Confidence, Trust Prepare Gibson Homer for starting role with Sun Devils

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

On Jan. 21, 2024, Gibson Homer was given an opportunity he’d waited and worked over a year for. Homer had already started in four games prior to his start in the second of Arizona State’s two-game set against Augustana, a first-year NCAA team. But it was what occurred in the contest 24 hours earlier that ultimately gave the sophomore goaltender the biggest chance of his young collegiate career.

Junior goaltender TJ Semptimphelter, who was nominated for the Hobey Baker and Mike Richter Awards due to his outstanding play in net for the Sun Devils during the season prior, had begun the 2023-24 campaign strong but trailed off as it progressed. That downward trend hit a crescendo when he faced Augustana, as he allowed three goals on six shots before being pulled for Homer. Homer was solid, but ASU ultimately fell, 5-4, on a last-minute goal.

He didn’t let that happen again a day later.

In his fifth career start, he looked and played like he was comfortable, turning aside 25 of the 27 shots he saw in a one-goal victory for the Sun Devils. That was all head coach Greg Powers needed to see, and Homer started seven of his team’s final 10 contests. When everything was said and done, he’d accrued 12 starts and a .931 save percentage, tied with former Wisconsin netminder and 2024 Big Ten Best Goaltender Kyle McClellan.

“The thing that people discount is Gibson Homer won our net last year,” Powers said. “He won our net through practice, and then he got his opportunity in games and he just kept winning and kept winning, keeping the puck out of the net, and he won the net. The net was rightfully his by the end of the year.”

Despite his very limited experience facing in-game competition at the NCAA level, Homer looked comfortable between the pipes. At the end of the year, ASU had two viable options that could start any given game in the crease. Then the offseason rolled around and Semptimphelter transferred to North Dakota, making Homer the clear-cut No. 1 goaltender on the Sun Devils’ roster.

Homer eventually taking the reins as the bonafide starter at ASU was almost a given. The Grand Rapids, Michigan native spent two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP) before playing a year in the USHL, widely considered the top American junior hockey league. When he committed to the Sun Devils, he was regarded as one of the top 2003-born goaltenders in the country.

But Semptimphelter and then-senior Ben Kraws being on the roster, coupled with Homer’s novelty to college hockey, meant that the young goaltender would need to wait his turn to get his first taste. Weeks without an appearance quickly turned into months, and at the end of his freshman year, he did not appear in a game for the Sun Devils, opting to redshirt.

In this new era of college athletics, athletes can quickly enter the transfer portal, jumping ship at their current school if things don’t go the way they want. During the 2022-23 season, that thought crept into the back of Homer’s mind despite never coming to fruition.

“The transfer portal being as it is, it’s so easy to just bail out of a team that gave you a shot,” Homer said. “I’m fortunate that I didn’t do that. I want to say there were times where I thought about it — I went my whole freshman year without playing — but I stuck with it because I knew that I had that trust in Powers and the team, and Powers had trust in me, and I’m fortunate for that.”

That trust quickly became a two-way street.

As he wasn’t playing, Homer was committed to perfecting his craft and adjusting to college hockey so when his opportunity did arise, he was ready. Doing so required an unrelenting work ethic, a trait of his that quickly became apparent to his peers and instantly stuck out to Powers. At the end of the year, Homer was named ASU’s “Practice Hero”, a team award presented to a player who makes a large impact during practices.

Always one of the hardest workers during practice, Homer displayed an unwavering work ethic he inherited from his father, Kenzie Homer, at a young age. Kenzie was a four-year forward at Ferris State from 1995-99 befre spending six seasons in the minors, and instilled the meaning of hard work into his son. Gibson might not have had any game experience on his resumé after year one, but he certainly left a lasting impression on Powers through the effort he put in behind the scenes.

“He’s a mature kid, he just gets it that way,” Powers said. “He’s one of the very few kids, I think, that could’ve had the foresight to make that decision, the maturity to make that decision and then more importantly, take that year and find a way to get better, and he did that. He just has that kind of work ethic, and he’s committed to really being great at his craft.”

He reaped the benefits of extra preparation throughout his time as the Sun Devils’ starter, showing an aforementioned comfort while manning the crease. Through his dozen starts for the Sun Devils, Homer delivered several key moments, making multiple jaw-dropping saves and notching a 37-save shutout to help ASU to its first win over rival Alaska Anchorage since 2019 on Feb. 9. As the performances kept getting better, the rapport with Powers continued to build.

Homer returns to campus in the fall with a new kind of trust: in himself. He knows confidence is key and acknowledges it fueled his success last year and now has even more trust in his patience and ability to slow the game down, two vital traits to being a successful goaltender. It’s unclear what Homers’ performance will look like in a larger sample size, but his increased confidence will surely help down the stretch.

It also won’t hurt that has support in case he needs a breather. Following Semptimphelter’s departure, Powers took to the portal and landed a seasoned netminder in senior Luke Pavicich. While he posted a .885 save percentage and 3.61 goals against average in the worst statistical season of his career last year with a sputtering UMass Lowell squad, Pavicich owned a .920 save percentage and 2.75 goals against average in 23 games with Massachusetts the season prior.

Sophomore Chase Hamm, who saw 1:37 of action across four games after being called up from ASU’s Division I club team, and freshman Zakhari Brice will also be options in net, although Powers has indicated Homer and Pavicich will see the majority of reps.

“I think (Homer) and (Pavicich) are clearly the guys that are going to be leaned on for time,” Powers said. “Those are the guys we’re going to lean on and we’ll see where it goes.”

In a few hours, Arizona State men’s ice hockey will begin an unprecedented era in its journey as a college hockey program, beginning its first season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) — arguably the premier league in all of college hockey. A skilled and deep roster from top to bottom is needed to compete in such a talent-rich conference, starting with an anchor between the pipes.

Fortunately for Homer, he’s ready to be that model of consistency for ASU after gaining valuable starting experience last season and putting in the work for another.

“I appreciate that for sure,” Homer said. “(Powers) kind of having that trust in me to get to that point is amazing, and I think that only helps my own personal game out as well. Confidence is a massive thing in goaltending, and kind of going how I ended last season into this season, I have a lot of that right now, so I’m excited to use it.”