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Posted
on Monday, April 7, 2008
Article Written
by Joshua Boyd and Seen in the April 2008 Issue
of USA Junior Hockey Magazine
At most Springfield
Jr. Pics junior games, you’ll
see a lot of Pics jerseys in the audience, giving off
a sense of being at a pro or college game.
However,
most of those wearing the jerseys in the audience aren’t
just fans, though there might be some wearing the colors
in tribute. No, most of the Pics jersey wearers at
your average Springfield, Mass., game are Pics players
themselves. You’ll get that with 10 different
boys teams and five girls teams.
“There are kids
running around in their Pics jerseys [at junior games],” said
Brian Collins, head of the extensive Pics youth organization. “We’re
a tight organization. I’d say 75 percent of our
juniors have, at one time or another, played for the
Pics youth.
“We don’t
recruit,” Collins
added. “We’re here for the kids in this
area. It’s been successful for us.”
Rob
Bonneau would give an “amen!” to that,
having recently coached three straight teams to league
championships in both the America East Hockey League
and the International Junior Hockey League.
The Pics
Super Elite juniors, of which former Pic player Bonneau
is head coach, repeated as playoff champions of the
Super Elite Division (called the Elite Division in
2006-07).
“We set a goal
of trying to win the championship every year,” said
Bonneau. “We
had many questions going into the season. We knew we
were the best team the previous two years – we
only lost six games all year in 2006-07, and I think
that team would have competed very well in any of the
top Eastern U.S. junior leagues.”
“This year,
we had lost 13 guys from 2006-07, and anytime you lose
that many, it will take time to get the chemistry going,” Bonneau
added. “Our ‘Jr. B’ [i.e. Selects
in 2006-07] team had won the championship, but in our
minds, we were wondering ‘Who is going to step
up and play?’”
The 2007-08 Super
Elite Pics went 18-7 for 36 league points, edging out
the Maine Moose (35) and the Exeter Freeze (35) by
a point each. The Pics beat Exeter 4-3 in overtime
in the first finals game, and then defeated the Fury
Freeze 5-3 in Game 2 for the sweep.
A solid Super Elite
lineup
The team rode Tim Pageau to the title, as the 1990-born
played no less than 35 games after seeing little action
in 2006-07.
“He’ll
try out at other places, but it’s tough to crack
any roster as a goalie,” said Bonneau. “He
definitely rose to the occasion this year.”
On
defense, Anthony Bisciglia came in as a 1991-born defenseman
and won the plus-minus award with a plus-39, the next
closest being forward and highscorer Matt
Hiser’s plus-25. Most nights, Bisciglia and partner Steven
Tellier saw the bulk of the time.
In all games, the
Westfield (Mass.) State College-bound Hiser scored
80 points (27 of them came in regular season games),
with the next closest scoring 60.
“[Hiser] was
pretty much our leader,” Bonneau said. “Anytime
we needed a goal, he’s the guy we’d send
out there. After we lost the first game against the
Blackhawks, he asked me if he could talk to the team
without me in there. No matter what I say, players
are going to respond better to their captain.”
Joe
Penniman, another 1990-born player, was a Select player
last year who this year scored the OT goal in the first
finals game. “That kid’s got a future,” Bonneau
said.
Among other forwards,
Dan Leblanc stepped up at the end of the season, and
Drew Corona missed a lot of time with a separated shoulder,
but they are both players Bonneau looks forward to
seeing a lot from next year.
Troy
Ribeiro “is
a game-changer that a school will be lucky to get,” who
the team is losing to college after this season. Andrew
Jacobs is a battler, taking non-glorious work like
penalty killing and other defensive assignments.
Right
now, the only other player definitely moving on to
college from the Super Elite Pics is Sean
Noonan, who
scored 14 points in the regular season – he’ll
join Hiser at Westfield State.
Local flavor all through
ranks
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that two players
are going 10 miles down the road. As aforementioned,
the team really doesn’t recruit and players come
from generally just western Massachusetts and northwestern
Connecticut.
“We’ll
get some central Mass. players, we’ve been lucky
enough to get some from the Worcester area, and a little
bit from the Enfield [Conn.] area, but at the level
we play we don’t want to limit guys coming in
from too far away. We don’t go out looking for
people, but if they find us and make our team, they’ll
be on our team,” said Bonneau. “Guys [in
the Springfield area] want to come and play for this
team. They want to play for the Pics.”
The first
championship of the three straight for the team in
2005-06 gave the team some good local recruiting ammo.
“After
we won the America East League, what happened was the
younger guys, they attracted some of the other local
kids in the area,” said Bonneau. “That’s
been our bread and butter, and we’ve done a pretty
good job of that.”
The Pics have been
drawing heavily since Charlie
Nielsen founded the team
in 1977. Despite what some may see as a closed recruiting
pool, just this year the team has had plenty of success
for the books.
Along with the Super
Elite title, the Pics’ 1999 Mite Major team qualify
for the Silver Stick Tournament in Michigan. The team
got to St. Clair, Mich., thanks to a come-from-behind
victory over Top Gun Hockey.
The 1995-born Peewee
Major team won the Metro Boston Hockey League’s
berth in the prestigious Quebec International Peewee
Tournament in February, playing two games up north.
Known
in circles far outside of Massachusetts, the Pics will
continue to employ the philosophies that have made
them winners in various leagues over more than 30 years.
If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
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