SARANAC LAKE – It’s been an exciting sophomore school year for Bloomingdale’s Christian Thomas. And a very rewarding one.

Thomas, a talented 15-year-old hockey player, returned to his hometown this week after living in New England since August. The son of Ron and Amy Thomas, Christian headed out on his own to pursue a dream, and it’s one that’s already been realized.

Late last summer, Thomas moved to New Hampshire to improve his game while playing junior hockey and attending high school, and this winter, the right-handed shooting forward caught the eye of major college programs.

As a 6-year-old, Thomas first started dreaming about playing college hockey. And after just one season playing for the Northern Cyclones junior hockey club, he’s already received an offer from a major NCAA Division I men’s program. Thomas is already set when it comes to obtaining a college education while playing hockey. Although it’s still a long way off, Thomas announced he will attend the University of Vermont starting with the 2018-19 season.

“I’ve dreamed of playing college hockey for a long, long time,” said Thomas, whose 62-game season with the Northern Cyclones wrapped up last weekend. “Hockey East, that’s as good as it gets in college hockey, and I’ve always wanted to play at a Hockey East college. I wanted to get my face on the map early, and the way to do that was come play in New England.

“I want to go to college and see if hockey could take me there,” Thomas added. “Fortunately it did. My ultimate goal is to be playing hockey and making money doing it, but sometimes that doesn’t work out, so at the least, I’ll have a college education.”

As a member of the Cyclones under-16 Elite program, Thomas finished as the team’s leading scorer with 53 goals and 40 assists. Thomas decided that the University of Vermont would be a good fit after he visited the campus this winter, met with the coaching staff and took in a Catamounts game.

“I had the opportunity to tour the campus and I loved it,” Thomas said. “I sat down with head coach Kevin Sneddon, and it was an experience I’ll never forget. Vermont has a rich hockey history, I love the coaching staff, and I think it will be a great home for me. Technically, I’m too young to officially sign, but choosing a college, It’s something I won’t ever do again. It was exciting.”

Of course, Thomas will have plenty of time to grow in the meantime, both as a hockey player and a young man, before he heads off to college. And after less than one full school year, he’s well on his way.

Instead of continuing his education online like many of his teammates, Thomas attended an actual high school in the town of Bedford, New Hampshire while living with his host family, the Berrys, whose son, Connor, also skated for the Cyclones.

“The majority of kids on the team are doing online school, and they are pretty much at the rink all day,” Thomas said. “I was going to do that, but my parents forced me to go to school. They wanted me to have more of a social life. They didn’t want my life to be all about hockey, and I’m so thankful they sent me in that direction. I made some life-long friends at school.

On school days, Thomas got up at 6 a.m., attended classes until 2:30 p.m., and then headed for the rink, which was about a half-hour drive from his home in Bedford. In addition to participating in official practices that lasted an hour and a half, Thomas said he normally skated an additional hour before team workouts.

“Moving away from home was very nerve wracking, but once I was there, I never really had time to just sit back and think about it,” Thomas said. “I was so busy all the time. I was up at 6 in the morning and usually, I got home around 8 at night. My days were nonstop. It was a whole new experience.”

Thomas started playing high school hockey as an eighth-grader at Saranac Lake. Prior to that, he was a waterboy for the Red Storm. He then attended the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid as a freshman and skated one season with the Mountaineers. Thomas said his year at NSA turned out to be another valuable step in pursuing his goal.

“I loved NSA. It was great for me,” Thomas said. “I was the youngest player there by two or three years. I never played a 50-game season, and it turned out to be the first year where I really started to experience hockey as a whole. I really started to develop my hockey sense playing as a 14-year-old with seniors and PGs. I got to see and experience a lot of good hockey.”

Thomas plans to take the same route of returning to New Hampshire to play with the Northern Cyclones and attend high school next season. But for the rest of this school year, he’ll be a student at Saranac Lake High School for the first time.

“I’m definitely going back to New Hampshire for one more year, and then take it from there,” Thomas said. “I’ve been on the ice a lot, and I’m definitely excited to take a few months off from hockey. I’ll be playing in some weekend tournaments, but right now, I’m looking forward to playing baseball. It’s been a grind, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”