on the ice carry over to the diamond.
Racing around on skates while also withstanding the physicality requires balance, speed and agility. Toffey also believes tracking the puck takes good hand-eye coordination, not unlike hitting a baseball or stopping a hot shot to third.
Hockey also provided its fair share of bumps and bruises — and cuts.
Kendall lost four of his teeth — one of his teeth on the bottom have a chip — when one of his buddies’ sticks whipped up and smacked him in the mouth. Toffey remembers following over and over again on the ice when he was seven years old and hitting his chin on ice, requiring stitches. He’s broken several bones, including his thumb when someone fell on him.
“Definitely a high risk and high reward sport,” Toffey said.
Green, not surprisingly with his stature, says he avoided most major injuries.
“I have been in a couple scrums, a couple fights. I don’t have any big injuries,” he said. “Blood everywhere, never any broken bones. Nothing exciting like that.”
As far as which sport is tougher, though baseball isn’t the most physical, Green believes it requires more mental toughness.
“I think hitting (a baseball) is the hardest thing to do in sports,” he said. “Hockey, you can throw the skates and hit someone and have a good game. Baseball, you can’t really hide… Then again, some people don’t know how to skate. Skating is not exactly an easy thing to do.”
The pace of hockey prepped Toffey for the competitive moments of baseball, always keeping him alert despite the many moments where the game slows down.
“(Hockey) is such a fast tempo game,” he said. “There is always something to do. Something going on. You get a short break and you are right back into action. Baseball can be a little more laid back and slow. It still applies. I’m used to being so competitive that when I finally step into the box or get a ball (hit my way) I’m ready to go.”
