Hockey
players growing up in Western Massachusetts always knew it:
no matter how many goals you scored or how many pucks you
stopped, you weren't truly a top tier player unless you had
on a Springfield Jr. Pics jersey while you were doing it.
I played against the Pics only once, a long time ago. So long
ago, in fact, that the winner of the game earned the right
to represent the now-defunct Hartford Whalers in the Quebec
Pee-wee International Hockey Championships (a sort of World
Cup for youth hockey). Although we were a little overmatched,
we managed to bring a lead into the third period. With about
five minutes left, the Pics sent out five forwards instead
of the usual three forwards and two defensemen. They tied
the game, then went ahead for good. The Pics were the Pics.
The Pics were formed in 1976, when 15 of the area's best 10-year-old
hockey players entered a tournament, calling themselves the
Springfield Pioneers. A year later, the Pioneers entered two
teams in the prestigious Metro Boston Hockey League; one reached
the finals and the other won the championship in their respective
age groups. A few years after that, as the Pioneers established
themselves as the elite youth organization in the area, Gary
Dineen came calling.
Dineen, whose Springfield Olympics junior hockey team has
sent many players on to college and professional hockey, was
looking for a feeder system for his program. It was then that
the Pioneers became the Springfield Junior Olympics -- Pics
for short. Any association between the two teams was in name
only, however. Upon request of the U.S. Olympic Committee,
both organizations officially changed their names to the Pics
a few years later. Dineen's team has since been renamed the
Junior Whalers, then the Junior Coyotes and now the Junior
Falcons.
Under its new name, the Pics built a legacy that included
a slew of college players and professionals, most notably
Bill Guerin, a National Hockey League player with a couple
of Stanley Cup rings. It also included Tom Ashe, who also
played professionally but is perhaps best known for scoring
the game-winning goal for Boston College in the 1994 Beanpot
Tournament. It is a goal that Pics owner Charlie Nielson remembers
well. "When we talked about it, I told him-- 'Tommy,
there are only two people who knew you weren't taking a shot,
you and me,'" Neilson says with a chuckle.
Things are a little bit different these days. With so many
travel hockey teams in the area, the talent pool has been
diluted. Teams like the Mass Conn Braves and others have cut
into the Pics' monopoly. Neilson, who has owned the Pics since
their inception, doesn't have any problems with his rivals,
but worries if there is enough talent to go around. "I'd
never knock anybody. I'm too busy keeping my own team going.
It's tough because of the level of competition we all have
to meet. If we get too many [travel teams] there won't be
enough players on that level to go around," Neilson says.
So far, the Pics seem to be managing. While they haven't kept
the same mystique as when I was playing in the mid-'90s (it
isn't as uncommon now to see the Braves beat the Pics), the
Pics still field some of the most talented teams in the area.
They also still play in the Metropolitan Boston Hockey League.
The MBHL is one of the oldest and most competitive independent
youth hockey leagues in the country. Many NHL players played
out their youth in the MBHL, including perennial All-Stars
like Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk and Guerin. The league,
which is not affiliated with USA Hockey, uses modified NCAA
rules. What this means is that the MBHL is one of the only
youth leagues in the country where body checking and slap
shots are allowed regardless of age. In most leagues, including
all sanctioned by USA Hockey, checking and slap shots aren't
permitted until players reach the 11-12 age group. But checking
from the start is not as dangerous as one would think. Kids
get used to taking a hit, and giving one, before anyone is
big enough to really hurt anyone else.
|
|
"I
think it helps him as far as being able to keep his head up,
look at the ice and look where he's going," says Dave Gagne
as he watches his 8-year-old son Dylan practice at the Fitzgerald
Ice Rink in Holyoke. There is something almost comical about
watching mites (the nickname for the 8-year-old age group) checking
one another. It reminded me of the large inflatable bouncing
room at a carnival.
The nicknames for all levels of youth hockey are euphemisms
for small: mites, then squirts (9-10), pee-wees (11-12), bantams
(13-14) and midgets (15-16). Most players stop playing for youth
organizations after they've entered high school and can play
for their school, though some join a junior team (ages 16-20).
These teams offer a higher level of competition than any Western
Mass. high school, which are all in Division III except for
Cathedral. They also offer the best shot at playing in college.
The most well known junior program in the area is Gary Dineen's
New England Junior Falcons. The program has sent an impressive
number of players to all levels of collegiate and professional
hockey. A recent local examples is P. J. Fenton, now a freshman
standout for UMass.
The Pics began their own junior team eight years ago. Playing
in the Interstate Junior Hockey League, the Pics offer an alternative
to high school hockey that boasts better visibility to college
coaches. The team has sent its fair share of players to prep
schools, college teams and higher-level junior teams (like the
Junior Falcons). This is something Neilson is very proud of.
"If you're in this for the money, forget it. There isn't
any," says the Pics' lone shareholder. "This is about
getting kids a leg up for education, whether it's prep school
or college."
The junior team is coached by Rob Bonneau, himself a product
of the Jr. Pics program. "I played when I was 10,"
Bonneau says. "That was a long time ago, though. I think
they were still the Pioneers back then."
Bonneau went on to play for Gary Dineen, then accepted a scholarship
at UMass, where he starred for the Minutemen. One week after
his last college game, he was playing professionally for the
Portland Pirates in the American Hockey League. After bouncing
around the minor leagues for five or six years (including a
short stint with the Springfield Falcons), Bonneau finds himself
back in Western Mass.
Meanwhile,after spending the last few years at the Olympia in
West Springfield, the Pics now make their home in Holyoke at
the Fitzpatrick Skating Arena. At Fitzpatrick, the Pics are
the primary tenants, making it much easier to schedule games
and practices. They have access to a conference room, and the
junior team has its own locker room.
It was in their new digs that I recently took in a night of
Pics practices. There were the familiar sounds -- a coach's
whistle, newly sharpened skates carving freshly cleaned ice,
and one or two parents yelling a little too intensely. I was
unimpressed with the current team on the ice; they seemed to
be unimpressive for squirts. Then during one drill, a skater
circled in front of the net with flawless skating form and stopped
on a dime. His coach sent him a crisp pass; the skater received
the puck and, in one motion, sent a wrist shot over the goalie's
shoulder and just under the crossbar.
"Wow," I wondered aloud, "I wish I could have
done that when I was 10."
"Ten?" a parent shot back. "These kids are 8
years old." The players on the ice weren't squirts at all.
They were mites. Then it occurred to me that, though times have
changed, one thing has not. The Pics are still the Pics. |
