Greg Levinsky
On a recent Wednesday, rollerblading around Belmont High School as he does many a weekday after school, Liam Guilderson refreshed the webpage on his phone browser for the umpteenth time.
Finally, USA Hockey’s Player Development web page contained the roster for the 2024 USA Hockey National Player Development Camp. The 15-year-old Belmont freshman saw his name and immediately called his parents with the good news.
“I was super excited and relieved,” Guilderson said. “I’m excited to learn from all of the speakers there and the high-end players, but there’s a lot of people there watching, and that’s good to have.”
Following a standout first year on the varsity ice (10 goals and 8 assists) and three preliminary tryouts, Guilderson is among the 17 Massachusetts boys born in 2009 headed to the Northtown Center & Daemen University in Amherst, New York for camp from July 17-22. At the camp, Guilderson looks forward to matching up with approximately 100 players representing all corners of the country.
As a freshman on the varsity team, Guilderson played quality minutes, including time on the power play and penalty kill.
“Unless you looked at the program, you wouldn’t know he was a freshman,” said Belmont coach Tim Foley. “I’m not one bit surprised that he’s made it as far as he has in this tryout process with the USA program. He’s that type of special player that only comes along every once in a while.”
Few know Guilderson’s skills as well as Belmont junior and hockey captain Adam Bauer, who skates alongside Guilderson and centers the team’s first line.
“He’s a really fast skater, shifty,” Bauer said. “His head’s always up and he makes the right play, super easy to play with.”
USA Hockey organizes Player Development Camps for 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds from across the country. Players earn an invitation to the camp through their performances at state-wide and district-level camps. The camp’s overall goal is to provide players like Guilderson with guidance and coaching on skill development for the upcoming season and beyond. Some top-performing attendees secure invitations to represent USA Hockey at international tournaments.
Guilderson, who started skating at age three and playing hockey at age six, caught wind of the camp while in middle school and set a goal to be in attendance someday, following in the footsteps of the camp’s notable alumni now playing on the country’s national team.
A 6-foot, 155-pound left winger who also likes playing center, Guilderson persevered through three tryout sessions at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough: an open tryout March 23, a competitive festival May 10-12 and a Final 40 session May 18-19. The National Player Development Camp features a challenging week of on- and off-ice training and competition, though it is not an individual or team tournament.
Guilderson took a week-by-week approach to the tryout process, never looking beyond the next step. Matched up with players representing public, private, and prep schools from around the state, Guilderson focused on playing his game with confidence. Skate hard. Try hard. Backcheck.
His game impressed Mark Bilotta, head scout for the New England Region and Massachusetts director for Neutral Zone, an amateur prospect ranking and scouting news source. Just under a year to the day, Bilotta witnessed a hat-trick and two-assist performance at the club level with Atlantic Coast Elite last June, Bilotta caught Gulderson’s two assists and a goal performance on the second day of the Final 40 tryout.
“He has a fluidity to his stride that not many players have at that age,” Bilotta said. “He also has excellent in-game awareness, which you don’t typically see at the Massachusetts high school level. I think what he’s done really well is that he’s risen to the occasion every time he’s been put into the spotlight.”
Guilderson hopes to play in college someday, likely projecting to the Division I level. His family has Boston University hockey season tickets.
A strong performance at the camp later this summer only helps with that.
“I’m really excited because I think it’ll be a lot of fun, but I’m kind of nervous because it’s all the best players,” Guilderson said. “I’ll just keep working hard and play how I always play.”