Boyhood playmates, college teammates, future business allies?

Sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones and junior defenseman Kevin Kerr grew up in Pennsylvania’s Delaware Valley playing hockey together, usually on the same team. Now together again at Penn State, they are looking at a minimum of two more overlapping seasons on the ice.

Depending on how far their playing careers and their studies take them, there could be additional partnerships in a variety of fields yet to come. Both are including business as a staple in their respective course loads (Jones as a minor, Kerr as a major).

Pucks and Recreation sat down with both of them to discuss their friendship over the years. Below is a transcript of our conversation. Anything in parentheses has been added in after the interview for clarity.

P&R: So, when was your first time meeting each other?

KK: I cant even remember, we were so young.

PJ: Like, four or five. We played on the Grundy Senators together.

KK: Yeah, we played on the Grundy Senators together, probably mites or atoms or whatever it is. I think we were around four or five years old.

PJ: One of our first years playing hockey.

P&R: Do you guys know how many teams you’ve played together on?

PJ: Grundy, Comcast, Holy Ghost.

KK: Grundy, Comcast, Holy Ghost and here, so four I guess.

(Grundy is a local team in Bristol Pa. Team Comcast is now known as Virtua Hockey, and one of the premier AAA hockey teams in the Mid-Atlantic region. Holy Ghost Prep is a Bensalem-based boys’ school with a big hockey program.)

P&R: Kevin, did you help bring Peyton here?

(both laugh a little)

KK: Well, that’s kind of on the coaches to recruit him. But I definitely put in a good word for him for sure. I know how hard he works off the ice, and how much he was improving on the ice, and he was really standing out. I knew that he could come in here and be great for the team. And obviously it’s been paying off for us.

P&R: So Peyton, I’m pretty sure you’ve mentioned this before, but didn’t you used to play something other than goalie?

PJ: When I first started playing, my dad made me start playing out. Like when the other goalie was playing, I would play forward. This was when Kevin and I weren’t playing on the same team, when I was a little bit older. I went and played for the Glaciers.

P&R: So there was a gap when you two were on separate teams?

PJ: Yeah.

KK: Yeah, so we started with Grundy together.

PJ: For like a year or two.

KK: Yeah, two or three years when we were really young. Then I went to Mercer Chiefs and you went to Glaciers?

PJ: Yeah, and I played there for two years, or a year.

KK: And then we moved to Comcast, where we played together for like, six years or so?

PJ: Somewhere around there.

KK: Five or Six years.

P&R: Until the end of Team Comcast?

KK: No, you (pointing at Peyton) ended up going to…

PJ: I went to the Rockets.

KK: He ended up going to the Rockets, I went to the USHL. But throughout that time we were playing on separate teams, we were still playing together for Holy Ghost, our high school. Because we went to the same high school. And then we just met up back here.

P&R: You’re both from the Philadelphia region, was Penn State football a thing for you before hockey became an option?

KK: Yeah, I mean, when I was growing up, looking at colleges, Penn State was never really an option because I knew that they didn’t have a hockey team. So I was looking at other teams. But I remember the day my dad told me that they announced that Penn State’s getting a hockey team, and immediately I was really, super interested in it. And then I was lucky enough to be recruited by Coach (Guy) Gadowsky and Coach (Matt) Lindsay. I came here for a couple of visits, and I decided pretty early that I wanted to come here.

P&R: So, in the USHL, you both played against each other, after years of playing together. What was the first game like, seeing him in a different jersey?

PJ: Was it in Kearney or was it in Lincoln?

KK: It was in Kearney. I remember because it was…

PJ: I don’t think I played because it was a preseason game.

KK: It was a preseason game and I think that other kid was the starter.

PJ: My first year in the USHL, I wasn’t the starter, so Hackett played, and I was on the bench.

KK: I remember we were goofing around a lot.

PJ: Yeah (laughs).

KK: In between periods he would skate by me and slap me on the head. It was funny, because obviously I was there one year prior to him, so we didn’t really. Actually, that first year, no, it was the second year we took online classes together?

PJ: Yeah, that was the second year.

KK: So that first year we didn’t really have that much contact I guess.

PJ: Because I finished high school in Holy Ghost, and Kevin didn’t. Kevin went to Nebraska.

KK: For my senior year. So, we were on opposite ends of the country for that year.

PJ: And then I was drafted by Lincoln, played for Lincoln, and it was your second year in Kearney. And that’s when we took classes together.

P&R: Was the online classes through Bucks? (Bucks County Community College has a huge online footprint in the Philadelphia Region)

KK: Yeah, out of Bucks.

P&R: Kevin, you had the injury last year, what was it like at the Big Ten Tournament watching Peyton blow up onto the national scene?

