Coach: ‘Great goaltending’ and defense led Squirt A team to victory
The Barnstable Youth Hockey Association “Squirt A” team won the state championship on Saturday, Feb. 27, at Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield, besting north shore based Triton 3-0 in the final on the strength of Cole Estey’s hat trick.
Of the five games the team played in Springfield, three were shutout wins, with great defense keeping them afloat even when the offense occasionally sputtered.
“We had great goaltending,” said head coach Mark Rogers, who said he’s been involved with hockey, “oh, for my whole life,” before adding, “it was great goaltending, but it was also our defense, not letting them get a look at our goal.” He said that frequently before the opposition could even get a shot off, “our kids would turn the play around and now we’re going the other way.”
The defense was so stifling that in many of the five games, the opposition got only a paltry three or four shots on goal.
Assistant coach Steve Estey, with 20 years of hockey coaching under his belt, called them a great group of kids that “really made a commitment to each other.”
“We’re a family,” said Rogers. “I tell the kids all the time: skate, pass, shoot. Do what we do. Give it your all [during] the time you’re out there.”
The BYHA sponsors A, B-1 and B-2 travel teams for the various groups, in ascending age/skill groupings: Farm, Mites, Squirts, Peewees, and Bantams.
Coaches tend to stick with one group of kids as they grow, and Rogers won a championship three years back with much of this same group when they were Mites.
The non-profit organization recently celebrated its 51st year in operation, with roots going back to the old Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. rink, which opened in 1957 before being demolished in 2009 to make way for the gleaming Hyannis Youth & Community Center, where the teams now compete.
There are around 450 kids in the program, both boys and girls, and they start at a farm level, training kids as little as 4 all the way up to 19-year-olds.
This was the Squirt A team, comprised of skaters ages 9-11 years, led by Rogers and assistant coaches Ben Baxter and Estey, and they had a great season, starting with a victory at Falmouth’s annual Thanksgiving Memorial Tournament last fall.
After winning in Falmouth they followed up with a win at the Newport Whaler’s Christmas Tournament in Rhode Island. They followed that up a couple of weeks ago with a victory at the BYHA tournament that they host. With mounting successes, they came roaring into the state finals last weekend.
Their record is now 55 wins, one tie and three losses, and it has them heading into the New England Championships, to be played March 11-13.
If they win there, there is some possibility of going as far as Minnesota for the national championships, but that is all down the road. Said Rogers, “That’s a whole other can of worms.” For now Rogers is helping his team stay focused on their next goal: trying to win the highly competitive New England Championships.
He said that in their very first practice since winning the states, they were focused, enthusiastic and ebullient–no sign of a let down.
They’ve already won so much to be proud of, as Massachusetts state champs.
As Rogers said, of both the upcoming New England regionals and possibly beyond, “We’re not done.”
