This will be a recurring column focusing on alumni captains from a different sport each month. The past captains will offer advice to current athletes and students on all realms of life. The intention is to highlight the captain experience and how the positions both shape them as leaders and inform how they interact with others.

When my brother, Dan McLaughlin, was in high school, he kept a blue plush blanket at the foot of his bed. McLaughlin held many titles during his time in Brookline schools, but paramount to his happiness was his position as captain of the boys varsity hockey team. The corner of the blanket was embroidered in red with the year 2013 and just below read“Captain.”

However, it almost seemed as though the red thread had pulled from the blanket and seeped beneath his very skin. It was the pillar against which he measured his behavior and his role, dictating his demeanor and spirit.

Nearly 10 years later, the blanket remains a constant presence in his life. Draped over a chair in his office, it is a reminder of the leadership skills he obtained on the hockey team that allow for productive discourse and amicable colleague collaboration in his current life.

In 2012, Jack Corcoran, a friend of McLaughlin’s, was also governed by how he felt a leader should behave in his role as captain. Corcoran illustrated his team as a unified collective, bestowing on them the title of best friends. He said he was able to develop an understanding of each individual and determine how best to work with them.

“Everyone is taught differently and learns differently. You might be able to yell at your friend, because you know that they can take it. But for others you must recognize the position of authority you have over them and how intimidating you may be to them. For example, as a captain, you need to understand someone might not be as receptive to a more confrontational tone,” Corcoran said. “In the workplace, I’ve found some people require different forms of communication and demonstration. Being a leader teaches you how to accommodate all different types of people.”

During the interviews with 2020-21 hockey captains Jack O’Brien and Jacob Gurdin, one truth became clear: the dynamics of their friendship have remained the same. Evident in their easy camaraderie, their friendship transcended any obligatory teamwork. As they joked, they retreated back into old rhythms and their laughter interrupted most of their responses.

Thomas O’Brien described the team as “one of the coolest family atmospheres” that he had ever been a part of and Jacob Gurdin, having played hockey since a very young age, declared that his time on the varsity team manifested as the best four years of his hockey career.

Both are older brothers of current hockey players, junior Noah Gurdin and sophomore Thomas O’Brien, and the pair had plenty of brotherly advice to offer.

“I realized that it’s important, even if you don’t feel like anyone is watching, to assume that someone always is. Some people lead, some people follow. Even if you haven’t been designated as a captain or other leader, you can still choose to be one,” Jacob Gurdin said. “I hope Noah chooses to be one; I think he’d be really good.”

Jacob Gurdin also said that while he has had several role models, he found the most influential to be former Tabor Academy and Boston University (BU) hockey player Travis Roy.

Roy was an outstanding athlete, a reputably well-rounded individual and ultimately one of the most highly recruited high school hockey players in the country of his time. However 11 seconds into his first BU hockey game, he fell into the dashboards and was paralyzed from the neck down. Following the trauma, he established the Travis Roy Foundation to provide monetary and emotional support to others with spinal cord injuries.

“We can all learn something from Travis Roy and how he went about life. He always said that everyone has two options but only one of them felt like a choice. He chose to get up every day and help others,” Jacob Gurdin said. “As a captain, he showed me that what is most important is just to make my goal to be of helping others. Even if I’m having a bad day, it doesn’t mean someone else needs to too.”

A two-year alum of the high school, Jack O’Brien expressed how much he hopes his brother is able to enjoy his time on the hockey team. He said that he hadn’t predicted how shocking it would feel when there would suddenly be an absence of hockey in his life.

“Looking back, I wish I didn’t take it for granted. I want to tell Thomas and all of them to never wish for it to go faster because it really is over in a blink of an eye,” Jack O’Brien said. “Sooner than later you’ll be two years out doing something else and reminiscing. I’m coaching youth hockey now because I really wanted to find some way to get back into it.”

Corcoran described high school as a unique experience when a person is constantly surrounded by friends and other contemporaries. He said the rather inconsequential moments are the ones most vividly remembered as they feel so exclusive to the high school experience.

“Weirdly, I miss the bus rides home the most. We’d each bring cold-cut sandwiches and eat them together on the way home,” Corcoran said. “I hope all current high school students understand how special this time is. I know you may not look forward to going to class, but go if only to chat with people. Say ‘hi’ to people in the halls. Get involved in different clubs. Just find ways to connect with people.”

As Jacob Gurdin and Jack O’Brien’s conversation about their captaincies quieted, Jacob Gurdin remarked that the pair should get lunch soon. Jack O’Brien explained that as he is currently deployed in the military, he wouldn’t be on leave for a very long time. But there was a heartening warmth in Jacob Gurdin’s “well whenever you can.” Despite any distance, their friendship is unwavering. There was honesty and integrity in their leadership together but there was also love. And love there still is.