Never has he known the reward to be anywhere but beneath the surface, reachable only with a relentless commitment. Always has Benn Ferriero pushed forward with the simplest of beliefs.
"You get what you dig," he said.
That thought is carried to the soft sand of the Essex River at low tide, but so, too, is it easily transferred to those backyard workouts at his Essex home. Whether digging for clams or digging for pucks in the corner, Ferriero shapes his task around a golden rule. "I grew up believing that you earn what you work for," he said. "If you work hard, you can accomplish what you want."
The words are delivered in a soft-spoken manner that is at the heart of his persona. So unassuming and quiet is Ferriero that teammates at Governor Dummer nicknamed him "The Mime." His actions, not his words, were what prompted teammates to follow his leadership back then, and that remains true three years into a Boston College hockey career that will add another chapter tonight in the title game of the 56th Beanpot against Harvard.
A victory, he tells you, will help with what he considers unfinished business.
"We've come close to a lot of things since I came to BC," said Ferriero. "But we've lost in the national championship two straight years and we've lost in the finals of the Beanpot two straight years. We hope to take it a step further."
That would appear to be a challenge perfect for Ferriero, a young man who never has minded extra layers of effort.
Complete player
With an 11-2-2 record since Nov. 30, coach Jerry York's Eagles have come together after a rough start, and while he can point to a multitude of reasons, Ferriero's dynamic play is a huge factor.
"Benn's always been a high-impact offensive player, but what I've seen from him in his third year is much more diligence without the puck," said York. "He's become a complete player; his back-checking and his defensive work have been terrific."
Without any subtraction of offensive skills, York could have added, for Ferriero has 10 goals and 29 points in 27 games, including a goal and an assist in last Monday's first-round Beanpot win over Boston University.
But if you involve York in a discussion about Ferriero, he begins with high praise for the young man's parents, Julie and Peter.
"They've done a fabulous job raising boys with a great work ethic," said York. "The strength and physical fitness part of it alone is unique."
Much of that would revolve around the intriguing set of exercises Peter Ferriero has developed for Benn, Cody, and Nathan, "a bunch of training things that address speed and reactive motion" that are central to a hockey player's necessary skills. While Peter concedes there are drills that involve sledgehammers and tires, rocks and wheelbarrows, kids' scooters, and even the swimming pool, he doesn't elaborate. "We'll just keep them in the backyard," he said.
Peter Kravchuk doesn't know what the exercises involve, but he has seen the results.
"The best part about Benn is that our best player was our hardest-working player," said the Governor Dummer hockey coach, who skated Ferriero as a freshman and watched him blossom into a two-time Independent School League All-League forward. "As a coach, you couldn't ask for anything better than to see your best player leading by example."
It comes from a passion and a commitment deep within Ferriero, no doubt, but York and Kravchuk are convinced it has been nurtured for years by his parents. If that's true, it's because Peter Ferriero always has preached to his sons that in whatever endeavor you choose, embrace hard work. Thus, when Benn Ferriero was in his early teen years, his father presented him with a present.
"I said, 'I've got something for you. Here's a clam fork, there's a boat, now go to it,' " Peter said.
Raised right
Born and raised in Essex, Peter Ferriero had learned years earlier how to take advantage of his locale to make money, and he saw no reason why his three boys shouldn't have that same avenue.
"There's no better way for a kid to learn responsibility," he said. "The kids know they can catch lobster, they can dig clams, but they can't ask dad for money. Clamming is a gift. It's not like labor to have a job like that; it's the gift of hard work."
"Actually, I've had to slow him down," said Peter Ferriero, who played baseball at Salem State but always has had a love of hockey, which his boys had access to when the pond behind their house would freeze over. Because he always felt physical fitness was important, Peter Ferriero possessed a keen interest in the way children were introduced to sports, and that led him to ponder different avenues regarding youth hockey when Benn, the oldest of his sons, was of age.
He felt practices and drills were more important than games when children were young and he felt creative skills often were hindered by over-coaching. Years ago he organized Top Gun Youth Hockey, and the mission statement was simple. "No stats," said Peter Ferriero. "We wanted to focus on development. We wanted the kids to be free to play, without stress."
His vision was the carefree world of pond hockey, where skating was paramount, stickhandling an art, and instincts carried you a long way. With such a model, the Top Gun group has produced a healthy list of collegiate players, including current stars Dan McGoff and Brian McGuirk of BU. But it was also in developing Top Gun that Peter Ferriero created an environment for his sons that he felt benefited their overall well-being. He pointed to the skates and sticks and steered the boys to put them in the closet. "I don't believe in year-round hockey," he said.
Baseball was a big part of Benn's life - and it still is for Cody, a sophomore at The Governor's Academy (renamed from Governor Dummer), and Nathan, a seventh grader - and from the first time he accompanied his dad down to the Essex River, clamming has been important, too. Not because he loves it ("It's not fun at all," he said), but because it affords him the chance to be his own boss, to work the tides (and different hours), and to learn lessons about life he believes will benefit him.
His brothers work alongside on those summer days when the tides are right, but in their endeavor to fill their buckets, there is no defining line between boss and employees. They are all equal; what they make relates directly to how many clams they come up with. "There's no sharing," said Benn. "Whatever's in your bucket is what you get."
Benn figures during a good four- or five-hour stretch of digging, he can gather 200 to 300 pounds of clams, but there's no chance of him eating any of his profits. Though for much of his life he ate lobsters, clams, shrimp, and loved it all, a couple of years ago he developed an aversion to shellfish. But if it's work, he's all over the hidden delectables.
Blue-collar play
When York was recruiting Ferriero, he loved that blue-collar, hard-working aspect to the story, especially the clam-digging. To York, it spoke volumes about the type of kid Ferriero was, because in a world in which so many youngsters are glued to the couch and their video games, here was a kid committed to both the highest level of junior hockey competition and strenuous labor. Kravchuk experienced first-hand the depth to which Ferriero's commitment can run, because twice Ferriero turned down opportunities to leave Governor Dummer and play for the US National team.
"To me," said Kravchuk, "that shows a sign of loyalty that is impressive, yet another quality he gets from his family."
Ferriero did play for the US Under-17 Select Team that won a gold medal in the Five Nations Cup in Slovakia in 2003, and for the Under-18 Select Team that finished fourth in the Junior Worlds, also in Slovakia. But when it came time for college, he thought provincially, not globally.
"I wanted to stay in the Boston area, and play for a Beanpot school," he said. "When it came down to it, BC had everything I wanted - good academics, good hockey, good fans, and the Beanpot, because the Beanpot is a big thing for me."
Bigger than clams?
Ferriero smiles. On the second Monday in February, Beanpot hockey is on the front burner, so yes, it's bigger than the clams. But he said the work ethic that accompanies him to the Essex River will be carried over into the TD Banknorth Garden.
"You have to dig to get good clams," he said.
Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.
