Sacred Heart University Hockey player Michael Gilroy has quite an interesting story.

Gilroy, a North Bellmore native grew up idolizing his two older brothers who were stars at Boston University: Kevin and Matt Gilroy. Both were captains for the Terriers, and Matt had a successful NHL career, playing in 225 NHL games for the Rangers, Panthers, Lightning and Senators.

Matt was also a three-time All American and won the Hobey Baker award in 2009 when his Terriers won the National Championship. Matt also had success overseas in the KHL, he was a two-time All-Star and led Jokerit to a deep playoff run in 2017-18, when he also represented Team USA at the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea.

Growing Up With an NHLer

For Michael Gilroy, he is the youngest in the family, and growing up one of his favorite things to do was go up to Boston to watch his brothers play.

“I was really young, but going up to Boston growing up, it was like, oh we’re going to a BU game this weekend and go watch my brothers play,” Gilroy said. “That was always so much fun, it was such a different world up there and they’re crazed for hockey.”

Michael was able to still play and keep his dreams to play in the NHL, so when Matt was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Rangers, it was a dream come true for the family.

“Growing up, even though we lived on Long Island, we were big Ranger fans, and when he got signed by the Rangers it was just the coolest thing,” Gilroy said.

Matt, along with his brothers, are second-generation college athletes. Their father Frank was selected in the eighth round of the 1981 NBA draft to Philadelphia, after starring at St. John’s.

Matt Gilroy was able to earn a spot with the New York Rangers in his rookie season. For Michael and the rest of the family, going to watch Matt play at Madison Square Garden, where their father had played his college basketball, was something they would never forget.

“I thought it was the coolest thing ever, playing for our home town team, even though we’re from Long Island, we were Ranger fans, so we’d go to MSG and watch him play, and also see him on TV when they would play on the road,” Gilroy said.

Development as a Player

Michael wanted to be able to play in the NHL, as is the dream with any young hockey player. But he saw his brother do it, for their hometown team and knew he would want to do that. Like his brother, Michael was a steady defenseman who played for the Suffolk PAL Juniors before joining the Jr. Islanders in the USPHL for two seasons before going up to the Premier team.

“Playing there was so cool to play in that facility where the Islanders practice and play from home, I’d be in my own bed every night, I’d have family come to games so that was really really cool,” Gilroy said.

Before playing for the premier team, Michael was given an invitation to the New York Islanders Rookie Mini-Camp in the summer of 2015. Gilroy would lineup against Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Ross Johnston, Michael Dal Colle, Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech and Ilya Sorokin. This helped him better his career and saw him play against some of the best players in the world.

From Long Island to Sacred Heart

During his career, Michael Gilroy wanted to take his hockey to the next level. When looking at schools, he liked one because of its location, the direction the program was going, and the academics.

“It’s perfect,” Gilroy said. “The campus is beautiful, the location is great. It’s not close to home but not too far away. And the academics here are great as well.”

And when Michael Gilroy met Sacred Heart Head Coach C.J. Marotollo, he knew that this was the place for him. Gilroy is currently an exercise science major at the school.

The future of Sacred Heart hockey is definitely bright and 2021 Sacred Heart senior Michael Gilroy knows that is the truth, with a new state-of-the-art arena coming and one of the most underrated coaches in college hockey, more players will want to play for the Pioneers.

“The new rink is going to be awesome, and what [Marotollo] has brought to this program with the players from top to bottom, it’s going to be a great future, with CT ice as well after winning that last year.”

All quotes in this article were from Michael Gilroy. Stay tuned for more coverage of Sacred Heart Pioneers hockey as they head into the playoffs.

Christian Gardecki

A Native of Danbury, CT. Christian is one of the longest tenured Drive4Five writers, Christian Gardecki began writing for Drive4five In May of 2017. Christian covers Minor League Hockey and the Bridgeport Islanders for Drive4Five. Outside of Drive4Five, Christian was the captain of his High School Hockey team and currently attends Hofstra University with a major in journalism. Christian was the play by play broadcaster for the Danbury Westerners summer collegiate baseball team during their 2021 NECBL Championship. Christian also was the Public Address Announcer for the Danbury Hat Tricks Minor Pro Hockey team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League and NAHL Junior team from 2019-21.