A lost oldie
-
- September
- 23
This was something I wrote in Clifton Park after the Suffern-Shenendehowa game. Or maybe it was the next morning. Anyway, I saved it but never posted it for some reason, and I just discovered it. Seeing as I don’t have much material for high school hockey right now and I’m busy with volleyball, I figured I’d throw it on here.
To set the stage – this was the last stop on my six day Massena-to-Buffalo-to-Albany road trip, following Clarkstown North and Suffern around for state tournament games. I was starting to lose my grip.
Original title: My road trip comes to an end:
I long to see the green fields of Suffern again.
Since this is my blog, I feel a personal narrative is in order. I need to explain how hectic tonight was.
Tonight’s chapter in the road trip of the Journal News hockey writer was possibly the most difficult. All through the playoff season, the deadlines for stories have been very tight. Everybody in the office is really anxious, and they start calling your cell phone around the time they think your game should be ending, asking if it’s over yet and making sure you’ve already got something written that you can send to them when the final buzzer sounds. I can handle that, but when I’m upstate at a rink that I’m not familiar with, it’s a little tougher because I’m unfamiliar with my surroundings.
By the way, we need to use a phone line to send stories because e-mailing them doesn’t work. They come through in a different format and it can cause a major catastrophe. That means I usually need to duck into an office at one of the rinks to hook my computer up to a phone line and send the story.
Anyway, at the Clifton Park Ice Arena, I had a little trouble. I had no cell reception, and the constant search for reception killed the battery. I had a car charger, but I had to park about half a mile away because the parking lot was packed when I got there. So calling the office wasn’t a simple question of ducking outside to my car between periods. I wouldn’t make it back in time for the start of the next period.
I busy myself between periods writing parts of the story, but I’m starting to worry about what I’m going to do afterward. My cell is dead, so I can’t call the office and tell them what’s going on. I decide I’ll wait until the game ends, get everything together, duck into somebody’s office at the rink, call the Journal News from a land line, give them the result and the stats, then use that same land line to send something in for Northern Westchester before I go interview the Suffern people. Then I’ll throw some quotes into the story and send it in again for the Rockland edition. Perfect.
The game ends, and I duck out to see where I can make a call from. Every office in the place, even the concession stand, is locked up. I go outside and try to turn my cell phone back on. No juice. I realize I either have to run out to my car, plug the phone in, call the office with an update for the website, give them the stats, and run back before Suffern gets on the bus OR do my interviews and then head out to the car to make the phone call, at which point I may already be fired for being out of touch for so long.
I decide it’s best to talk to Suffern first. I do a couple of quick, nervous interviews, and I split. I consider just borrowing somebody else’s phone, but these calls to the office can end up being a little longer than you expect sometimes. I walk over to my car, I viciously tear the plastic off of the brand new car charger for my brand new cell phone, and I plug it in. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work!
It’s another 10 minutes to drive over to my hotel. In newspaper time, that’s about a week.
Remember that scene from Psycho when Marian is leaving town with the stolen money, and as she drives along she hears all of these voices in her head of people back home wondering where she is? That was my drive back to the hotel. I imagined Journal News sports editors slamming the receivers of their phones on their desks as my cell phone’s outgoing message plays for the 15th time. “WHERE IS DAN?” they scream.
I also imagined there were people on this blog asking the same question. Apparently, that part wasn’t paranoia.
I get back to the hotel room, and I find I’ve left Shen’s roster in the car and all I have written down in my notebook are jersey numbers. I have to run back out.
I call in the stats, huffing and puffing, and then I write up something for the Northern Westchester edition and send it in. I call to make sure it’s there. It isn’t. I hang up and send it again. This time it works.
While working on putting quotes in for the Rockland edition, my digital voice recorder’s batteries go. I’ve got AAA batteries in my car usually for just such an emergency, but the interior of a car tends to get a little messy on a six day road trip. Good luck finding batteries in there.
I start pulling quotes from my notebook, and I consider making a few up. The Suffern people won’t mind. They won. They’re going to the final four. They’re in a good mood. Maybe they won’t even notice.
