Hard work, dedication to fitness helps senior excel

By Shane Frederick

MANKATO — Jerad Stewart knows the exact moment he became a fitness fiend.

The Minnesota State men’s hockey forward was about 10 years old and slouched on the sofa watching TV, he said, when his oldest brother, a minor-league hockey player at the time, got him up and moving.

“He said, ‘Get off the couch and put your shorts on. You’re going to the track with me,’” Stewart recalled. “From then on, I worked out six days a week every summer for my entire life.”

Stewart, who is now a senior for the Mavericks, keeps close tabs on his body, whether its his weight, his nutrition or his hydration. He’s often seen leaving the locker room with a gallon jug full of water and sometimes a small, rolling suitcase containing an electronic muscle stimulator.

“It’s part of the training I do,” he said.

Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said he can’t recall another player who was as in tune to his body as the 5-foot-11, 210 pound Stewart.

“He’s just a very dedicated kid,” Jutting said. “He has been forever. And it’s not something that started here (at MSU). It started long ago. It’s why he was able to start as a tailback in 10th grade at Hastings High School.”

Indeed, Stewart was a four-year letterwinner in football and earned three letters in hockey before arriving at Minnesota State straight out of high school.

Unlike other 18-year-old college rookies, Stewart was physically ready to make the jump to college hockey without playing at the junior level first, Jutting said, and he played in every game as a freshman.

“He plays with energy, and he plays hard all the time,” Jutting said. “He brings it every night. He’s very consistent in his effort. He’s very good defensively as a forward, very responsible, and he’s a very good forechecker. He gets to loose pucks, and he wins a lot of battles.”

That play hasn’t translated into a lot of scoring — at least until a week ago.

Over the first 114 games of his collegiate career, Stewart scored 16 goals and assisted on 15 others. But last Friday against Alaska-Anchorage, he broke out with four goals and an assist for the Mavericks’ first five-point game in eight years.

“If there’s a kid who deserved a game like that, it’s him,” Jutting said.

Stewart now leads Minnesota State in scoring with five goals and nine points. Heading into tonight’s series-opening game against Michigan Tech, is he now the Mavericks’ go-to guy?

“He needs to score more,” Jutting said. “That’s got to be part of what he does for our team, no question. But he does a lot of other things for our team, too.

Stewart said he has high expectations for himself, whether it’s on the ice or in the weight room.

“I know what I’m capable of,” he said. “I really just try to play to my potential. I don’t think anyone expects to score four goals, but I just try to stay positive.”

That attitude, he said, comes from his older brothers, whether it’s Jason — the one who got him off the couch — who played four seasons of college hockey at St. Cloud State and five years as a professional player; Joe, whom Stewart called “the best high school football player I ever watched; or Jake, with whom Stewart played prep sports.

There might not be younger Stewart brothers for Jerad to influence, but there will be younger kids, as Stewart changed his major to elementary education a couple of years ago.