Ramsey: Moore's story should be Tigers tale

Ah, freshman year in college.

The mind widens. The hours of sleep lessen. The friendships begin and last for decades.

John Moore faces a choice. He can attend Colorado College and blend hockey with studies and a vibrant social life, or he can travel to Kitchener, Ontario, to play hockey. Period.

It's an easy choice.

This is your chance to be a teenage freshman, John, a chance that won't come around again. Come to the Springs for at least a year. You won't regret the decision.

Moore was selected Friday night by the Columbus Blue Jackets as the 21st pick of the NHL draft.

He's jammed with hockey gifts. He delivers mind-altering hits but also skates with precision and grace. He's on his way to a 15-year NHL career.

And he's only 18.

He could play 80-plus games for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League. Or he could enroll at CC.

In 2003, Mark Stuart faced a similar scenario. After being drafted No. 21 by the Boston Bruins, he enrolled at CC.

The Stuart era featured frightening nights for Western Collegiate Hockey Association forwards. He took pleasure in delivering vicious, on-ice justice. He even scared his teammates during afternoon practices at World Arena.

Yet Stuart doubled as a devoted English student at the CC campus a couple of miles away. He read Shakespeare and Dickens and Hawthorne.

He enjoyed a grand time on the ice and in the classroom. He had so much fun that he stayed three years.

He hopes Moore resists the temptation to travel to Kitchener.

At CC, Stuart learned to wear what he calls "hats." At practice, he wore his hockey hat. On campus, he wore his academic hat. And, in the evenings, he donned his social hat.

"It was good for me to learn a balance," Stuart said from Minnesota, where he's taking a break after the Bruins' season. "When you get to the pros, it's all hockey all the time.

"I learned how to juggle. I learned how to concentrate on hockey and concentrate on school - to wear a school hat and hockey hat.
"It's great to be an 18-year-old kid, and all you think about is hockey. That's great, but eventually you're going to have to juggle a lot of different things.

"You have to be able to turn the hockey off every once in a while and concentrate on something else and, in college, I learned that."

If Moore enrolls at CC, he will defy a current trend. The fad is to chase the money as soon as possible, and, of course, cash is a fine thing.

But what's often missed amid this gleeful grabbing is the image of a youthful athlete who dives into the pros too early and gets devoured.

I'm still trying to comprehend why goaltender Richard Bachman departed CC.

After a sensational freshman season, Bachman spent much of his sophomore year showing he needed at least one more season to develop.

Instead, he skipped away to the NHL's minor leagues.

Stuart took a longer, better route.

"Maybe I could have left after my sophomore year," Stuart said, "but the way I saw it, I might as well be overdeveloped. It's better to wait and be overprepared."

Stuart knows the unforgiving realm of the NHL He's seen the ugly train wrecks that doom young players who weren't prepared.

He speaks words of hard-won wisdom.

The kind of wisdom you earn in college.