Page 13 - The Hockey Academy News February 2018

and that was the start of a 25-year effort at DWC. It was also the start of my 25-year relationship with The Hockey Academy.
As a matter of fact, I even got back into playing when I had to ll in for a couple games when the students were on break. I had so much fun that one of the HAC staff convinced me to join the Early Bird League. I wound up playing and refereeing that league for about twenty years. Little by little, I got more involved with a little of everything the HAC was doing. I did some clinics, worked at Waterville Valley summer camps with Jon Fontas and my wife and I had the pleasure of housing some of the campers – including my grandson. I spent a lot of time on the ice and even ran some dry land training during the camps. Eventually, my wife and I got involved in and eventually ran and I refereed tournaments at WV. I even coached a Stars midget team that my grandson played on with Brian Fontas. My wife and grandson got involved at WV and over the years and they helped run tournaments, served as scorekeepers, sold T-shirts and did everything else they could to help things run smoothly. My granddaughter even got involved and started scorekeeping there when she was 12-years old. Eventually, I started refereeing men’s leagues and my wife would score keep. Little by little, I started running the league in Salem and eventually started
to get involved in other locations. Over the years, I think I’ve become the ‘ultimate utility guy’ at the HAC. That’s also a title I had at DWC in my 34-years there. I’ve always enjoyed being around all the folks that have worked at the HAC over all those years and consider them all good friends. Many have left and I’m still in touch with several of them. In addition, I’ve always enjoyed being involved with Fred, Jon and Dan and being around the great game of hockey.
I grew up in Nashua and although there wasn’t much organized hockey in the area in the ‘50s, my dad had me skating by the time I was four-years old. I played pond hockey as much as I could and eventually learned the game when I went to a small prep school in Rhode Island. The brothers that taught there were all Canadians and they taught as much about the game as they could. Eventually, I went into the service and whenever I could, I got involved in hockey. I even met my wife when I was stationed in Caribou, Maine when I was ice skating at the local rink. A good friend of mine from Buffalo and I got convinced to coach a bunch of kids from Caribou and we were able to take them across the border to play Perth, New Brunswick for a couple games. They were completely over matched but loved it anyway. In addition, the Canadian coaches helped make it fun for them by combining
teams. I also later played, coached and refereed in Sacramento, Calif., Great Falls, Mont., Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, Calif. Those were the years my son was playing. From the time he was four-years old, he was skating and by the time he was eight, he was a solid player. Sadly, he had to give up hockey when gas prices in Calif. got completely crazy and we had to stop traveling the 60 miles to Santa Barbara and 150 miles to Los Angeles. He was a very good athlete and became a very good football and baseball player. When we moved back to New Hampshire in 1983, my son was in high school and hockey was history for him. However, it wasn’t for me and I got involved fairly quickly. I helped coach an early version of DWC hockey and that was fun. I even got a game for the DWC team with a bunch of my son’s friends who played Midgets in Salem Youth Hockey. They even got him to try playing but it had been about ve years and he wasn’t quite ready for it. Anyway, little by little, I started helping with some Mite players and just enjoyed being around the game. And then, eventually, DWC and HAC got me totally involved all over again.”
We’d like to thank Paul for his continued hard work and passion in making sure our Adult Leagues and Tournaments run smoothly. We could not do it without him!