It could not be a better time to be a young man named Frank DiChiara Frank DiChiara will turn twenty this September and will attend Yale in the fall.
In his first and only USHL season, DiChiara finished tied for fifteenth in the USHL in points. He finished third in scoring on the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, and scored the game winning goal in overtime for Dubuque to win the Clark Cup.
Frank DiChiara is the only non-collegiate free agent player attending the New Jersey Devils rookie camp. Oh, and by the way, Frank DiChiara grew up watching the Devils just a short distance away from his home in Ronkonkoma, NY.
The week-long camp is certainly keeping him busy. Practices, dry land work outs, and team meetings covering a variety of subjects are immersing him into the world of what life is like as an NHL player.
One of the youngest players at camp is also carrying some of the more impressive numbers into camp. At nineteen years old, carrying a reputation of being nearly a point a night player, and having scoring percentage last season in the USHL of 22.1%, DiChiara is looking to continue build on those numbers this week in camp.
This week is another building block to be placed in the strong foundation DiChiara continues to lay down for himself.
It is not easy being an undrafted free agent. Achieving a goal is always more satisfying when you earn it on your own and over come adversity. Then again, when youre used to working hard and achieving your goals, you develop your own sense of what it takes to achieve more than what others believe you are capable of achieving.
The sweater looks good Frank, you earned it.
Photo by Mark Ashmore
