Adam Marshall is different. 

Pro-Lavar Ball. Wisconsin Badger diehard living in the middle of Golden Gopher country. Drake fan, but not of his new music. Candid about his performance during the Minnesota Hockey High-Performance camp. 

“I didn’t play well at all,” Marshall said over the phone. “I think I was nervous, because you have to play, like, insane, to make (the national camp),” Marshall continued. “If I would’ve just played my game I think I would’ve been fine.”

Marshall may not have been selected to participate in the national camp, but he’s more than made up for it with his performance through two weeks of the Bantam Elite League. 

In the first three games of the BEL season, Marshall totaled six goals and eight points, propelling the Sharks to three consecutive wins. The league, along with skating for Benilde-St. Margaret’s in summer tournaments has helped Marshall’s game mature over the past few months. 

“The biggest change is probably the physicality (and) the speed of the game is a lot faster,” Marshall said, acknowledging that he is still a work-in-progress. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Marshall is currently leading the Sharks in scoring with eight goals and 11 points through in games. 

Like all players at the bantam level, improvements come with time. One area where Marshall is ahead of his peers is puck-protection. Strong forearms and a solid skating base allows Marshall to maintain possession while opponents seem to bounce off him as he blazes through all three zones.  

“I like to go around until I have something,” Marshall said of his carousel tactic, in which he circles the offensive zone until a passing lane or shot materializes. The effort is also evident in Marshall’s back-checking.

“I’ve always been told to play a two-hundred-foot game,” Marshall said. “Scouts will notice it way more than if you’re just all offense.”

A product of the notoriously defensive-minded Wayzata youth program, Marshall never got the chance to be all offense. His Squirt coaches were too busy ingraining the gritty Wayzata way by firing tennis balls at players during shot-blocking drills. 

“We’d come up and just take rippers from the coaches, as hard as they could shoot it,” Marshall said with a laugh.

Now a Red Knight, Marshall will don the club’s crisp red-and-white sweaters, a color-scheme that he hopes to wear for the foreseeable future. 

“Wisconsin would be my number one (choice),” Marshall said. “My parents are from Wisconsin, my grandma is in the Hall of Fame here,” Marshall added. 

Carol Marshall is an institution when it comes to Wisconsin hockey, an original founder of the University of Wisconsin Blue Line Club, a pioneer in girls hockey throughout the state, and a wizard with a sewing needle. 

“She used to own her own sewing company, and she was friends with all the coaches,” Adam explains. “So the football coaches and hockey coaches would bring over all their jerseys and she’d sew ‘em up in the basement.”

How red does Marshall’s blood run? Badger Bob Johnson, longtime Wisconsin hockey coach and a giant in the sport, broke the news that Carol was pregnant with Adam’s uncle Joel while officiating a fundraising game between women’s teams. Carol suited up for the Southside Sissies and was promptly called for a penalty by Johnson. 

“My grandma was pregnant with my uncle, and Bob Johnson knew,” Marshall said, laughter carrying through his voice. “He comes out and he calls a penalty (on her) for too many men and told everyone she (was carrying) a baby.” 

Marshall’s interview was conducted while he was participating in the Badgers’ camp in Madison, and while he was skating at his dream school, don’t expect a commitment anytime soon. 

“I don’t think you have to commit right as you’re going into high school,” Marshall said. “Sooner or later, you still commit and it still counts.”

Whether or not his commitment comes as Marshall says, sooner or later, he’ll continue to do as he has always done; bump Drake before games, motor around opposing players, refer to Lavar Ball as the “GOAT.”

Oh, and cheer for his Badgers.