For as long as he can remember, Tipper Higgins has had hockey in his life.
The Williston, Vt., native first started skating at 2 years old, then began playing hockey around the age of 4. With an outdoor rink at his house, Tipper made the most of that opportunity, skating the winters away in his backyard.
“I think I was always pretty competitive and just loved being out on the ice,” Higgins said. “When I was young I’d want to get on the ice as much as I could. I immediately fell in love with it.”
Higgins, the lone Vermont-born skater in Atlantic Hockey, took that love for the sport to Army, where he has skated in all but one game this season. The senior has put up three goals and three assists to go along with a plus/minus rating of plus-2, one of just two positive ratings on the team.
Brian Riley and the Black Knights take only the best young men into the program, and Higgins gets rave reviews from the veteran head coach.
“Tipper Higgins has been a great representative not only of our program, but of the academy,” Riley said. “I consider myself very lucky to have the opportunity to coach him.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Higgins remained devoted to the game during his time at South Burlington High School. The forward played two seasons with the Green Mountain Glades of the Eastern Junior Hockey League, a program that helped create a small hockey community in northern Vermont.
“That was excellent to have, to get to travel out of state. It was good competition,” Higgins said. “I was lucky to be able to play for that team. That had a big influence on me and on the hockey community, helping it grow.”
Berkshire coach Dan Driscoll first saw Higgins skate when he was a sophomore in high school. Despite Berkshire being four hours south of Burlington, Driscoll had a history of Vermont kids heading down to the prep school. Higgins continued that trend when he joined the Bears in 2012, before his junior year.
According to Driscoll, currently in his eighth year as Berkshire’s head coach, Higgins always was a big forward who could skate well, and that combination is key at the prep level. It’s his competitiveness that really set the forward apart.
“He was always a very disciplined kid. He’s the kind of kid that was cliché-like,” Driscoll said. “He was the first one on, the last one off, he was always working on his game, working on his studies, working on whatever needed to be worked on. He was a kid with a real competitive drive, that really allowed us to be successful while he was here.”
In two years at Berkshire, Higgins totaled 31 goals and 21 assists in 58 games. Much of his success came from playing on the same line as Craig Puffer and Charlie Corcoran, two forwards who went on to play Division 1. Corcoran totaled 54 points in four seasons at Brown, and Puffer is in the midst of his final season at Vermont.
The trio formed one of the most dominant lines in high school hockey from 2012 to 2014. With Corcoran’s cerebral play and Puffer’s relentlessness, Higgins was able to thrive alongside his teammates.
“They all complemented each other really well,” Driscoll said. “Tipper created a lot of space for those other guys, and as a result he was rewarded with getting the puck back a lot, too. It was a pretty impressive line.”
Higgins committed to Army in September of his last year at Berkshire. His older brother attended Air Force, so Higgins always had his eyes on going to a service academy. “When I did my visit, it was a group of guys I could see myself fitting in with,” Higgins said. “The style of hockey, the coaches, the players, then the school itself all seemed like the right fit to me.”
After finishing his career with the Bears, Higgins and Puffer joined the Chilliwack Chiefs of the British Columbia Hockey League. Higgins dominated at the junior level, accumulating 53 points in 70 games in the 2014-15 season.
Riley says Higgins’ ability as a two-way player is what stood out to him and made him want to grab the forward.
“In college hockey, it seems like all of these games come down to one goal,” Riley said. “Tipper is somebody that we have out one the ice late when we’re trying to protect a lead. He’s just a really dependable two-way player.”
After playing in 17 games his freshman year, Higgins made 31 appearances for Army as a sophomore. All four of his goals that season were game-winners, which led the team. He added six assists and 25 shots to help power the Black Knights’ offense.
Higgins showed great development in a larger role for Army in the 2016-17 season, a trait that’s helped him stick around each year.
“He’s not just an offensive player, he’s not just a defensive player, he’s a solid two-way player,” Riley said. “Every year, his game has gotten better. That’s not just by accident. He works extremely hard during practice. He has worked extremely hard during the offseason.”
After a junior season in which he played just 23 games, Higgins already has played 22 games in his senior campaign. He’s recorded a season high in shots, and he scored a key goal in a tie at Air Force to help Army earn a league point.
Most importantly, Higgins loves being a veteran leader at a prestigious academy like Army. By being a reliable teammate and friend in the locker room, as well as producing on Army’s third line, Higgins is doing his best to leave the hockey program in a good spot.
“It’s been awesome to be able to play in all the games my senior year,” Higgins said. “It’s definitely nice to feel like I’m contributing each game, to try and make one last push here at the end of the year.”
From making the trek from Vermont to prep school in western Massachusetts, to Canada to Army, Higgins constantly has worked to be the best hockey player he can be. Yet in a way, he’s still the same kid skating outside in his backyard, eager to compete on the ice.
“It’s nice to see him here as a senior playing well,” Riley said. “It’s my hope as we come down the stretch here that he finishes off on a real positive note.”
