Brock Higgs

Classroom

Brock is a business and management major who is also working on a master’s degree in management with a concentration in finance. He has a 3.72 cumulative grade point average and expects to graduate with both degrees in August 2014. He has been on the Dean’s List every semester and has earned ECAC Hockey All-Academic all three years eligible to date. It is his goal to enter the financial arena one day, either as a financial advisor or as an accountant.

Character

During his freshman year, Brock accidentally had his neck sliced by a skate during a game in Alabama. It was a freak play when one of his teammates was upended and the blade of his skate cut Brock’s throat. He realized he was cut when he took his glove off to check on the area and blood squirted out between his fingers. While in the trainer’s room, doctors worked on Brock’s neck, literally with their fingers in his throat to try to stop the bleeding until an ambulance arrived. Within 30 minutes he was in surgery, in which the doctors had to sew the inside of his throat first before closing the wound. Brock was in the hospital until only 7pm the next night when he went to the hockey arena to watch his teammates finish the two-game series, and sweep, with a win. He missed less than three weeks of hockey before he was back on the ice with his teammates. Speaking with the doctors after the accident, Brock learned the skate blade missed his jugular by an inch and his carotid artery by half an inch. Not surprisingly, he has said that coming so close to dying has given him a whole new perspective on everything he does and changed the way he approaches every day. 

Brock has stayed in Troy each summer since he began school to train while taking classes as well. His leadership has paid off as he is an assistant captain for RPI.

Community

Brock has been a stalwart in the community since arriving on campus. He has assisted local youth hockey teams of the Troy Albany Youth Hockey Association (TAYHA) with practices and he has been a counselor at the RPI Hockey Camp every fall. He has also participated in Habitat for Humanity, helping build houses in Troy for the less fortunate. Brock and his teammates also assist the RPI Newman Center with their fundraising activities each fall and they spend time supporting various other causes and participating in charitable events, including the City of Troy’s Turkey Trot, the United Way and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

Additionally, Brock and his teammates have embraced the friendship of a boy with cancer who loves hockey. Brock and his teammates made him part of the family, including giving him his own stall in their dressing room. They went on to teach him to skate and he has even been on road trips. Ben continues to be a part of the team three years later and he has also beaten his cancer. He has been free of it for over a year and continues to be one of the most inspirational people to have impacted the players’ lives.

Competition

Brock began his collegiate career with nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points, which ranked fourth on the team in scoring. In 33 games he had three multiple-point efforts. Among the awards he earned was ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Month for October. As a team, RPI played in the NCAA Tournament. He then led the Engineers in scoring with 23 points on three goals and a team-best 23 assists. He had multiple points in five of the contests he played. He then had a goal and 16 assists for 17 points in 33 games as a junior when he helped the team to second place in the league standings, which was the highest finish since the 1992-93 squad also finished second. Thus far this season, Brock has two goals and three assists for five points in the team’s first four games.