A stroke of genius! I get the batteries from the remote control for the TV. They don’t work. Apparently they had just enough power to change channels, but not enough to run a tape recorder. I run down to the front desk, and luckily they have some extra. Thus, we have actual quotes for the paper.
So that’s the grand finale of the upstate road trip. But it’s not quite over yet. I come home tomorrow, then I think I’m taking the day off on Monday and traveling up to Salmon River on Tuesday before the game. I’ve had it with these two-night hotel stays.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm by Daniel Kiernan. 
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haha very nice dan. very nice dan.
suffern thanks u very much for that commitment
That’s great Dan!
NHL starts in less than 2 weeks!!
How long until HS and College Hockey?
Great story Dan….... thanks for sharing it…
Dan…for the life of me, why didn’t you just ask one of the Suffern parents for their cell phone? I’m sure they would have let you do whatever it took to get the story posted!
Great story though…without a doubt, you should be the highest paid reporter on staff with all the travel and obvious devotion to our great sport and doing whatever it takes to get the kids names and photos in the paper.
Looking forward to your work this year.
HS starts early nov. with games starting mid to end of nov.
40 days and counting to opening tryouts.
Will the combined teams remain the same as last year? Are there any new ones?
I think the number of merged teams will increase in the coming years, because of cost, efficiency and competiveness. Look what a good team Eastchester/Tuckahoe/Bronxville has become.
Anyone want to offer an opinion?
Just think what kind of team Rye Town would have this year if the combo was Rye, Rye Neck and Rye Brook (seniors Eck, Novick, Keegan, Rogers, Gordon, McKinny, McKinny plus a bunch of other Tier I and Tier II underclass travel players). Without Harrison’s enrollment, that “Rye” combo might still be a D II size school capable of playing with anyone in the state, including mighty Suffern. It would never happen, as Rye HS has a long hockey tradition as an independent.
It just seems that section 1 hockey is on its way to becoming a couple of “haves” (Suff, Mamaroneck, Rye, Pelham) and lots of “have not” schools. I don’t see this type of disparity in any of the other interscholastic team sports.
I am just starting to see now that, average to above average travel hockey players are opting for private schools because of the inconsistency of the public high school hockey programs. Not to long ago these type players were the bedrock of section 1 hockey.
Job well done by the schools with strong hockey traditions, but they’ll need good competition in order to maintain there level of ability. Before long even those school’s good players will look at alternatives such as private schools, just so they can face consistently good competition.
mchink….. it’s always been like this. Rye, Mamaroneck, and Suffern have always been the top teams dating back to at least the early 70’s..nothing has really changed and it’s because hockey in those areas has always existed and those teams always have had some type of youth program and nearby rink
if you look at the kids who went to prep schools or to juniors, they have come from suffern, rye, mamaroneck etc.. so the lack of talent in many of the schools has nothing to do with kids leaving for better compition.. when was the last time a kid from TZ left their team to play in prep school.. so i am sorry mchink i think you are a little off base..
Part of the problem of disparity between the top few programs in the secion and the rest of the pack is the exposure of kids at a young age to the sport. It’s been harped on over & over on the other entry which at last check is somewhere around 400 posts already, so I’m not even going to bring up the fact that the Suffern Varsity kids go into the elementary schools to try and get kids interested and also help run the clinics at SOR.
Kids do not see hockey on TV, they don’t see hockey players with endorsement deals, and things like that, and they in turn are not interested in it. Take the average non-hockey fan and ask him to name 10 guys in the NHL. I’ll bet they’d be lucky to get to five. In turn, you ask any non football, baseball, or basketball fan and they can do it. Heck, you can probably get most people out there to name at least 5 professional golfers or tennis players.
Also, hockey is the one sport where you really can’t play as a pick up game. You can go to any playground and find a basketball hoop. You can grab a ball and bat and start hitting grounders to your buddy. You can turn any parking lot into a football field (two parking spaces is a first down). But hockey requires too much equipment (not to mention ice), and most people can’t get into it. It’s great that a lot of schools are starting up programs, but without interest of the elementary school kids, it will be tough to make it last and the schools will inevitably have to keep merging until one day the section 1 championship game is Suffern vs. Eastchester/Tuckahoe/Bronxville/Ryetown/Harrison/Brewster/Fox Lane/Sleepy Hollow/Irvington/Somers/North Salem/Pawling.
