AUBRIE MURRAY
Special to The Leader
Blue Devil goalie Anton Rosen and teammate Victor Tracy are from completely different provinces in Sweden and began their friendship after traveling for a future in hockey. School to school, team to team, country to country, they somehow manage to stay together.
“Growing up and watching each other slowly advance our hockey skills is a pretty remarkable feeling,” said Tracy.
At the age of 15, Rosen first moved away from his friends and family to live in Orebro, 3 hours away from home, to live by himself in an apartment in the city. A year after, Tracy moved into that apartment to play on the same team as Rosen.
Rosen dedicated all of his time and effort to hockey and living on his own, which made it easy to fall behind with school. Rosen got the opportunity to play with the older guys in the organization, which led him to drop out of school to pursue hockey even more.
After all of his hard work and time spent getting so far in hockey, he wanted to try something new, and maybe hockey, in America.
Rosen began to look at teams and schools. It seemed as though his best option was to attend prep school at Northwood Academy in Lake Placid, New York. Tracy also attended this prepschool where they made the transformation of speaking English everyday and working hard in hockey on top of heavy course loads.
Unlike Tracy, Rosen had absolutely no American experience beforehand. Even though he knew it would be tough, Rosen knew he had to get through it to be able to continue his hockey career by playing juniors. He would then be able to figure out what kind of offers he might get and then plan from there.
Picturing a goalie from Sweden, some people may not imagine someone like Rosen. “Blonde hair and blue eyes,” the stereotypical Swedish look. Rosen has dark hair, hazel eyes and is about seven or eight inches taller than the rest of his family. Rosen is 6’3” and lengthy, weighing around 190lbs.
After having a successful year at Northwood, Rosen needed to figure out what he was going to do next.
Rosen originally looked at Oswego but, shortly after, he visited SUNY Fredonia and immediately felt at home, needing to be a part of this team which looked like his new family for the next four years.
Ever since then, he has grown a great relationship with that team. He immediately knew he had made the right decision. Last season Rosen became the starting goalie for the hockey team in his sophomore year and helped the team to the SUNYAC Championship game after an incredible playoff run. They lost in the final vs. Geneseo.
During Rosen’s first year being a part of his new team, he got a phone call from Tracy letting him know that there was a high chance they would be playing with each other again. Sure enough, Tracy committed to SUNY Fredonia and enrolled in school that following Fall.
One of Rosen’s main influences to play hockey and gain such a strong love for the game was his father Kim Rosen. His father always encouraged him and pushed him to be a better player.
“I have learned everything from my dad. He’s the biggest role model there is; I know that is a cliché to say about your own father. But the guy is everything I wish I could one day grow up and take after,” said Rosen.
While Rosen has been in America, he has received devastating news about his father’s several surgeries and operations due to, what started off as, colon cancer.
His father was diagnosed with cancer before Rosen moved to America and is currently still battling it. No matter how badly he wants to be by his side, he knows that his father would not want to be the reason to hold him back from his next big steps he has to take in his life.
One of Rosen’s main inspirations is the incredible strength that his father has. Rosen has upheld the same kind of strength to continue on and be the person and player his dad is so proud of.
“Anton’s one of the most resilient players that I’ve played with. No matter where his mind set is he’s able to put it to the side and compose himself on the ice and play at his best performance,” said teammate Jacob Haynes.
“For the past seven years Anton and I have been best friends and lived together for five of those years. For us to be able to spend another three years together in college is phenomenal, especially continuing doing what we love. Anton is a great hockey goalie and a even better friend,” said Tracy.