Senior goalie Mike Betz has enjoyed an impressive career at Ohio State. Betz has earned Central Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Week honors, three times this season alone and is last season’s defensive MVP How can a team graduate its all-time leader in wins and hope to move on without losing a step?

Dave Caruso, the spotlight is ready. The first Division I hockey player from the Atlanta area is biding his time this season, knowing that next season the reins will be his.

“He’s our goalie of the future, no question about it,” coach John Markell said.

Caruso is using this season to prepare for next year. With the type of season Betz is having, it has been difficult for Caruso to get playing time. In limited duty, he is 2-1 with a .905 save percentage. Betz is the second-ranked goalie in the league. Despite the split playing time, there is no animosity between the two.

“We’re really good friends,” Caruso said. “We’re roommates on the road.”

The road to playing Buckeye hockey began when Caruso was little. His uncle, Lou Schwig, played for Connecticut College in the 1980s, and his mom recalls taking him to his uncle’s games.

“He started walking around with a hockey stick when he was nine or 10 months old,” Linda Caruso said. “He used to play hockey with (the boy) across the street for hours at a time.”

The Caruso family moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Roswell, Ga., when Caruso was 7 years old.

“I had to get up at 6 a.m. and drive to wherever to play hockey,” Caruso said. “We didn’t have many rinks in Georgia.”

But what separates Caruso from other goalies, goes far beyond the ice. Beneath the gruff exterior of a goalie beats the heart of a friendly, funny young man. Caruso is the kind of player one would want coaching their children one day. He has coached a 12-year-old-and-under roller-hockey team to a national championship.

It’s no surprise some of his teammates said they think he should go into coaching.

“I could see him working with someone and having a lot of patience with them,” sophomore forward Rod Pelley said.

Markell agreed with Pelley.

“I think he’s good with kids and understands the game very well,” Markell said. “However, I think he has a long time to play yet.”

Junior captain JB Bittner said he sees something else.

“I can’t see him coaching because I can’t see him yelling at anyone,” Bittner said.

On the ice he is a fierce competitor, but off the ice is an entirely different story.

“It sounds really corny coming from his mom, but he’s really just a nice guy,” Linda Caruso said. “You don’t find a lot of young men like him.”

His teammates call Caruso “Buddy,” in reference to Will Ferrell’s character in the movie “Elf.” In the movie, Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf, who leaves his home in the North Pole to meet his dad in New York. Through his kindness and good cheer, Buddy wins over his cold-hearted dad and spreads joy to everyone he meets.

“I think they followed Caruso around for a few years, filmed his life and based the character off of him,” sophomore Nate Guenin said.

While he always greets his friends and family with a big smile, everything changes when the puck drops.

“He’s always focused – even when he’s not playing,” Bittner said.

Rather than be upset that he isn’t playing much this season, Caruso is biding his time and taking advantage of any opportunities that come his way.

“He’s the type of guy who acknowledges what has to be done in practice to get himself prepared,” Markell said. “He also understands that he has to practice a little bit different than a guy who plays all the time.”

“I just try to live in the now,” Caruso said as he shrugged his shoulders. “You can’t worry too much about the future.”

Not everything about Caruso is pleasing to everyone, however. His teammates are quick to point to his love of country music as particularly painful.

“Oh it’s awful,” Bittner said. “Country music is bad enough. Then you get him singing it, and he has an awful voice. Then he’s dancing in the locker room, and he can’t dance. Three wrongs don’t make a right.”

Guenin said the two of them attend country concerts together.

“He’s a fanatic,” Guenin said. “He wears the cowboy hat, cowboy boots and the tight jeans too.”

Him mom is dumbfounded as to where his love of country music came from.

“He sure didn’t get it from us,” she laughed. “I just leave him alone. He’s happy.”

Cowboy hats and elf boots aside, Caruso is a goalie poised for a great career at OSU. With his positive outlook and hard work, he has the ability to be as good as he wants to be.

“He makes the most of his time this season,” Markell said. “He really works hard, he’s a great student and he gets along great with his teammates.”