Hockey is one of the few HS sports where you really have to start at a young age. It’s not Suffern’s fault that they take advantage of a rink in their backyard though. The Varisty kids train the Mites and Squirts and the Mites and Squirts look up to the Varisty kids and eventually want to play for Suffern Varisty one day. There’s no reason why Clarkstown North and South can’t do the same at Palisades, go the grammar schools and start recruiting younger kids to play so the future looks good. But they don’t. Can’t fault Suffern, they just have a good program.
I think one of the reasons alot of these other teams can’t produce a steady stream of talented players is because their communities and schools don’t back and support their hockey program. I am pretty sure hockey rules the Suffern sports programs, but for example in john jay all the money goes to lacrosse and football, yorktown, scarsdale, brewster, etc…. are all the same. So as much as Suffern does take advantage of their beneficiary situation, its also about many teams just not having enough backing or money to compete at a higher echelon.
You speak like you know, reminds me of someone else. Suffern hockey does not get treated any differently than any of the school’s other sports program. Players, kids, parents, canines, community & any one else work hard to support the hockey, just like any other community could do.
in actuality..most suffern money goes to basketball bc thats what the AD’s kid played…even though suffern excels in hockey, lacrosse, track etc
First off Suffern does not excel at lacrosse. Second, you backed me up by saying, “Plyers, kids, parents, canines, community & any one esle work hard to support the hockey”. Exactly cheif, its not like that in most lower westchester schools. I know for a fact that in my community is hockey is the least support program besides JV B soccer and bowling. The only thing they receive from the school is ice slots 2 days a week, the rest is payed for out of the pockets of the players parents. Nothing, not even so much as socks to match the teams jerseys. Maybe I did jump to conclusions about Suffern hockey getting more money from the school but I’ll guratnee it has the most support out of any section 1 school. I’m not saying thats the only reason their successful year after year, the two playe into eachother. Success brings more attention and more attention brings success. But thanks for the support
“Yo Truth”.
suffern players sell advertisements in a the team magazine to buy ice time (approx $500 per player) they also buy their own uniforms ($100ish bucks a pop)
they get no ice time provided for them
also, suffern girls lacrosse excels
Again your just supporting what I am saying, the fact that the community around them will buy $500 worth of advertisements per player proves their community supports them 100%. Sorry I forgot about Suffern girls Lacrosse my fault.
“I am pretty sure hockey rules the Suffern sports programs” is exactly what you said because it was copied and pasted. “Maybe I did jump to conclusions about Suffern hockey getting more money from the school but I’ll guarantee it has the most support out of any section 1 school.” Your community gets 2 ice slots a week, since Suffern gets none from the school, your comment of Suffern hockey getting the most support of a section 1 school doesn’t fit. Suffern gets a yellow school bus to local away games, and… guess what that’s it.
So does everyone, how else are they supposed to get their santas slay
if school x published a magazine with ads
and the hockey players for school x went all around town x and the vicinity and sold 25, 50 bucks of ad space to local places..any place…chinese restaurants, lawyers, parents putting up boosters..whatever…...that is different then the town/school supporting them (giving them ice time) and the community supporting them…the community buys ads for their companies…any one in any school in any sport can do this…your school gets 2 ice slots a week…thats more than what suffern’s school gives them..so no, none of what were saying supports your point
Okay, we can all respect and appreciate the hard work and results of the Suffern hockey community.
However, considering the state of hockey in probably 80 pct of the other section 1 hockey playing schools, does more combined schools make sense?
Pro – the small pool of good hockey players being brought together to form very good teams. More competition. Perhaps this is attractive to the youth hockey “star” and keeps him from going private. Cost savings for school districts, program efficiencies, better coaching. Saves schools from folding programs, lets small schools offer programs..
