Hockey: for the speed of the game

This year’s regional varsity hockey team includes seven seniors: Skyler Ferro, Evan Scott, Josh Goodhind, Cooper Beckwith, Liam Flynn, Yuuki Ishida, and Ethan Nompleggi. In addition to that crew, the team includes a handful of underclassmen and students from other schools including Hopkins and Pathfinder.

Ferro said there are several outstanding athletes this year. “We have two really skilled goalies—Spencer McDonald and Jason Kim—who keep us in every game we play,” he said. “Our leading goal scorer last year was Jack Dyjach; he’s got a good shot and uses his speed well.”

Last season the team went 9-10-1 but this season, Ferro said, “I want to win. I think every guy on the team wants to win.” He said they haven’t had a record above 0.500 when he has been in high school but “this is the year that we are going to change that.”

On Friday, December 8, the Canes faced their first challenge against the Southwick Rams. Ferro said he wanted to “start the season off right, start the momentum,” and they did. The Canes played hard and managed to come out on top 6-2. 

“It’s nice to win the first game of the season and get the season started off the way we want it to,” said Ferro. “The refs called the game fairly loosely and everyone did a good job of playing tough and not backing down from the other team.”

According to Ferro, an important part of the winning mindset is “to buy into the game and work hard.” He said loves a lot about hockey, especially “the adrenaline rush, the speed of the game, hitting people, and scoring goals.”

With practice five days a week, the Canes are working hard to improve and keep up the hard work. “We’ll start with skating or passing drills,” said Ferro. “Then we go into breakouts and then we usually do some systems work. Then some small competition drills and conditioning.”

They practice at the Amherst College rink on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8-9:20 p.m. and on Wednesday and Friday from 3-4 p.m.

With members of the team living in up to five or six different towns, it can be hard to find some team bonding activities. The team still participates in team dinners before home games and some of the guys go to Chili’s after a win. 

Coaching the team this year is Coach Rousseau. “He’s really good at firing the guys up before games, and he keeps us motivated to work hard every day,” Ferro said.

Rousseau said some of his favorite parts of coaching are “the friendships created by the game of hockey and being part of the student/athlete’s development not only as a player but as a person as well.”