Senior Luke Robinson has been a steadying presence on the Air Force blue line for four years.

He plays a straight-forward, responsible game in the Falcons’ defensive zone. It’s the same way he approaches his day-to-day life, so it’s no wonder he was selected as a co-captain this season. He’s also reliable. You could count on one hand the number of games he’s missed in his Air Force career, and he soon will exceed 100 NCAA games.

Robinson also coined one of the great quotes I’ve heard in nine years of covering the Falcons when speaking of blocking shots he said, “It means something to eat a puck at Air Force.”

Robinson also followed fellow co-captain Luke Rowe in becoming the Academy’s Captain of Captains, making the hockey program 2-for-2 with that prestigious honor.

>> READ about Class of 2024: Adams |Balboa| Gavin | Horn | Marti | Rowe | 

1-on-1 with Air Force’s Luke Robinson

Your journey through hockey was unique compared to many of your teammates, tell us more about it.

That’s super cool for all of the Minnesota guys who grow up playing with the same core group. My core group disbanded when I was around 12 or 14. That’s kind of the age in Nashville, at the time, where kids had to move on.

Not many players had made it out of Nashville to Division I opportunities. Many of us decided to move on to other programs. I moved to Northern California, where I played for the San Jose Jr. Sharks. The next season, I moved to play for the Dallas Stars Elite. Shoutout to my former coach there, Eric Silverman, who just had his 500^th U16 win. He’s had a tremendously successful career there. Then I went on to junior hockey from there.

Who were some of your major influences?

I can give thanks to a lot of the coaches I had in Nashville. Tim McAllister, Chris Theising and Mr. Hilton. As far as inspiration, my dad and I used to go to a bunch of Predators games. Patric Horqvist is why I wear No. 27. He wasn’t the most skilled player, and he didn’t have the best hands or the best skating but he was a fantastic player for the Preds and then the Pittsburgh Penguins because of his work ethic. He was willing to go to the hard areas and play a hard game. It was obvious that he had a will that outwilled a lot of players.

>>READ: Robinson Becomes 2nd Captain of Captains

What do you like to do in your free time?

Most of that is in the offseason. I like to hang out with friends and play sports together. Pickleball has been on the rise. That was something we got after this summer. Another thing I started to get into is leadership books. I want to continue to develop that, and books are one of the best ways to do that.

How did you spend your summer tracks?

For the first two periods, I worked with the Cadet Summer Research Program. I was at the Pentagon working in the Secretary of the Air Force’s Studies and Analysis Office. I was working with an operations research analyst group (Luke is an operations research major). That’s what I want to do in the Air Force and what I got in my job draw. It was eye-opening for me. I got to meet some high-up people in that field and got some great career advice. On the internship side, I learned how to work in that field, what programs to use and how to think critically about certain problems. I was working with war gaming and war modeling. It was very, very interesting and my first time diving into that as deeply as I did.

In the third period, I was back here with a bunch of the guys and we were working the assault course. I was the assault course commander and it was a great opportunity to be in a leadership position and give some great growth to the class of ’27.

Did you play other sports growing up?

Golf, tennis, swimming and basketball in elementary school. The biggest one was baseball. That was the one I continued the most with hockey. I was 14 when I played my last season of baseball. That was when I went full on the hockey track.

What is your ultimate meal?

My favorite meal by far is chicken piccata. I’ll never forget when I was 12 and I went to a hockey tournament in Boston. We went to an Italian restaurant there and had chicken piccata for the first time and a giant cannoli afterward, and that was by far my favorite meal.

What would your ultimate vacation be?

I’d go to France, particularly the south side of France. In one of my French classes, we looked at a city that is on a mountain overlooking the ocean. It’s just gorgeous. I like the French culture, the French food.

Are you a music fan? 

A little bit. Not as much as my roommate (Nate Horn) – he’s listening to music all the time. I listen primarily to EDM and before I go to bed some soft, good vocals with a nice beat.

©First Line Editorial 2023