After an official visit to the University of New Hampshire during a rival ice hockey game against the University of Maine, then-18 year-old defenseman Justin Agosta committed to play for the men’s ice hockey team.

“It was a whiteout and I loved the atmosphere,” Agosta said. “So I didn’t even continue to go to other schools, I just committed right there and at that time I felt it was the best place for me.”

Agosta was in an interesting situation – he didn’t see any playing time in his freshman year at UNH. With all of the defensemen returning to an overall healthy team, Agosta didn’t crack the lineup.

This, however, ended up being a “blessing in disguise,” according to Agosta. It gave him one extra year of eligibility.

Today, Agosta is a 24-year-old graduate student playing his last year of eligibility for the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team while studying to get his MBA.

But graduate students aren’t exactly common on the men’s hockey team, according to head coach Rand Pecknold.

“Certainly it’s a little unusual to have a player come in for one year that’s older,” Pecknold said. “But he has integrated well into our team core.”

Pecknold commends Agosta for knowing when to lead, yet not being “too aggressive” with his role on the team.

Agosta is from East Meadow, New York, and is now living near New York City. In choosing Quinnipiac he wanted to be closer to his family and friends from home. He also saw something special growing at the school in Hamden, Connecticut.

“The culture that was being built at Quinnipiac was something I wanted to be a part of,” Agosta said.

Quinnipiac was a chance for him to begin a new journey.

“The other big thing was I just wanted a fresh start,” Agosta said. “It took me a little longer than other people to mature into college so I just thought when I came here, I’d get a fresh start and it was good opportunity.”

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It all began in Long Island, where a 7-year-old Agosta picked up a hockey stick and started playing in the street. He then began playing roller hockey and later switched over to ice hockey when he was 8 years old.

There isn’t one memory in particular that stands out to Agosta from his earliest days of hockey – it was the overall experience.

“[It was] me and my dad, all the travel and the trips we did together and stuff,” Agosta said. “Just being with him and just in general, just hockey, the culture. That whole thing is just a great memory, the people, the friends I’ve met.”

One of those friends he grew up with is current teammate K.J. Tiefenwerth, a junior forward who transferred last year from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

“[K.J.] told me a lot of what happens here, about coach  [Reid] Cashman,” Agosta said. “I thought the change would be good and I thought this was the perfect place.”

Living in the moment and focusing on the next game is important for any player, but departing from a team after only one season isn’t exactly a part of a player’s plan. As members of a team, athletes form a special kind of brotherly bond with one another, and Agosta only gets one year to bond with this group.

“These guys are unbelievable, and I knew that from K.J,” Agosta said. “Most of the guys here are going to go on to play some type of hockey after this so we’ll run into each other down the road.”

With no games the weekend of Oct. 25, Agosta said he planned on bringing a couple of his teammates home with him. Getting to know the team off the ice this way has allowed him to become very familiar with the team dynamic.

“You have different groups of guys,” Agosta said. “You have guys like, let’s say, Connor Clifton, he’s like one of the funniest guys. He’s always in your face and he’s always a part of it. Then you got the guys that get the team going, Soren Jonzzon is the one that’s yelling before the games.”

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Though his time at Quinnipiac will be short-lived, Agosta hopes to go as far as he can with hockey after college.

“Hopefully I’ll get some type of opportunity to keep playing and we’ll go from there,” Agosta said. “If not, I have my MBA to fall back on.”

The MBA program is usually two years long, but Agosta has arranged his schedule so he can take all of his courses during a seven-week segment. Agosta took two classes in the summer and will be taking a few more in the winter. When he leaves in May, he will only need to take four more classes to complete his MBA.

While Agosta has his academic plan set and is experienced in college hockey, he is still adjusting to the hockey program at Quinnipiac.

“Even though I’m a veteran, I’m still getting used to the system,” Agosta said. “This is a lot more physically demanding than what I’m used to.”

With nine freshmen and only two seniors, the team is relatively young. Finding the kind of role to play coming into a new program puts Agosta in a unique position, but Pecknold likes what he sees so far.

“Justin has a good hockey IQ,” Pecknold said. “He’s a smart, offensive defenseman.”

The weekend of Oct. 17, Quinnipiac faced off against UMass-Lowell in a home-and-home series. Agosta tallied a goal in both of those games, but he aims to become more of an all-around defenseman this season.

“I want to be reliable as a defenseman,” he said. “When I came here in the spring that’s what coach Cashman and coach Pecknold said: ‘[We’re] going to prepare you for pro hockey and [we’re] gonna get you ready for the next level.’ So that’s my main goal.”