Profiles

Brandon Hawes stands tall at 6’6, allowing him to tower over his opponents.  The defensemen comes from Brielle, New Jersey, where he first started playing hockey on the frozen ponds of the winter months.

    
“I always played pond hockey as a kid.  To this day, it’s still my favorite hockey experience with my friends and teammates,” Hawes said when asked how he started.

It wasn't until his freshman year of high school, after some convincing from a group of his friends, that he took his talents to a more competitive level.  Thats when he started playing at Manasquan High School for all four seasons and then joined the New Jersey Jr. Titan’s club team… all while staying true to round up games on the pond during the colder months.

Despite the fact he'd spend hours out in the cold, playing until it was too dark to see the puck, Brandon Hawes has said that his decision came down to two things, “it’s location and opportunity for hockey.  I come form a coastal town so going to a school near the beach was something I looked forward to.  Finding a school where I could still play hockey for a great organization was also at the top of the list when searching.” 

Going into his junior year at CofC to study marketing, Brandon is looking forward to another season.  We asked him what his favorite part about being on the team was, to which Hawes responded, “Road trips with the boys.”  He then added, “there are always a lot of laughs and good memories made outside the rink along with on the ice.”

“I was just the shooter tutor in the driveway for my brother,” Brett Epstein says on how he first got into playing hockey.  The starting goalie has certainly come a long way since being the puck target for his older brother.  Just over ten years of serious hockey playing later, Epstein has enjoyed his time playing both ice and roller hockey — taking him all over the world at various points in his playing career.

Growing up with hockey surrounding him, Brett Epstein credits his roots for his devotion to the sport.  “I grew up on Long Island, with the New York Islanders right up the street so, for better or worse, I have had a passion for them for as long as I can remember.”  No matter what life threw at the goalie, hockey was there for him.  Whether it was rooting for the Islanders, target practice with his brother, playing on various ice and roller hockey teams, Brett had an outlet in his passion for hockey.

The ultimate test of just how much hockey did for him came three years ago, when Brett decided to attend The College of Charleston.  “It was a new experience, with no one I knew.  At times it felt very lonely and hard for me to break in to during my freshman year, but the hockey team felt like home.”  After The CofC Cougars brought Epstein onto the team, Brett found himself more intent on staying rather than transferring while crediting the team for the person he has become, stating, “I would say that the hockey team certainly kept me at The College in my early days and helped me grow immensely as a person and a student.”

Today — as he gets ready to embark on his senior year at the College of Charleston — Brett Epstein hopes to make an impact on other students the same way the team had for him.  “I can confidently say that the College of Charleston hockey team has served it’s purpose in making me a better athlete, student, and overall person.  It has become my passion and goal to help other students with the transition from high school to college, like the team had done for me.”

When asked what the best part about being on the College of Charleston hockey team is, Coach Steve Barton stated, “The players!”  It’s one of those quick answers you’d expect from most coaches, but Barton’s response was different.  “Everyone is on the team because they want to be there, not because they need to be.  The passion that everyone has for the game is something that you don’t see in a lot of teams.”

Steve Barton has resided in Charleston for ten years and he has dedicated the past three years to coaching the CofC team.  His hockey career started 24 years ago when a family friend suggested he learn how to play hockey after he and his family moved from Atlanta to the greater Boston area.  Since then, Barton has loved his time on the ice as well as rooting for his favorite team, The Boston Bruins.  

After playing hockey at The Governor’s Academy, a prep school in Byfield, Massachusetts, Barton then played four seasons as a record-breaking center at The Citadel, where he, "led the team in scoring [his] junior year, holding team records for points in a game until [his] senior year when Citadel played College of Charleston.  In that game [he] only had eight points versus CofC.”

Despite that fact, Barton still holds team records for the most assists at Citadel with 83 in his four seasons at The Military College of South Carolina.  Upon graduation, Steve started his coaching career as the assistant coach at the Citadel prior to moving a few blocks south within Charleston.  “I wanted to break out from where I had played in college,” Barton said about his move three years ago to coach Citadel’s cross-town rival, The College of Charleston.  

During the 2016-17 season, Barton was promoted from assistant coach to head coach.  He led the team to an incredible record of 9-4-2, with wins against hockey teams from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.  This success paved the way for The College’s eligibility to rejoin The Blue Ridge Hockey League under the ACHL for the 2017-2018 season.