It’s hard to come into a college program and have success right away as a freshman. David Kurbatsky is proving early into the hockey season, though, the title of freshman means nothing.

Kurbatsky is off to a solid start. He has scored 12 goals and has seven assists so far, and the offensive authority for Kurbatsky doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.

Kurbatsky, who is from San Ramon, Calif., began playing hockey when he was 8 years old. In high school, he played for the club hockey team, which was a skill development league. Until his senior year in high school, he didn’t plan on going on to play in Junior League hockey.

After high school, he packed up and moved to Manitoba, Canada, to play Junior League hockey where he spent the next two years of his life. While in Canada, he lived with a family that supported the team he played for.

“I thought it was pretty cool how they bring you in and make you a part of the family,” Kurbatsky said.

He experienced what most people experience when they are away from home for the first time: homesickness.

“The first year up there, I was homesick,” Kurbatsky said. “It was the first time I was on my own, but I grew on that and didn’t think about it much as time passed. It felt pretty good to be on my own after a while.”

Canada is known for being a country that values hockey, and Kurbatsky was unsure how it would play out when he moved. For one, he had to adjust to the extreme weather change from central California to Canada. Another adjustment he had to make was the transition from high school club hockey to Junior League.

“Club hockey is not as rough as junior hockey,” Kurbatsky said. “It’s a different style of game. There’s more fighting just to gain momentum. The Manitoba League was a pretty rough league.”

A third change was adapting to life in a hockey culture.

“I didn’t know how I’d be looked at being an American going into [Canada], but I gained a lot of friendships and it was a good experience,” Kurbatsky said.

After his time in the Manitoba League, he moved to Minnesota to play in Owatonna for the Owatonna Express. It was there where Iowa State first contacted him.

The first time he talked with any ISU coach was during a playoff game in Owatonna when associate head coach Brian Wierson made a trip to watched the game.

During his year in Owatonna, several Division I and Division III schools contacted Kurbatsky, and he had to make a decision whether he wanted to play Division I or Division III.

“I looked at all the different types of schools that wanted me to play for them,” Kurbatsky said. “The Division III schools were smaller, less-known schools, so it came down to academics. Academics were my first choice and the atmosphere of the school was my second. When I came here to Iowa State on a visit, I just loved it.”

Coming from a Junior League hockey team to a university program also required him to make a transition. Kurbatsky said the biggest transition for him has been the amount of schoolwork and being busy all the time. Another change has been his teammates.

“The upperclassmen treat all the rookies with a lot of respect,” Kurbatsky said. “Here, they treat you like you are part of the team, they don’t give you a lot of nonsense about little things like some people do in junior hockey.

He seemed to fit right in after his first two games here at Iowa State. Kurbatsky finished the weekend scoring a hat trick in each game. The very next week he added another hat trick. Kurbatsky mentioned he didn’t anticipate playing this much this early, especially as a freshman.

“He’s not playing like a freshman,” coach Al Murdoch said. “He’s showing good maturity. I expect him to be a seasoned veteran down the road. Expect a lot of goals and a lot of assists.”