KK: It was incredible. I obviously always knew that he had that potential in him, but to see him do it on one of the biggest stages of college hockey was really fun to watch. Especially after I’ve been with him since four or five years old. It was one of the coolest things taking a picture with him after the game, even though I was on crutches, with the Big Ten trophy. I think a couple of people have like, stitched pictures together from when we were like four or five to winning the Big Ten.

P&R: (To Peyton) Your first year here last year, during your first couple of games, how big of a bonus was it to have Kevin on the blue line in front of you?

PJ: It was awesome. Since we were playing with each other when we were younger, playing together as we grew up to playing my first college game together was pretty cool. So I think that he’s my mentor, so any questions I have, with school, with hockey, he was there for me.

P&R: Back home, are your families close?

PJ: Yeah.

KK: For sure. They’ve always been around each other, and we’ve gone on road trips together.

PJ: Our dads went to pretty much every away game, and then they come here on the weekends.

KK: I’ve always been around Nolan, too, and Andrew growing up when Andrew was a baby, his youngest brother. So yeah, our families are very close. (Nolan is Peyton’s other brother, a prospect in the Cleveland Indians organization)

P&R: Is there anything else when you guys were younger that you did together, like playing other sports together?

PJ: (Laughing) We played baseball together at Holy Ghost.

KK: My freshman year, our freshman year, did you play your sophomore year?

PJ: Yeah.

KK: You did?

PJ: Then I stopped playing after my sophomore year.

KK: Yeah, we played our freshman year together at Holy Ghost, that was funny. And we also always played against each other in baseball growing up our whole life.

PJ: He played for Bensalem, I played for Langhorne. Those are two different townships.

KK: We would play each other after school, and then go to hockey practice after.

PJ: And then Kevin played soccer, and I played football.

P&R: Are you both still business majors?

PJ: No, I’m not anymore. I changed to communications.

KK: I still am.

P&R: When you were first in business, did you take any classes together?

PJ: No.

KK: We actually haven’t had a class together. It kind of didn’t work out because, when you come in, you’re taking two business classes, and then some gen-eds…

PJ: BBH’s (Bio-Behavioral Health)

KK: …that you have to take. And my sophomore year, I was getting into some of the higher business classes. So it just never worked out.

P&R: As the level of hockey has grown, you’ve gotten older and the teams have drawn from larger and larger areas. You guys are from towns that are relatively close together. Did that help grow your bond over the years? Because, especially for Comcast, there would be kids coming from all over the tri-state (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey) area, but you guys were from right there together.

PJ: I think so. It was kind of cool for us, because we played against kids that, even if we didn’t play with them, we knew them from playing together our whole life. There were guys on our team, Troy Henley that played in the OHL, Nolan Stevens plays for Northeastern. Who else played? Do you know anyone else who played?

KK: I actually don’t think so. That’s crazy that Troy, Nolan, that’s it. (Laughing together)

PJ: I thought there were more?

KK: So did I! I mean, being close obviously, we’re like a five-, 10-minute drive houses away, so it was always super easy to go hang out. And when we’d go on road trips together, we’d get in the same car. I went to his pool a lot in the summer, which was only, like, a 10-minute drive away. It was cool. It made us closer, personally. I don’t know what else to say. It was nice being close.

P&R: Do your parents ever make the drive up together? Because three-and-a-half hours (from Philadelphia to Penn State) is, well, three-and-a-half hours.

PJ: No.

KK: They don’t, because usually, it’s not just my parents. It’s my parents, my sister, usually my cousin comes up. And I know Peyton has a big family.

PJ: My mom, dad, brother, sister. Nolan comes sometimes. And also my parents will sometimes drive up Friday night, and drive home Saturdays for my brother and sister’s games, and then drive back Saturday night for the games. So they do a lot of that.

KK: That’s a trip.

PJ: That’s a lot of driving.

P&R: Last one (to Kevin): Have you specified your major in business yet?

KK: Finance.

P&R: And you? (to Peyton)

PJ: Not yet, but I minor in business.

KK: So, finance with a two-piece in accounting as well. My dad would kill me if I didn’t say that.

P&R: What exactly is a two piece?

KK: It’s just something for your resume, basically.

P&R: Like a double-major?

KK: Well, I wanted to minor in accounting, but Smeal (Penn State College of Business) doesn’t actually let you minor in it. It’s really weird, like, one of the few majors that you can’t minor in. I guess it has something to do with the MAcc (Master of Accounting) Program. But you can get a two-piece, which is, basically, you take two extra 400-level accounting classes, so it could help you get into a job.

So there’s a bunch of accounting questions I know for interviews and things like that. So it’s basically just to know more about it, nothing like getting a certificate or something like that. Just for your resume.

P&R: Thanks, guys.