Raleigh native Alex Wilkinson found a different kind of hockey success at Army
There’s an ever-increasing number of hockey success stories out of Raleigh, but none quite like Alex Wilkinson, who is going pro in something that definitely isn’t sports.
One of the last of the first generation of Triangle players to pick up the game after the Carolina Hurricanes arrived, like many of his peers, Wilkinson had to leave town to pursue his hockey dreams. He never expected where they would take them.
After a distinguished four-year hockey career at Army, Wilkinson will report to Fort Sill in Oklahoma in July to begin training as an artillery officer, giving new meaning to the old cliche of having a howitzer of a shot.
“It’s definitely going to take a little bit of time to sink and and grasp my journey and where I come from,” Wilkinson said. “Nowadays, hockey in Carolina has definitely progressed a lot. Some of the best coaches I’ve ever had have been from Raleigh and are still in Raleigh. Without those guys, there’s absolutely no way that I nor the seven or eight other kids who are still playing or have played at D-I levels, pro levels would have made it.
“Coming from Carolina has made me a better player. It improved my work ethic. Those opportunities were never just there. It was always something we had to go out and search for rather than just being where we were.”
Wilkinson was a second-round USHL draft pick in 2011, the top junior league for college-bound players, but was cut twice by the team that selected him. His junior career instead took him to Chicago and Connecticut, a four-year odyssey that led him to Army as a 21-year-old freshman.
He never saw himself at a military academy, but Army came looking for him after the coaching staff saw him play for the nearby Connecticut Oilers junior team, where everything clicked for him.
“He found a way,” Raleigh youth coach Colin Muldoon said. “And thrived.”
Wilkinson spent four years as the rock at the center of the Army defense from the day he stepped on campus, the Atlantic Hockey Association defenseman of the year in 2018 and AHA sportsman of the year and a first-team Senior CLASS Award student-athlete all-American in 2020 — the third Army hockey player to be so honored. Remarkably, he committed only one penalty over his final two seasons, none as a senior. In 132 games, Wilkinson had 17 goals and 58 assists.
It’s no coincidence these were four solid seasons for Army, which won 19 games in Wilkinson’s freshman year and went 17-13-3 this season and had a shot to win 20 games for the first time in more than 20 years.
“’Wilkie’ has been a huge part of that,” Army coach Brian Riley said. “He came in here and had an unbelievable career. He’s everything you hope players will be when they’re part of your program. It goes without saying he was a very good player, but even a better person. It’s hard to go through this place without having some tough days. You never would have known that from seeing Wilkie.”
Under different circumstances, Wilkinson might be taking a run at pro hockey, giving the ECHL a shot, in many ways a prototypical modern defenseman, undersized — 5-foot-10, 186 pounds — but able to skate and move the puck. That’s not an option for a cadet. After his training at Fort Sill, he’ll head to Fort Lewis, outside of Seattle, to join the 2nd Infantry Division Artillery. That’s his pro career.
“I just think he was a great fit for West Point and West Point was a great fit for him,” Riley said. “He has tremendous leadership qualities. I am so confident and excited to see this next journey for him as an officer.”
As for his college career, it ended abruptly when Army’s season was cut short on the eve of the AHA playoffs in March, and thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, he’s not even on campus for the end of his final semester at West Point, although he’ll have to go back — and quarantine for two weeks — for graduation in June.
He has to shave for his Zoom classes, but there are no virtual inspections of his quarters. It’s an unusual finish to his time at Army, but he took an unusual route to get there.
“I would almost certainly choose West Point again, knowing what I know now,” Wilkinson said. “It was always important to me that I was setting myself up for success after hockey. No matter how good you are, hockey is always going to end. I wanted to ensure I had something to fall back on whether my career ended after juniors or college or pro or whatever. Being a cadet, learning what I’ve learned through the experiences that I’ve had, it has been a phenomenal path for me. I’d choose it again if I could go back.”
It turned out to be the right fit, and at the end of one journey, he begins another.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Raleigh native Alex Wilkinson found a different kind of hockey success at Army."
