The 21-year-old from Brentwood will be playing at Plattsburgh (N.Y.) State University this coming winter, and only VanderMale knows how tremendously difficult it was to get there.

Firing two hundred shots in his basement each and every day ... constant conditioning at Matt Lawrence's gym and on the track ... three years of playing hockey in the Eastern Junior Hockey League ... and many hours of work and study in between.

"It's not for everyone," says the 6-foot-1, 190-pound center, referring to playing hockey at the college level.

Many say they want to play college hockey, but it's such a difficult task to achieve these days at any level, not many actually get to play.

"What kept me going is the dream," says VanderMale.

The dream of playing in front of a college crowd. He adds, too, that his family, a hockey family that "always supported me," helped him keep his dream alive.

VanderMale's ultimate dream was to play Division I hockey.

He was in constant touch with the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, but despite a stellar season playing for the New England Huskies, a junior hockey team based in Tyngsboro, Mass., where he was the EJHL's fifth leading goal scorer and 11th leading scorer overall with 52 points (28 goals, 24 assists), things just didn't work out the way he wanted.

Yes, VanderMale was disappointed he didn't get a Division I offer.

"It's why I play the game and it was my No. 1 goal," he says, "but honestly I can say I did everything in my power to get to that spot. I knew I came very close, and did everything I could do."

VanderMale committed to attending Div. III Plattsburgh State in January. With no Division I offers in sight, he made it official just recently.

VanderMale also had offers from Cortland State and New England College, both Division III programs.

It was during a visit to Plattsburgh, N.Y., however, that he saw what he was looking for.

"They have a great hockey town up there," says VanderMale, noting the atmosphere surrounding the team.

When you go through the town before a game and see signs that say "Closed. At the game" all over the town, you kind of get a feeling for how fervent the people in Plattsburgh are about hockey. Though Plattsburgh State lost its conference (State University of New York Athletic Conference) final this past season, it has won two national championships at the Division III level.

Plattsburgh State definitely has a great hockey program, but it's the great atmosphere that also beckoned VanderMale.

VanderMale began playing hockey when he lived in Michigan. When he was 15 he moved to Brentwood and became a member of the New Hampshire Junior Wildcats youth hockey program. He played two years of high school hockey at Exeter High School and he was a sophomore member of the 2002 Division II state championship team.

From there he played junior hockey for the Freeze, which was based at The Rinks at Exeter. The next three years were spent in the EJHL, the first two for the Green Mountain Glades (Burlington, Vt.), the last for the Huskies.

He captained the Huskies this past season, and was named to the EJHL All-Star team.

VanderMale credits most of his success in his final season of junior hockey to conditioning coach Lawrence (Ironman Fitness), who trains a number of local athletes from the area.