BLOG 40: Lewandowski follows in his brother’s footsteps

By Sandy Gholston

Ferris State hockey player Justin Lewandowski battles for a puck during a faceoff in an early-season home game in Ewigleben Ice Arena. (Photo/Sandy Gholston)

BIG RAPIDS – Justin Lewandowski is carrying on a family tradition of solid college hockey at Ferris State University.

Lewandowski’s older brother, Phil Lewandowski, played for the Bulldogs as a senior leader of the most decorated ice hockey team in Ferris history. That storied 2002-03 squad won the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season title, qualified for the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament and advanced to the Final Eight during Phil’s final collegiate season.

Thankfully for the Bulldogs, Justin had that history with Ferris and, frankly, he is just a Midwest-sort-of-guy as a native of Naperville, Ill. Coming from a big family that includes three brothers and two sisters, Justin came to appreciate a strong sense of family and old-fashioned Midwest values and wanted to play and live in a place where he could stay true to those values.

“I definitely wanted to stay in the Midwest and the fact my brother had played at Ferris and I knew about the program and the coaches made me feel a lot more comfortable about looking at playing at here,” said Justin, who had a few options for his college career, but ultimately picked Ferris. “I didn’t see myself as an east-coast guy and Ferris definitely felt more like home.”

Lewandowski had few a chances to visit Big Rapids to watch his brother Phil, who played from 1999-2003, lead the Bulldog icers. While his older brother was leading Ferris to championship glory (during the 2002-03 season), Justin was building the foundation for his own college hockey playing career as he competed on the junior level for three seasons (2002-05) as a member of the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League.

“I came up to see like three games, but at the time I was playing in juniors so that took up a lot of my time and I wasn’t able to get up here quite as much,” said the 5-foot-9 Lewandowski, who mentioned Phil is living in California, but no longer playing hockey after competing for a few years as a professional player. “But, I knew something about the program and I definitely felt comfortable.”

Lewandowski, who plays the wing for the Bulldogs, has been in a comfort zone for the Bulldogs as he entered Saturday’s contest at Western Michigan with seven goals and five assists for 12 points so far this season. He is tied for fifth on the team’s list of top scorers (Justin Menke also had 12 points prior to competition on Saturday in Kalamazoo).

There’s still a lot of hockey left to be played for the Bulldogs. Lewandowski hopes for big things, as a senior. But, when his playing career is finished, he has dreams he hopes become reality. Hockey is still in his blood, and Lewandowski would love an opportunity to pass along some of what he has learned to younger generations of hockey players as a coach, but if that doesn’t come to fruition, on the ice, he has an other sport that appeals to him, on the diamond: baseball.

But, Lewandowski still has plenty of goals to achieve in his senior season of college hockey before he looks that far into his future.

If you have any questions, ideas or comments feel free to contact Sandy Gholston at sgholston2@netzero.com