Con – lost opportunity for the novice high school hockey player to play at a varsity level (less kids playing hockey?). Loss of school identity. Many formerly division II programs (small schools) would be categorized as division I (large schools) for purposes of section playoff seedings. Unfair combinations which would result in teams being too strong. Politics…yes, what if every starter or ice time was disproportionate to one school of say a 3 school combination…
I’m not sure if merging all the schools is really the answer. When you look at it now, most teams are able to put 20 kids out there on the varsity squad. The bottom of the roster on some of the league 5 teams is often comprised of kids who are still learning how to skate, but the point is, they have 20 kids interested in playing. If you merge that team with another which has 20 kids interested, there are now 40 kids interested in playing, but only 20 allowed on the roster. I remember the first couple years that Sleepy Hollow & Egemont were merged, they just took all 20 kids from each team and put them on the varsity team. Even at Playland they could barely all fit on the bench (Forget about it at SOR). Even with 40 guys on the roster, they still were not very good. Eventually they whittled it down to 20 guys on the team as kids graduated, but in doing that they limited it to 10 kids (give or take) from each school that could play varsity hockey. So while you are making for better teams, you are decreasing interest in the sport by telling kids who might be fringe players to try out for basketball or the wrestling team instead.
You also would not really be creating MORE competition, you would just be creating a few more top-level teams. I have seen many TZ/Nyack games which are competitive just because the two teams are even. Either team would get blown out vs. a League 1 or 2 team, but they are competitive with each other and since that is who their schedules will have them playing most of the season, it is good. Take a look at the Nyack Red & Black Tournament every year, and tell me those aren’t competitive games. It may not be the best hockey in the world, but very competitive.
Good points lohud. This discussion needs to address what the goal is combining teams. If I understand your point, you’re against combining teams because it reduces participation. Coupled with the appropriate league assignments, competitive games can be had by all. I have to agree. So if the goal is to maximize Sec1 player participation, combining teams will not support this goal.
It appears that the other goal would be to improve the competitive level of the hockey being played (not the competitiveness of games themselves). Well it seems logical that combining teams would accomplish this goal. The question I have is what purpose does this goal serve. An earlier post eluded to the concept that it might cause the better players in the section to stay. Personally, I’m not sure that this can be significantly acheived. Those players that do leave do so in order to gain collegiate exposure. Even a substantial improvement in the section’s level of play will not draw any collegiate attention. The section will NEVER approach the prep, jr A or B level of play, thus no collegiate attention.
I think the section is just fine the way it is. Allow as many participants to be involved as possible. The collegiate hopefuls will have to persue another path no matter what level of play the section can possibly reach (it can’t reach the levels that garner collegiate attention).
I think that combining programs only makes sense if its purpose is to salvage dying programs.
First off on how Suffern is backed,the community does really get behind this team and many parents with young ones who dont even have kids in the H.S. will travel upstate for playoffs.
Next- Suffern hockey is one of the only programs that the players pay for on there own there is very little funding from the School or District,each player pays about $650 each depending on if he needs a new jersey or warm-up then its more,they do get contributions from the area and they do many fundraisers, thats why they have there own locker room now.
Combined teams, have seen many of these games and even combining these teams does not help with the play being any better, some of it is flat out awful,with many of the kids having problems just staying on there feet.
Good points Lohud Hockey and Sec1Fan.
Combined teams should be reserved for programs in danger of folding or schools with limited hockey interest. For example, an East Ramapo student should be able to play with a TZ or Nyack with the East Ramapo school district paying for that student. The primary school shouldn’t have to take just any 10 kids or so from the non-hockey playing school. Afterall, if there are 10 kids interested in playing than with a little more effort the school should be able to field its own team.
Mr. In the mix….”flat out awful” is a rather disagreeable statement when referring to some of the combined teams play…be a little more classy..
mchink
Have you ever seen some of these teams,but ok I will refrain from such usage.Sorry if it bothered you.
In the mix..thanks. I’ll be rooting for Suffern to take states this year..
If you look at the League 4 and 5 teams this year, they still fielded 19 or 20 kids, and that is just fine for a team. Really as long as you have at least 14 kids, you’re good. Look at Pearl River – i think they have like 30 kids on their roster and what does it get them?!?!? but i guess they take all kids interested in playing, regardless of skill level.
