By Warren Kozireski —
Niagara University freshman defenseman David Posma saw his brother, Mike, move into Division I hockey one year ago with the Boston College Eagles. Now he has made the same leap to Atlantic Hockey.
But they didn’t reach this level blindly as their father, Bob, played two years on defense at Plattsburgh State from 1991-93 and their uncle Mike played on the blueline at Western Michigan University for four years followed by one season in the American Hockey League with Utica and eight more seasons playing professional in Switzerland. He was a second-round draft pick of St. Louis in 1986.
“I don’t know; we have four people playing hockey in my family with three defenseman and my brother ended up being a forward—I don’t know how,” Posma said in early January. “We’re two opposite players; he’s more of a skill guy and I’m more hard-nosed.”
While his brother has scored four goals over the one-plus season at Boston College, David is still looking for his first collegiate goal through the first 21 games. But the Niagara defense combined had only scored once in 103 games played, so he is not alone for the Purple Eagles.
“Everything has been going great; we have an unbelievable group of guys here and I think we can achieve very good things this year,” Posma said. “It’s not to us about all the skill, it’s about the hard work we put in in practice every day and we have this thing—it’s to get one percent better every day.
“The speed from juniors to college is a big step for me, but all the guys push me in practice.”
But the coaching staff has shown confidence in the younger defensemen including Posma with three or four underclassmen among the six or seven man group most nights.
“He has been awesome; he’s obviously a really young guy, but his juice and his energy is incredible,” Niagara head coach Jason Lammers said about Posma. “His maturity for a young guy is off the charts and he’s been really impressive as a player. He’s a big part of what we’re doing. Our first year guys have done a phenomenal job of getting acclimated to college hockey.”
Posma stayed in the tri-state area for all but one season of his hockey developmental period starting at Brewster Ice Arena in Westchester.
“I grew up playing for the Westchester Express and then I played for the Avalanche (North Jersey) and then went to play prep school for a year (Mount Charles Academy, Rhode Island)) and then my senior year playing juniors in New Jersey (with the Titans in the NAHL).
Niagara was 6-2-2 in non-conference games through mid-January and two games above .500 overall and just a weekend sweep out of the top-four in the conference. Through the team’s first 22 games this season, the 6’0”, 170 lb. left-shot freshman led the entire team with a +5 plus/minus rating.
Posma didn’t really remember his first collegiate point—a secondary assist against Sacred Heart on Oct. 21, but rest assured he will remember his first collegiate goal, whenever it comes.
“Oh yeah, still waiting for that one to come.”
(Photo by James P. McCoy, Niagara University Athletics)
