Giampa at home at Canisius
It would be difficult to top Matteo Giampa’s freshman season with the Canisius Golden Griffins.
The 21-year-old Virgil native did it all, winning Atlantic Hockey Association Rookie of the Year while leading the Griffs in all three major offensive statistical categories to become the first Canisius freshman to lead the team in scoring in 15 years.
As well, Giampa was an all AHA (Atlantic Hockey Association) Second Team and AHA All-Rookie Team honouree, was a two-time AHA Rookie of the Month and finished the campaign tied for third for most points and most goals by a first-year player in AHA history.
But as impressive as those accomplishments are, Giampa is far from content.
“I think I could be pretty satisfied with my year last year and come in here and kind of take it a little bit easier,” he said. “Obviously, I had a good last year with winning the Rookie of the Year. That is a big accomplishment. I’m very happy about that but hockey is a game where your last shift matters, your last game matters, your last year matters. So it doesn’t matter what I did last year, all that matters is what I’m doing right now and if I don’t have a good year this year, my year before doesn’t really mean anything.
“It’s all about improving and trying to become a better hockey player, a better person, just improving myself as a whole.”
Giampa never doubted his ability to play at the NCAA level.
“Obviously I had expectations going into the year, but you never know until you start playing games and experience the hockey in first person,” he said. “Last year I was going into a whole new school. I haven’t done school in two years and the hockey part, obviously the guys are going to be bigger, faster, stronger, better players. So there was a lot of uncertainty last year, but that uncertainty is what most people have to deal with.”
Giampa has three goals and 12 points in 11 games this season.
“Going into this year, I know the school a lot better than I did last year,” he said. “I know a lot is different, but the goal is the same — I want to play in the NHL — and it’s really just about of getting better every day.”
Giampa, who is majoring in sports management, chose Canisius for a variety of reasons.
“I just felt really comfortable with the staff,” he said. “Obviously there were other schools, but I ended up picking Canisius just because I was gonna fit in well here and I definitely made the right choice. I’m very happy to be here.”
Giampa admitted choosing a school at such a young age can be daunting task.
“It’s really hard. For me, it’s kind of just picking where I have the best chance to succeed. Not necessarily the biggest school or the school that has the best facilities or whatever you want to say. I picked the school that I thought I could excel in. And there’s a bunch of different things that go into that decision-making process.”
Giampa said being so close to home was a big factor as well.
“That was a little bit of a factor for me coming here,” he said. “It’s definitely nice to be closer to home. I haven’t really been close to home for four or five years now. It’s nice for my parents and my family so it’s pretty special.”
Giampa last played locally in 2018-19 for the Niagara North Stars U16. He then spent a season at The Gunnery, a prep school in Connecticut. He was slated to play for the St. Catharines Falcons in 2020 but the COVID pandemic wiped out the entire season.
“We had a good amount of days where we could skate on the ice (outdoors),” he remembered. “I guess we were lucky in that aspect and but I didn’t play the entire year with a team so that was definitely hard but you know it’s working out right now and you’ve got to focus on the now.”
Giampa then spent two years with Bonneville of the Alberta Junior Hockey League before joining Canisius.
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