Brett Bruneteau only played four games last season, but the UND hockey player had quite a busy sophomore year.
By the end of the summer, Bruneteau will have completed 76 credits in the span of 14 months and he will have an undergraduate degree in entrepreneurship in just two years.
"He is unlike any other," UND director of academic services Amanda Neubauer said. "And it's not like he's just getting by. He's excelling."
Bruneteau, a Western Collegiate Hockey Association scholar athlete, took 18 credits last summer, 24 during the fall semester, 22 during the spring semester and has 12 lined up for this summer.
He's also doing an internship and starting his own business -- a website dedicated to helping parents and children find and register for hockey camps.
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In the fall, he will be transferring to Vermont in order to start work on his masters while he plays hockey for the Catamounts. Bruneteau, who credited his success to "time management," won't have to sit out a year because he will be taking graduate-level classes at Vermont.
"It's a tough move for me," said Bruneteau, an Omaha native. "Ultimately, I just felt, at this time, it was in my best interest to move on.
"The coaches have been phenomenal. Obviously, they are very, very good at what they do. They are able to recruit great guys and able to produce great hockey teams year in and year out. What goes unrecognized is their character and their personalities, which deserves recognition even more (than the other stuff). I can't even begin to tell you how highly I think of all of them.
"I have some of my best friends up here. It's going to be very, very hard to leave them. I'm going to miss my teammates. I'm going to miss going to the rink here every day. I'm going to miss this place a lot."
Bruneteau said he will be back in Grand Forks in the future to visit.
"North Dakota is always going to be a part of me," he said. "I had two of the better years of my life here. It was a fantastic experience. The fans, the people and the town have been unbelievable."
While Bruneteau never racked up the goals or points for the Sioux, his career was impressive in its own way.
"The amount of credits he takes is beyond what any normal student-athlete would ever consider," Neubauer said. "He accomplished a lot. It's pretty amazing."
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Reach Schlossman at (701) 780-1129; (800) 477-6572, ext. 129; or send e-mail to bschlossman@gfherald.com .
