In one of the smaller Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia, hockey has established a tight community. Families bring their kids to the rink and it takes on the feel of a social gathering. The mutual support is what really sticks out to 99-born defenseman Jack Cameron.
I started playing hockey when I was five years old for the Chebucto Minor Hockey Association. We were a very small organization playing out of Spryfield, Nova Scotia but we have produced a number of high level players over the years. Everyone played hockey growing up, in Spryfield and it was a great atmosphere to be a part of. It seemed like the whole community came out to support our minor hockey teams on Saturday nights. We had a small, older rink so it would get loud and you could really feel the passion from the small community behind our players.
Moving up through the age groups, Chebucto was too small for him to continue playing, so he joined the Halifax Gulls organization. In his second year of Bantam, their team won the Provincial and Atlantic Championships, which Cameron admits has been of the highlights of his young career.
After two years with the Gulls he graduated to one of Eastern Canada’s top midget program; the Halifax McDonalds, otherwise known as the Macs to the locals. Aside from their stellar jerseys, the Macs are known for their ability to collect the region’s best talent.
The way our midget system works is that each Major Midget team in the metro area was allowed to protect four players total across their two feeder teams, so that those players couldn’t play for a different metro team. From my team, the Macs protected myself and Shane Bowers. Our Macs team was great. We were young, played a fast paced game and had several talented players.
Most of his teammates were drafted in the QMJHL Draft after that season and Cameron was no different. He was selected in the fifth round by Victoriaville and likely would have gone higher if he hadn’t committed to attending Lawrence Academy the following year. From that team, Shane Bowers went on to play in the USHL and is now considered a potential first round NHL Draft pick. Barrett Dachyshyn (Halifax), Christian Huntley (Quebec) and Matthew Welsh (Charlottetown) are off the strong starts in the QMJHL and Welsh was selected to Canada White U17 who went on to win the World U17 Championships.
The Q draft was a great experience. I had already decided that I was going to attend Lawrence Academy, and relayed that to every team that interviewed me, so I had no clue that I’d be picked by Victoriaville. I didn’t end up going to [Victoriaville’s] camp as a result of my plans to play prep.
Cameron’s convictions about choosing the prep route could not have been clearer and it was a local Massachusetts tournament that had set the wheels in motion months before the draft.
Prep school was always the goal for me after I had traveled with the Macs to the Fall Beantown Classic. The coaches at Lawrence Academy reached out and made it easy for me throughout the application process. When I toured there I knew that it was exactly what I wanted in moving away from home. I was so confident that Lawrence Academy was the only place I wanted to go that I didn’t apply anywhere else.
In his first season in New England prep hockey Cameron showed his size, athleticism and two-way ability racking up a 5-15-20 line in 26 games. He was considered, by many scouts, to be one of the top uncommitted defenseman in New England, but wasn’t getting the kind of NCAA attention you’d expect for a player of his caliber.
I knew that some colleges would be hesitant with Atlantic Canadian players due to the amount of commits who have spurned college for the Q over the years. I was fine with having that on my back because I knew that I wouldn’t be one of those kids and that education was too important to my family.
Throughout my process, I had toured Brown and had been talking to them for a long time, and had just started conversations with a couple other schools before getting the call from Dartmouth.
The call from the Dartmouth coaching staff struck a chord with Cameron in ways that he hadn’t seen from other schools:
I knew as soon as I got the call from Dartmouth that it is where I wanted to be. I came to the States with the goal of playing Ivy League hockey, and being able to go to the Ivy school closest to Nova Scotia was a great opportunity. Coach Rose, Coach Gaudet and Coach Lassonde were all incredible people that I want to be involved with. I knew I wanted to go to a small school, and Dartmouth fit perfectly in every way.
So what lies next for Cameron? Well first things first, he is focused on this upcoming season with the Spartans:
The goal for this season is to win a New England Championship. Our team is very talented, and everyone is focused towards that goal. Moving forward, I’ll play at Lawrence until I graduate, and then play a year of juniors to prepare, before heading to Dartmouth.
When Jack looks around the locker room at Dartmouth in his freshman season he’ll realize that his route was likely different than most others. While many of Dartmouth’s players come from the New England Prep ranks, very few hail from Nova Scotia and were drafted in the early rounds of the QMJHL. However, what makes his story unique, was that he never wavered in his dream to play NCAA hockey despite not getting much attention in his first prep season. Many would have returned home and joined the QMJHL team which drafted them, but Cameron chose education and for that, it is no surprise he ultimately decided on Dartmouth.
Most players in the Q will never get the feeling of being a student athlete. I’m really looking forward to getting a great education and playing the sport I love. Education is really important to my family, as my mom is a professor, and this was a no-brainer for us when it came to deciding which route to choose.
Jack Cameron is a 3.75 star prospect and will be added to the Dartmouth 2018 Recruiting Class.