pee-wee hockey story...sticking together

The Kinnelon Colts capped their first season of pee-wee A travel hockey with a Championship trophy at the Shamrock Shootout tournament at the Protec Ponds in Somerset New Jersey. It was the culmination of an experiment in which a Rec-League team decided to test their mettle against the best A-league teams in the State for a full season, and they ended up with some precious metal themselves.

After years of dominating the Morris County house league at Mennen rink in Morristown, the Kinnelon Colts pee-wee program decided to take a bold step forward and join the prestigious NJYHL travel circuit, in the A-League no less. It was a show of faith that their venerable coach Nick Gakos would have them prepared so as not to embarrass the club, the parents or the kids.

Not everyone believed, 4 hockey go-getters abandoned the Colts program for greener pastures, playing for coach Meg Hishmeh's Skyland Kings travel program in the NJYHL. But there was a core group, including a special goalie (Jack McConeghy), a pair of twins that are the 21st century's answer to Tom and Huck (Patrick and Sean Grant), a kid who looks like a catelogue model and skates like young Larry Robinson (Michael Harrison), the coach's son (Steven Gakos), who has a none of the old man's bluster, but possesses that intangible hockey magic in his hands and feet, and a roly-poly defenseman (Evan Prestera) that might be the best athlete of them all.

From the opening face-off in September, the Colts earned more than respect: consecutive 3-goal third period comebacks sparked a lengthy undefeated streak, leaving bruised bodies and egos in their wake. The Colts were flirting with first place in the NJYHL southern division in November. They had quickly become the curiosity of travel-team hockey, and the club no one wanted to play. Too much to lose.

They entered a couple of tournaments, posed threats in both, but the hockey Gods did not smile on these renegades, and there was no hardware to show for their efforts. Coach Gakos lived up to his end of the bargain: the Colts played hard and clean and were always prepared. But they hit a wall, blowing a two-goal third period lead to the first place Penguins and a heartbreaker to the Junior Flyers in Voorhees. It cost them a shot at the playoffs, but the Colts simply would not quit. Twice they beat the Bridgewater Bears, the team with the most wins in their Division. Steven Gakos, having missed the entire previous season due to medical complications, literally carried his club in the last game against Bridgewater, scoring 3 magnificent goals against the Bears in a 4-2 shocker. The Bears fans left Twin Oaks Arena in disbelief, shut down by Gakos and Company, but it would be Bridgewater team entering the NJYHL playoffs, not Kinnelon. The Colts finished an impressive 9-5-2 in the southern division, 3 points out of a coveted playoff spot. They would have to find consolation in the Rec League.

The Colts did the expected, winning both the regular season and playoff Mennen Cup trophies without sustaining a scratch, but they wanted more. Although most of the parents thought the advent of March signaled the end of hockey, it was important for the Colts to have something tangible for their trophy case, something to symbolize their breakthrough year in the NJYHL. So they entered the Shamrock Shootout in Somerset, one of four NJYHL A teams. One trophy at stake, one set of medals.

With a twist of irony, the hockey gods pitted the Colts against the undefeated Skylands Kings for not one but two consecutive games on Sunday. The winner of the second game would leave with a trophy, the loser, nada. It was a matchup oozing with intrigue and past relationships. 4 of the Kings players grew up with and attended school with the Kinnelon core before "jumping ship" 2 seasons ago. Experts figured Coach Hishmeh's Kings as favorites for the hardware, the club with all that experience in travel team wars. But they were facing a foe that was extremely familiar to them, a Kinnelon team playing with a bit of a chip on its shoulder forged by being abandoned two seasons ago.

Game 1 saw the Colts jump out to a 3-0 lead, and then withstand a furious Kings comeback when they scored twice in a minute to close to 3-2 with 6 minutes remaining. Gakos signalled for a timeout, the Colts regained their composure, and All-Tournament center Steven Gakos slalomed through the offensive zone and buried a wrist shot, relegating the Kings goalie a mere bystander. Kinnelon's 4-2 win gave them top seeding and the status as home team for the Sunday evening Championship game.

The finale was tense affair that saw three different lead changes, including a rush and finish by Mountain Lakes resident John Rosseland that had scouts drooling over his combination of size, force and finesse. But nothing was settled in regulation that ended 3-3, and no goals were scored in a dramatic 5-minute overtime, a session in which the Colts were tantalizingly close. This game would be settled by a shootout, a format that had not been kind to the Colts a day before. Skylands went first and scored impressively. Fear, crept in--was it possible that this last attempt at legitimate hardware was slipping away? Coach Gakos turned the team's fortunes over to Danny Kramer, a newcomer who looked like a choirboy, but had deadly aim in shootouts. He blistered a wrist shot off the iron and in, and the Colts dream burned on.

Given a second chance, Kinnelon goalie Jack McConeghy's will took over, stoning the next two Skylands shooters. Steven Gakos misfired in a situation where he admitted to immense pressure, so it came down to another Mountain Lakes product, Kinnelon rookie Thomas Rappleye. He would be the third and potentially final shooter in this contest. He swerved 25 feet to his left before bearing in on the Kings goal, head up, the game on his stick. He squeezed off a quick wrester heading toward the glove side, but it connected with leather. Much of the crowd thought the game was still on, but there was little number 74 on a mad dash towards McConeghy, sprinting into a championship hug. "I was scared because it bounced off his glove," said Rappleye in the post game delirium. "But I saw it in the net and I was pumped." This was no rec-league award, this was hard-earned NJYHL hardware. The two-foot trophy was accidentally handed to the Skylands Kings, so a former Kinnelon player wearing a Kings uniform had to hand it over top the rightful victors, with a good deal of humility. The first-year travel club Kinnelon Colts had beaten the Kings, an 11-win team from NJYHL's all-powerful northern division, not once, but twice in a single day. No explanations were necessary, this club had arrived.

The team had their trophy, the kids all had medals hanging around their necks, and the Colts didn't need to justify to anybody who they were. Next year this group, led by Huck and Tom and the coach's kid and all the other "locals" who decided to stick together, will move up to bantams and seek more medals and more metal, paying tribute to time-tested values like loyalty and sticking together. In a culture where players in a team sport have become mercenaries constantly looking to better their individual needs, a neighborhood band of Colts stuck together and claimed a trophy. Maybe there will be more like Rappleye and Rosseland and Kramer who will gravitate toward this band of brothers.