Bo Pieper: Dedication Beyond The Ice
2/16/2018 10:29:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
by Victoria Rutigliano '18, special to QuinnipiacBobcats.com
He's in the computer lab on Super Bowl Sunday. He has seven year olds walking around on game day sporting his jersey. He's one of the top students in the engineering department at Quinnipiac. And he spent his summer interning for one of the best defense contractors in the country.
This is the Bo Pieper you don't know.
As a senior mechanical engineering major, Pieper carried a 3.92 GPA this fall and has a cumulative GPA of 3.79. Even with long bus rides to places like St. Lawrence in upstate New York, or a plane flight across the country to Arizona State, Pieper travels with a book in his hand. He treats his education the way he treats hockey: with dedication.
This summer, Pieper interned for Orbital ATK in Minneapolis, one of the top defense and aerospace engineering contractors in the nation. To keep up with the demands of hockey during the off-season, he went to lift every morning at 5 a.m. before heading to work and drove to the rink every evening after he got out.
Justin Kile, the dean of engineering at Quinnipiac, said Pieper is one of the top students in the engineering program.
"That's Bo," his father Dave Pieper said. "From carrying his bible to every road game [when he was younger], to his passion for education, and the Super Bowl was the biggest, most-watched television event of the year, and in his home state of Minnesota, and he's at the library. That is who he is."
It's not only his education that drives Pieper, but also some of his young fans. Seven-year-old Jack Mooney started wearing Pieper's jersey this season in the stands after meeting him at a season-ticket holder barbecue a few years ago. He often stays late waiting for Pieper and other players after the game with his pen in hand to get autographs.
"[Jack] has just admired him as a player and he has really been excited to talk with him and meet with him," Jack's mom Penny Leisring, who's also a psychology professor at Quinnipiac, said. "Bo always takes time to sign autographs for him to say hello, so I think he's always been a good role model for him."
On the ice over the past three years, plenty of changes have come to the men's ice hockey team: from the Bobcats jerseys, to the name of the team's arena, and even a yearly change to the roster. With all of these new additions, sometimes the constants go unnoticed. And there's one sure thing that's never changed: Pieper taking the ice each night.
Since joining the Quinnipiac men's ice hockey roster in October 2014, Pieper has played in 150 of the team's 152 games. This season, he has totaled 10 goals and six assists, ranking in the top five for points on the team.
During his time as a Bobcat, he has scored 63 points, including a team-high 13 goals last season. Those numbers may not top national charts, or earn him awards, but, for Pieper, it has never really been about the merit, anyways.
"For me, it's not that big of a deal if I'm not the one that's talked about all the time," Pieper said. "I kind of like to keep my mind on how I'm playing and how we're playing as a team."
Each year, Pieper improved a different aspect of his game. His freshman to sophomore year he broke out as a goal scorer, including the game-winner in a 4-1 win over Harvard in the ECAC Tournament Championship that clinched the Bobcats their first Whitelaw Cup in program history.
Pieper has focused on his own mind during his time with the Bobcats, but captain Chase Priskie notes that despite Pieper's quiet demeanor, many players look up to him, not just for his skill, but also for his work ethic.
"He just tries to come out and play his game every night and his game is kind of like an energizer bunny," Priskie said. "He just goes out, wins draws, blocks shots and just does all the things that doesn't get noticed in the media but is crucial to winning games."
Both of Pieper's parents laced up skates when they were young: his father Dave played hockey through college at Bemidji State and his mother Cheleen was a figure skater.
His father didn't want to push hockey on his two sons and tried them in every sport from soccer to baseball, but the lake outside their house in Minneapolis couldn't help but entice Pieper and his older brother Cannon to try out the sport in their blood.
From the day Pieper first laced up an old pair of skates his mom found in their basement, he was hooked. When he was nine, his family moved to Kelowna, B.C. so the boys could train with David Roy, a known skating coach for NHL teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars.
Pieper spent his summers in Vancouver with Tim Preston, a skills coach for Impact Hockey Development who has worked with numerous NHL players, and moved on to play high school hockey at Shattuck St. Mary's. He spent three years in junior hockey, both in the United States Hockey League and the British Columbia Hockey League, before he called Quinnipiac his home ice.
The team only has four regular season games left, and Pieper only 93 days left until he graduates. While he already has options post-graduation, Pieper still wants to continue what he started on his lake 18 years ago in Minnesota.
