Penn State Men’s Hockey Player Spotlight: Brandon Biro

Story posted January 10, 2019 in CommRadio, Sports by Andrew Destin

In his third year with the program, junior forward Brandon Biro has provided a source of excellent veteran leadership to a team that, in parts, is a relatively young roster. As the alternate captain of the 2018-19 Men’s ice hockey team, Biro prefers to let his actions speak louder than words.

Who can blame him, especially with the way he’s been playing. A sensational goal on the road against Minnesota has been the talk of Penn State’s campus, as he completed an astonishing feat by scoring while being tripped from behind. The goal would rise to be SportsCenter's No. 1 play of the night. Yet, reluctant to boast, Biro is not the type to give himself too much credit-instead, he attributed his impressive goal to luck, not skill.

“I cut to the middle, got good wood on it luckily, and I have no idea how it went in. I don’t know if the goalie was expecting it or not, but I got pretty lucky on it,” Biro said.

Biro is not the type to allow such immediate fame to swell his head, however. Penn State was unable to win the following night in Minneapolis, meaning they could not complete the sweep of the Golden Gophers. Biro cites this past weekend as perfect evidence for why a player should be quick to move on from one play to the next, no matter how beneficial or detrimental an individual play is to the team.

“I got a couple of texts and stuff, but we played the next night, so I tried to not really pay attention to that at all. It was just another goal, so it didn’t affect me too much.”

Biro sits at third on the team in assists with 15, and while he may not get the type of attention that the members of the Evan Barratt-Liam Folkes-Alex Limoges line get, he surely is just as deserving. In a surprisingly quiet manner, Biro has put up the third-highest point total of any player on the team with 22. Not to mention, he possesses the highest plus-minus ratio of any forward with a plus 13.

Nonetheless, the alternate captain refuses to let his role get the most of him, and instead realizes that the team is a family; no one individual is superior to another, and that’s just the way that Biro likes it. Even with the recent fame on SportsCenter, Biro is quick to deflect attention from himself and instead put much credit on his teammates. Thus, it should come as no surprise that when talking about his leadership role on the team, he is not in any hurry to place himself on a pedestal.

“It’s not too much different from any other guy on the team," Biro said. "Everyone’s got freedom to say what they think, so it’s not too much extra.”

Leading by example is precisely what Biro does best, and with 14 games remaining, to expect anything but the same quality leadership would come as quiet the surprise.

 

 

Andrew Destin is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ajd6360@psu.edu.