ELMIRA, N.Y. -- A former ECAC West All-Rookie and All-Conference Team honoree, Michael Collins '16 earned four letters as a member of the Elmira College men's ice hockey team, before earning a fifth with the men's lacrosse team as a senior.
 
During his four years with the Soaring Eagles, Collins received multiple ECAC West All-Academic Team awards for his work in the classroom. On the ice, he followed up a strong freshman season with a breakout sophomore year en route to ECAC All-Conference Second Team accolades. While leading the Purple and Gold to their 10th conference championship, Collins logged a career-high 30 points (13g-17), third-most on the team, which included one goal and one assist in a come-from-behind upset win over top-seeded and 13th-ranked Utica in the tournament championship.
 
In one season with the lacrosse team, Collins, a native of Victoria, British Columbia, showed off his athleticism and grit by starting 10 games with a long pole. He finished the 2016 campaign tied for fifth on the team with 25 ground balls and added six caused turnovers.
 
Collins returned to his native British Columbia following graduation, where he now works for IT solutions firm, TEKsystems, as a Division Lead and Account Executive. He took a moment to answer a few questions in our latest EC Athletics Alumni Spotlight.
 
Q: Why did you choose to attend Elmira College?
A: I selected Elmira College for two reasons. First, I was impressed by the hockey program and how they treated it like a D-I team with first-class coaching, facilities, and equipment in a highly-touted conference. Second, the education would provide me the opportunity to truly partner with my professors through the small class sizes, and feel less like a number on an enrollment sheet and more like a person. As much as the allure of a large institution sounds great in theory, the smaller-school feel provided me more opportunity to learn and to stand out when it came to networking and internship opportunities, which I am forever grateful for. 
 
Q: What did you major in at Elmira College?
A: During my time with EC, I majored in Business and Management with minors in Finance and Economics. Going to college provides more than just an education, it teaches you how to become a lifelong student, which is something that has been incredibly useful in my career post-graduation. I work for an IT services company that provides professional service offerings and staffing solutions for enterprise and mid-cap companies across North America. My business education has enabled me to have conversations with stakeholders at all levels of a business, from the C-suite through executives and onto the management level. By understanding their business challenges, I have learned to act as a consultative partner to the companies I support as opposed to a sales representative looking for the next deal. Lastly, by truly learning how to retain information at the pace required to be successful in school, I was able to quickly transition into my new role within an industry I knew nearly nothing about when I started.
 
Q: How has your experience as an EC student-athlete influenced your life since graduation?
A: The role as a student-athlete in college is very challenging to balance. The expectation is still to be successful in class, while performing for my team to the highest level, and somehow managing to include extra-curricular activities to boost a resume and not forgetting about the importance of the social aspect of college. My current career requires 50-60 hours a week of work, which was a much easier transition based on the workload I supported through college. Now, I would not have traded the workload and schedule as a student-athlete for anything. I was so fortunate to play for the hockey team and gain the full experience that EC had to offer. It also introduced me to some lifelong friends, for whom I will be forever grateful for.  
 
Q: Is there anyone at Elmira who had a profound impact on your time as a Soaring Eagle, either academically and/or athletically?
A: There were a number of people during my time with EC who had a profound impact on my career athletically and academically. Professor Wolfe helped land me an internship, which truly changed the course of my career aspirations post-college, and was an enormous mentor for me throughout school as my advisor. Coach Saul continued to support me throughout the ups and downs of the student-athlete life and provided me with an opportunity to be a big part of the hockey team for all four years. Lastly, the teammates in my college class – Brian Depp '16, Rob Simpson '16, Greg Whittle '16, Jarryd ten Vaanholt '16, Carter Shinkaruk '16, Tommy Sumi '16, and even Liam Burtt '16 – have stayed as important parts of my life, and for that, I am so fortunate. Also, Depp, Simpson, Whittle, ten Vaanholt, and Sumi all have joined TEKsystems since I started in July of 2016, so we have managed to stay aligned even post-graduation in that sense.
 
Q: What are your favorite memories that come to mind when you think about your collegiate athletics career at Elmira?
A: Two very special moments come to mind when I reminisce about my college athletics career. First, winning the 2014 ECAC West Championship in front of a 4,000-person crowd in the Utica Auditorium will forever be my all-time favorite sports memory. Secondary to this, I was able to score my first goal during overtime of the home opener my freshmen year; it still gives me chills to think about that moment when the guys jumped over the boards to come celebrate.
 
Q: What is the best advice you would give to a current Soaring Eagle student-athlete?
A: This is the same advice I was given when I started: the four years go by way faster than you can imagine, don't waste them. In more detail, this means get involved on campus. Join the student athletics board, big events, try to become an RA, go watch the other sports teams play, and take advantage of the internship and networking opportunities while you are there. EC created a lot of my most cherished memories, and it was mostly because I got involved and did more than just go from the classroom to the rink and to my dorm room. While college may feel stressful and overwhelming at times, it looks like a simpler time when I reflect on it now from the other side, and that is something that I wish they told us when we started.

The Elmira College Department of Athletics alumni spotlight series was launched to showcase the student-athlete experience and the unique paths our alumni have taken to very successful careers, both in and out of the sports industry. If you are interested in sharing your story, or the story of a fellow EC graduate, please complete a submission form by clicking here.