Israel Junior Nartional Team vs. Ramapo Saints Midget 16AA team, featuring some top Section 1 players. Wednesday October 10th 730 pm at SOR. Also there is an Olympic figure skater skating in between periods. Should be some exciting hockey.
Thats pretty curious, howd that game ever come to be. It’s gonna be interesting to see how hockey is in that part of the world.
Who are the top Sec.1 players in this game.
The Israeli team is on a North American tour and through some Jewish foundation in Rockland they were invited to come play and accepted. Well mostly Juniors and Sophmores because the team is 16U, so Meany, O’Connor from North Rockland, McIndoe, Cohen and Kapnick from Clarkstown North, and Hiller, Hill, McCarron, from Suffern. SHould be a pretty interesting game.
Pearl River’s first line is the only line they should bother putting on the ice.
isreal has a long way to go.. a lot of fun for all though..
Here’s a topic – What tournaments or upstate teams are Section 1 teams playing in this year? Has anyone scheduled a game against Iona Prep (outside of CHSHL)? For example – Rye played in Mamaroneck’s Christmas tournament last year and played against Mamaroneck & Monroe Woodbury. Then they traveled upstate to play Rome and Fayettville. A planned visit to a Lake Placid tournament was cancelled unfortunately.
On another topic – has any Clarkstown North student/hockey player written about their epic journey throughout NY in their week-long Playdown for the playoffs? I’d been interested in reading about this experience.
Outbracket journey..
I’d like to read more about that too. Although CN would have much preferred to beat Suffern for the section title, I’d think that taking a week of from school and criss-crossing the state playing hockey sounds like a lot of fun!
Any CN player or parent care to detail this odyssey?
Suffern has many competitive upstate tournaments this year. They are going to West Gennesee to play CBA and either West Gennesee or Aquinas. Then up to Oswego where they will play Canton than either Oswego or Lancaster. Also they are traveling to Liverpool but not sure of the other two teams in the tourney. Suffern is playing Iona in a scrimmage and regular season game and also playing Monroe in a scrimmage.
parting the red sea into utica again
did i just read that suffern will play iona prep this year??? i hope this is true and also hope that all the people who were saying that suffern was intentionally ducking are reading this…
I give Iona alot of credit! Most schools would not want to play Suffern this year. I guess? This should be a good game! I know Suffern is loaded, who does Iona have?
iona graduated only 7 players (4 who actually played)
up front they return king, arguably the best in the section…cambria (the school’s next king, only a soph. from apple core), lopez, molinaro, shipper, gillespie, mcardle (another apple core soph.) are dominant up front…D lost 3 seniors (amicucci, schneiderman and barrett), but they return mccabe, arguably the best in the section, and a talented kirincic who played V as a frosh…plus, dimario is easily in the top handful in net for the section
they should be flooded w/ talent from a solid jv squad from last season…plus, look to see if they bring up a big frosh on D, patalano, 6’0” 200 pounds and agile
Also have travel players like Traficante, McElroy, Pellow, McCrory and Adovasio. And I agree with you “IP”, the real wild card for this team are the JV kids coming up. There’s another 3-4 players that could make a large impact on this team.
But will these kids show up to their High School games or their travel games. Time will tell!
word on the street is that suffern is still giving iona problems w/ scheduling a regular season game
my sources tell me iona has 3 scrimmages already set (including at suffern and at brunswick) and non-league away games (including st. mary’s, rcds, bergen catholic and bosco) in the books as of today
Your sources tell you. Where do you meet, in an underground garage? Didn’t know scheduling has become cloak and dagger stuff. Thanks for the info Huggie Bear.
huggie bear.. love it,... LOL
Well, it’s getting closer to the season. Teams have to be holding tryouts soon. Anyone know when tryouts start for any team?
i just met with huggie bear and the word on the ice is.. suffern is going to have a hard time in the next couple of years if there isn’t some sort of JV team set up. There seems to be a tremendous amount of kids in the middle school and some really good players are going to run the risk of getting cut especially when they get into 10th grade.. as of now thats not a problem since there is no limit to how many kids can dress but there is talk that they are going to change that rule and make a 20 kid max.. from what i hear in the alley ways there are 11 6th graders who all play travel hockey..
