“You know every day what you’re going to get from Robbie,” Mazzoleni says. “He has no valleys in his game.”

Captain of this year’s team, Dominic Moore, continues the praise of Fried.

“People often say that big guys are not as fast, or not as athletic as smaller players, but with Rob you have the whole nine yards,” Moore says.

While Fried is an imposing presence at 6’3 210 lbs., Moore believes that he “remains one of the fastest straight ahead skaters on the team. You couple this with his work ethic and you have a player that any team would love to have.”

The hockey team’s appreciation for Fried goes well beyond his on-ice performance. Fried is a class act on and off the ice.

“As a teammate, you look to people you can trust and to people that you know have a maturity about them that you can respect and work with,” Moore says. “Rob is one of the best character guys I have had the opportunity to play with.”

He’s The Lax Man

While Fried was recruited to play hockey, he has continued to foster his love for lacrosse, playing on the junior varsity team during his freshman year and getting the call up by varsity coach Scott Anderson in the middle of his sophomore season.

“Deerfield is in a tough league with a lot of guys who play hockey and lacrosse,” Anderson says. “Many fall by the wayside in college, but they’re pretty easy to spot.”

Playing longpole defender, a position based on physical skill, Fried makes the transition from hockey to lacrosse season smoothly, though there are inevitably a few hiccups.

“My ankles were still pretty sore after the first few days of lax,” Fried admits. “I also could lose a few pounds for the lacrosse season, because I am getting a little too much jiggle when I run.”

But while Fried’s physical prowess translates relatively naturally from the ice to the field, his feel for the game also helps ease the transition.

“The sports are not exactly analogous,” Anderson says. “But they both have systems and Rob picked up our defensive system very quickly.”

If playing two sports wasn’t enough, Fried’s life is not limited to across the river.

“[Fried] exemplifies everything we could ask of a student-athlete at Harvard,” Mazzoleni says.