"I want to keep playing," Pieper said. "So I guess we'll see how this year finishes out and what kind of opportunities pop up and kind of just go from there."
He's in the computer lab on Super Bowl Sunday. He has seven year olds walking around on game day sporting his jersey. He's one of the top students in the engineering department at Quinnipiac. And he spent his summer interning for one of the best defense contractors in the country.
This is the Bo Pieper you don't know.
As a senior mechanical engineering major, Pieper carried a 3.92 GPA this fall and has a cumulative GPA of 3.79. Even with long bus rides to places like St. Lawrence in upstate New York, or a plane flight across the country to Arizona State, Pieper travels with a book in his hand. He treats his education the way he treats hockey: with dedication.
This summer, Pieper interned for Orbital ATK in Minneapolis, one of the top defense and aerospace engineering contractors in the nation. To keep up with the demands of hockey during the off-season, he went to lift every morning at 5 a.m. before heading to work and drove to the rink every evening after he got out.
Justin Kile, the dean of engineering at Quinnipiac, said Pieper is one of the top students in the engineering program.
"That's Bo," his father Dave Pieper said. "From carrying his bible to every road game [when he was younger], to his passion for education, and the Super Bowl was the biggest, most-watched television event of the year, and in his home state of Minnesota, and he's at the library. That is who he is."
It's not only his education that drives Pieper, but also some of his young fans. Seven-year-old Jack Mooney started wearing Pieper's jersey this season in the stands after meeting him at a season-ticket holder barbecue a few years ago. He often stays late waiting for Pieper and other players after the game with his pen in hand to get autographs.
"[Jack] has just admired him as a player and he has really been excited to talk with him and meet with him," Jack's mom Penny Leisring, who's also a psychology professor at Quinnipiac, said. "Bo always takes time to sign autographs for him to say hello, so I think he's always been a good role model for him."
On the ice over the past three years, plenty of changes have come to the men's ice hockey team: from the Bobcats jerseys, to the name of the team's arena, and even a yearly change to the roster. With all of these new additions, sometimes the constants go unnoticed. And there's one sure thing that's never changed: Pieper taking the ice each night.
Since joining the Quinnipiac men's ice hockey roster in October 2014, Pieper has played in 150 of the team's 152 games. This season, he has totaled 10 goals and six assists, ranking in the top five for points on the team.
During his time as a Bobcat, he has scored 63 points, including a team-high 13 goals last season. Those numbers may not top national charts, or earn him awards, but, for Pieper, it has never really been about the merit, anyways.
"For me, it's not that big of a deal if I'm not the one that's talked about all the time," Pieper said. "I kind of like to keep my mind on how I'm playing and how we're playing as a team."
Each year, Pieper improved a different aspect of his game. His freshman to sophomore year he broke out as a goal scorer, including the game-winner in a 4-1 win over Harvard in the ECAC Tournament Championship that clinched the Bobcats their first Whitelaw Cup in program history.
Pieper has focused on his own mind during his time with the Bobcats, but captain Chase Priskie notes that despite Pieper's quiet demeanor, many players look up to him, not just for his skill, but also for his work ethic.
"He just tries to come out and play his game every night and his game is kind of like an energizer bunny," Priskie said. "He just goes out, wins draws, blocks shots and just does all the things that doesn't get noticed in the media but is crucial to winning games."
Both of Pieper's parents laced up skates when they were young: his father Dave played hockey through college at Bemidji State and his mother Cheleen was a figure skater.
His father didn't want to push hockey on his two sons and tried them in every sport from soccer to baseball, but the lake outside their house in Minneapolis couldn't help but entice Pieper and his older brother Cannon to try out the sport in their blood.
From the day Pieper first laced up an old pair of skates his mom found in their basement, he was hooked. When he was nine, his family moved to Kelowna, B.C. so the boys could train with David Roy, a known skating coach for NHL teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars.
Pieper spent his summers in Vancouver with Tim Preston, a skills coach for Impact Hockey Development who has worked with numerous NHL players, and moved on to play high school hockey at Shattuck St. Mary's. He spent three years in junior hockey, both in the United States Hockey League and the British Columbia Hockey League, before he called Quinnipiac his home ice.
The team only has four regular season games left, and Pieper only 93 days left until he graduates. While he already has options post-graduation, Pieper still wants to continue what he started on his lake 18 years ago in Minnesota.
"I want to keep playing," Pieper said. "So I guess we'll see how this year finishes out and what kind of opportunities pop up and kind of just go from there."
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