After dropping his hockey bag in the corner of the Bush Hall common room following a grueling practice, freshman Justin Mitchell usually collapses onto a couch. Wearing a pair of green seersucker shorts and a Choate athletics T-shirt, the tall blond athlete looks like the stereotypical prep-school jock.
But amid the hockey gear strewn around his dorm room, there is an old keyboard hidden underneath a jersey.
To his Bush Hall neighbors, Mitchell was a mystery at the start of the school year, only seen lugging his equipment to and from practice. But on occasion, Bush residents would hear soft piano music escaping through the crack under his door.
While jokes used to circulate about a secret Celine Dion obsession, Mitchell's hallmates soon realized that it was no recording - the soft piano music was actually Mitchell practicing on his keyboard. Unbeknownst to his peers, the athlete from down the hall harbored a secret ambition: to be a pop singer.
The Connecticut native did not start out as a music man, however. His parents encouraged him to try various sports as a child.
"When I was little, I had too much energy ... My parents heard that hockey was tiring, so they handed me a stick and put me on skates," Mitchell said.
Mitchell's initial foray into music was unsuccessful. He began taking piano lessons at age eight with a strict piano teacher who only taught classical music.
"I thought it was boring and hated it," Mitchell said. "For my first piano recital ... my parents had to force me out from under the coffee table, which is ironic, since now I'll do anything to perform."
But Mitchell's perception of music was turned around in middle school when a new piano teacher took a break from classical and began teaching him popular music.
In his sophomore year of high school, Mitchell transferred to Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. Once there, he divided his time between his musical interests and sports, learning songs on the piano independently and teaming up with a friend to form a band called Pep Rally Friday.
Over the following years, however, hockey moved to the top of his priorities as he worked his way up to co-captain of the team by his senior year and Pep Rally Friday didn't live up to his expectations.
After high school graduation, Mitchell joined a junior hockey team based in Lawrence, Mass., where he worked two jobs and lived with hockey roommates in an apartment during the season.
But a turbulent relationship between Mitchell and his roommates forced the athlete-musician to take up residence in his car for three weeks, where he spent time writing songs alone.
In mid-December of that year, during one of his loneliest points, Mitchell was accepted to Tufts.
Mitchell explained that adjusting to the college atmosphere has had its benefits and difficulties.
"It's nice to be around people for a change," he said. "But it's [been a] big adjustment from not being in school to coming back, a rude awakening."
Mitchell said that he appreciates his new Tufts teammates as opposed to those he played with before coming to college. "The guys [on the team] here are more aware of real life," he said. "They aren't complacent like the guys I knew last year."
Although he was shy at first, Mitchell now welcomes his hallmates to his room to listen to his songs. The soft rock he composes, often expressive songs about relationships, usually surprises people who aren't acquainted with him - and now, the freshman frequently sits his peers down on his ratty old couch to play an impromptu concert.
Mitchell explained that the appeal of pop music is the fact that it has the widest audience of any genre.
"Although it's relatively generic, it just resonates with all people; it can apply to almost anybody," he said.
His room is crowded with his hockey equipment and keyboard, but he manages to make room for both, just as he has done for the past few years.
In between academic pursuits and hockey, Mitchell has fit in efforts to form a band. He now has a bassist, drummer and guitarist, and recently recorded a four-song EP called "Toll 4," in addition to launching a MySpace.com site.
Mitchell recently hired a booking agent and is planning to play eight shows in New York City this summer, in addition to a few college gigs next fall.
