Concord High School is in the midst of a boys’ hockey dynasty.
After sharing the championship in the pandemic-shortened 2020 state tournament, the Crimson Tide rattled off back-to-back championships, including an undefeated run in this past season. At the center of this year’s championship squad was junior Brooks Craigue.
The sparkplug center captained the Tide and added a D-I Player of the Year award from the New Hampshire High School Hockey Coaches Association. Now, Craigue will have to make even more room in his increasingly crowded trophy cabinet because he is the Concord Monitor’s Boys’ Hockey Player of the Year.
Craigue is the complete package. He racked up goals and assists at a rate alarming for anyone unlucky enough to be tasked with defending him. In the championship game against Bedford, Craigue sealed the win by scoring the final goal in the 3-0 victory.
His coach, Dunc Walsh, found no shortage of compliments to pay his first-line center.
“He’s a great skater. Great forechecker,” Walsh said. “He’s good offensively. He can score. He sets up guys. And he’s a good penalty killer, good on the power play. He does everything. And he plays a lot bigger than he is because he’s not a big kid, you know? So he’s just fun to watch and just a really good player. One of the best we’ve ever had.”
All of those attributes help to form the elite playmaker that Craigue is. But the junior says they aren’t the reason for his success.
“I go harder than anyone else out there,” said Craigue. “I’m going to win every battle, and I’m gonna make my teammates around me better.”
Walsh agreed that Craigue’s attitude was a big part of his playing style and described him as relentless when on the ice.
“He’s been like that forever. I mean, I watched him growing up playing youth hockey, and he was that way when he was 11,” said Walsh. “That’s why they love playing with him, because he’s the first guy in every time. I mean, he’s fearless.
“And for his size, it’s almost to a fault how he’s fearless. Like he’ll take on anybody. I tell him, ‘Brooks, you’re not 6’1; you’ve got to pick your spot.’ ”
Despite all the shine he gets, Craigue remains a team-first player on the ice. He described himself as a playmaker rather than a goalscorer.
“I look to pass the puck before I shoot the puck. I like a nice assist,” said Craigue. “But I can put the puck in the net when I need to.”
Craigue’s style of play is perfect for his by-example approach to leadership. The co-captain isn’t the most vocal guy in the locker room, but he makes sure to treat every minute on the ice like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
“If I’m not going to practice like I play, then there’s no point in practicing. It’s just about hard work. I wanted to step up and show that I’ve been there before,” said Craigue. “Just be a leader for the younger kids. Show them what you have to do to win a championship.”
Craigue certainly felt the weight of championship expectations this season. He described sleepless nights where he worried about what a loss could mean to the team’s title bid. Concord never felt the sting of defeat in its 19-0-2 season, but Craigue said the tie against Bedford with three games remaining in the season tasted just as sour as a defeat.
“We thought it was a loss,” said Craigue. “(Bedford) thought it was a win. They were celebrating. Us and Bedford don’t really like each other. So just seeing that just lit a fire under us.”
The flames were enough to propel CHS to a title. Craigue described the feeling as a release of a season’s worth of pressure.
“It was just a relief,” he said. “We got the job done and we worked so hard all season. All that hard work paid off. So it was a surreal feeling.”
In all likelihood, Concord will have Craigue back next season to try and capture that feeling again. After losing star players in the past to prep schools, Craigue said he was 99% sure he is coming back to don the crimson and white one last time.
“To have him back would be great, and all his teammates would love to have him back,” said Walsh.