By Brendan Price and Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com
Miles McCue has been one of the prime movers for the Utah Outliers the last couple seasons, both of which saw the Outliers become the Mountain Division’s only representatives thus far at the USPHL Premier National Championships. McCue, who is third all-time in Outliers scoring with 112 points, hopes to make it a third straight trip and their most successful. From there, he has an NCAA ice hockey future ahead of him at Lawrence University, to which he has committed for the 2023-24 season.
He spoke with USPHL Premier Mountain Correspondent Brendan Price for a video interview, from which this article utilizes his quotes.
“Approaching my second year here in the USPHL, my age-out year, just throughout the season [I was] playing I just started communicating with some teams,” said McCue, a 2002-born native of Plano, Texas. “Lawrence was one of first few teams that reached out to me early on in the year. We just started communicating, after we talked a little bit, I got to know their coaching staff pretty well, went out for a visit and after I visited the school, I just knew it was the right spot for me and I was happy to announce my commitment.”
He will be working with Head Coach Brett Wall, who was a USPHL Premier head coach for years with the Hudson Havoc before joining Lawrence in 2002. Also on the staff for Lawrence staff is Jon Skarlis, the South Shore Kings’ former USPHL 18U head coach and an NCDC assistant coach.
McCue is excited about working with the entire Lawrence staff, but first wanted to express his appreciation for all that Head Coach Paul Taylor, General Manager Kevin McCloskey, and the rest of the Outliers staff have done to make him the player he is today.
“It’s been an incredibly great experience. We’ve been very successful the last two years, and from that it’s been a ton of fun, but also a lot of room for growth,” said McCue. “Being on a winning team, you learn how to establish that winning culture, and coming back for another year and trying to repeat the same thing as well, it comes with a lot of challenges to repeat that dominance. It’s a really good experience for me and learning how to adapt and play in different kinds of situations and that will help me be more successful in college hockey.
“What’s taken off for me is my offensive ability. Coming into the league, I had some offensive skill, but I didn’t really know the best ways to use it and how to grow it into a more mature style of offense,” said McCue. “Being able to play two years in this league and being able to get the opportunity playing with Paul Taylor and the Outliers, I think my offensive game has developed and I’ve become much more of a dynamic player to make me more of a threat offensively against other teams.”
The Outliers entered February as the overall USPHL Premier points leaders, but know there’s a lot of stiff competition both within the Mountain Division and league-wide that will do their best to get in the way of the Outliers’ push to a hopeful National Championship. McCue is all in on whatever his coaches and teammates ask of him to make this the very best Outliers season ever.
“Definitely the goal for the rest of the year is to go through and try to win it all. We have a good team this year – try to win the division again and see what we can do at Nationals, try to take home the Championship,” he said. “Once we secure that, next year I’m looking to keep developing my game and trying to be the best player I can be for Lawrence, keep winning games and be the best Viking I can for them as well.”
The USPHL congratulates Miles McCue, his family, the Utah Outliers and Lawrence University for his commitment.