Word on the back street is that tryouts can begin November 5th.
word on my street is that iona’s tryouts began this week and work-outs have taken place for the past 3
Hope thats not a problem for them
...some more down and dirty…
iona’s coaches (turnbull and nates) contacted the chsaa in terms of setting up 2 varsity and 2 junior varsity squads (the way farrell did in the past) b/c of the school’s inflow of hockey players…i think the proposal was too late…we’ll see if it happens next year
Yeah, Suffern has a ridiculous amount of bodies down at the Middle School level. I think the Modified team this year was almost 30 kids! That’s insane. Clearly that says alot about the program, but look at how many Varisty can take. There are only 2 spots on Varisty this year – its going to be very interesting to see how they play this one out. Do you take 10th graders who have paid their dues as a Freshman on the Modified? Or do you take better 9th graders and cut the 10th graders? thus guaranteeing those 10th graders that are cut will never make the Varisty squad? Wow – tough call. But i guess it must be nice to have that option and amoun of bodies in the system. Some teams struggle to even put together a Varisty team…
from what i understand there is no limit to how many kids can play for varsity.. so they can have a roster of as many kids as they want.. am i wrong about this?
Well Suffern Varisty usually only takes a roster of about what? 22 kids? They will clearly have to expand that in the next year or 2 given the large pool of players down at the Middle School level…
It may not be the best idea to expand the varsity too much. Kids can’t double-dip and play for both the Varsity & Modified teams like they did back in the day when there was a JV league at SOR that wasn’t technically affiliated with the schools. Suffern lost 2 kids to graduation this year and one of those roster spots is being taken up by the kid who moved here from Colorado. So there is only room for one. Assuming this kid from Colorado is good enough to crack the top three lines, that leaves you with one roster spot open for someone to get decent playing time. If you add five guys to the bottom of the roster just to make room on the modified team, you will now have 10 guys instead of 5 that are only playing in blowout games instead of getting some ice time with the modified. Which means the 4th line, who only get to skate in practice & mop-up roles have to now split their limited playing time with a 5th line. It’s like leaving a guy at AAA to play every day because if you call him up to the majors he’s going to sit on the bench and pinch-hit occasionally.
If this talk about possibly 30 kids on the modified team is true, then they really should consider fielding 2 modified teams, and let the B team play in the league against TZ, Nyack, etc. while the A team plays Mamaroneck, Rye, etc. They also may be able to field a Varsity B team that they could probably put in League 3 or 4 and they would do pretty well. With 50-55 kids between Varsity & Modified trying out, you should be able to make 3 competitive teams whether it is 1 varsity & 2 modified or 2 varsity & 1 modified. There should be enough ice time at SOR to handle either of these options, especially now that Nyack has moved full time to the mall. The other option would be to tell some of the smaller 6th graders to go play another year of travel to keep the modified roster at 20ish.
6th greaders are not eligible for modified, which is 7, 8 and 9th graders.
Suffern should start a JV like Mamaroneck. The can play Mamaroneck, the nearby NJ private schools and Ct. JV teams. These squads would be the equivalent of approximately league 3 competition in section 1.
A Suffern modified B would not receive any competition from the smaller rockland/westchester county modified school programs.
2 kids that were on varstiy for suffern last year are not returning this year.. they never saw ice time and probably wouldn’t this year either so they have quit.. one of the downsides of playing for suffern.. they would have received a lot of ice time on most teams in the section..
Bigfan: Related to the question of roster size at varsity. I understand that this coming season the Section rules are that you can have as many on the roster as you like, but you can only dress 20 for any given game.
As for the question of A and B teams at a place like Suffern.. ultimately it comes down to resources….$$ in the budget and ice time availability. SOR is only 2 rinks and the Saints run a lot of teams out of there plus the High Schools that use it. Doubtful you could find enough ice for 2 modifieds and 2 varsitys even if the $$ could be found.
Suffern might be better off fielding a JV team like Mamaroneck, they would be able to play more games, and play better competition.