Mark Spiers ’99, P ’30 ’32 Wants Alumni to Come Visit

At Albany Academy, Mark Spiers ‘99 was best known as a standout hockey forward who helped lead the team to finals and a championship. The top-five scorer and 2024 Academy Athletic Hall of Fame inductee went on to play four years of Division I college hockey. 

In discussing Academy, Spiers is quick to mention his career in hockey and baseball; the camaraderie, successes and sheer privilege of hitting the ice right on campus – a distinction Academy alone enjoys among Capital Region K-12 schools. 

But it is also the singular learning environment that remains with him decades later. 

The Latham native came to Academy in fourth grade and still remembers a simple weekly assignment: write about an animal you saw, which made him think a lot more than he otherwise would have about his surroundings. Also: the independent project he and a classmate took on in a senior honors history class building a database of important dates.

“It's a place that gives you a lot of freedom to try things and make your own opportunities,” said Spiers, 44. “If you’re looking for the true student athlete experience I don’t think there are a lot of other places in the region that can provide that.” 

Spiers, a Senior Vice President for KeyBank, is the father of Nora, Class of 2032. He plays in a weekly hockey league alongside Academy teammates Pat Bryant ’98 and Marc Cavosie ’03.  

And in July 2025, he became president of The Albany Academy Alumni Association. 

With the role, Spiers sees opportunity to show graduates how the school’s core mission endures, even as military uniforms for the boys have given way to khakis and the school has become co-ed. 

He recognizes that not all graduates welcome all changes, but notes that Academy has constantly evolved in its 200-plus years. (His own classes were often co-ed, given the many options on both campuses.) The devotion of  the faculty, he believes, separates the school from others. 

“My major goal is to communicate what the school is doing now. How it is growing,” he said. “I would encourage people to come spend time on campus and interact with the students and think about where they were when they came and the role Academy played in their current success.”  

Spiers started skating before age four and after slight trepidation, his father recalls, he could not get his son off the ice. At age 7 he started competing with the Troy Academy Youth Hockey (practicing occasionally at Academy.) 

When he became an Academy student in fourth grade, Spiers continued competing in youth hockey leagues and, like all lower and middle school students, took part in a winter gym session in the rink.

The small class sizes made the difference between coasting and really learning. Much like college, he enjoyed electives in areas he would not otherwise have considered, including art and theater. 

“I was not an arts person but one of my favorite classes was a performing arts class in middle school,” he recalls. “I learned to juggle, I did improv. It was uncomfortable at first but when I moved on to corporate team building it would have scared me if I hadn’t had that experience in school.”

Spiers went on to attend The College of the Holy Cross, where his intellectual curiosity was further developed. He majored in economics and graduated during a soft job market. He spent a few months coaching hockey – and met a contact who helped him get a job with M&T Bank. Spiers also went on to HSBC Bank, earning an MBA from Fordham as part of an employee executive program. 
 
He has remained in banking, where he helps manage billions of dollars of payrolls for public- sector employees. 

“I think my banking career has a lot of parallels to my sports experience at Academy,” he noted. “What I’ve found the most interesting are the teams and groups I’ve been a part of. I’ve been able to learn from other people and form relationships.” 

While he was a shoo-in for Academy hockey, and a natural choice for baseball pitcher, Spiers appreciates how many

athletes, scholars, entrepreneurs and community leaders got their start at Academy by trying something they had not grown up with.

As large public school programs narrow the field of hockey and lacrosse players early on, the school he attended only widens possibilities. Teammates who never would have had a shot at landing a spot in public schools developed into talented and competitive Academy athletes because they were given the chance. 

“Whether it was sports or theater or community service, there was always a place for you,” he said.
 

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