Purple Squirts Cap Off Season with Win Over Vineyard Rivals
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
It was 5:55 p.m. Tuesday, and the atmosphere on the ice was highly
charged. The championship battle was about to begin. More than 80 people
were on their feet at the Martha's Vineyard arena, shouting
encouragement to two teams who had swept across the Cape and Nantucket
since October to get here.
This was a salute to the Squirts.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/squirts_goal_shot_sm.jpg" Each team of nine and ten-year-old hockey players had triumphed over
talented opponents in Dennis, Barnstable, Yarmouth and elsewhere. The
irony in this pursuit is that the league final game ended here, back at
home, between players who grew up together. The two top Squirt teams in
the Cape and Islands were Vineyarders.
It was an awkward competition, unique in the history of the
championship and certainly for youth hockey on the Island. When it was
all over, MV-Purple beat MV-White, five goals to two, in an emotional
game.
Bill Jacob, of Chilmark, coaches the Purple team. Bart Kent, a
Vineyarder, coaches the White team. Neither imagined back in the autumn
that when the teams were established that the final game of the season
for both would be at home.
Some players on both sides have played together since they could
walk.
"The hardest thing for both coaches is that the skaters
joining the team came with a wide variety of experience," Mr.
Jacob said. "Some played two years, some played five or six years.
Some skaters started playing hockey when they were three or four years
old."
MV-White was always the underdog prospect. "We went into the
hockey season a little reluctant," Mr. Kent admitted. "The
Purple team was expected to go undefeated. They had the veterans. We
were going to be a developmental team."
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/squirts_emily_hammett_sm.jpg" But something happened from within. Call it synergy, something new
arose between teammates that neither the coach nor the parents
forecasted. Mr. Kent said the first big sign that his White team had
something above the expected occurred in November when they went to an
away game and played against Nantucket, a formidable opponent.
"I think we all became a family. We all spent the whole day
together on Nantucket. It pulled us together," said Mr. Kent, a
paint contractor who played varsity hockey when he was growing up.
"We all knew that we had something."
They beat Nantucket 7 to 1. "We knew then that something was
going on," Mr. Kent said. It was the first of seven wins. Their
season leading up to the championship was impressive: 14 wins, five
losses and one tie.
The only better team in the league was the undefeated MV-Purple.
Mr. Jacob had seven years of hockey coaching experience before
taking on the Purple Squirts. Still, he was amazed that his players
ended their season undefeated, with 20 wins, one cancellation and no
losses.
"It is all about the kids. They are fantastic," Mr.
Jacob said. Sure, there were some experienced players within the team.
But Mr. Jacob said it is all the players working together that brings
about goals and wins.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/squirts_youth_hockey_sm.jpg" Mr. Jacob said his players worked a lot on their own strategy.
"When the team was formed, we had some superstars but we also had
a few that couldn't stand up. I am impressed that these kids
helped each other. During the long season, they worked hard. The
talented kids never got down on the less talented kids. That helped a
lot."
Spirit and camaraderie off the ice is crucial to a team's
success on the ice. There is a lot of down time, and the way teammates
relate to each other off the ice becomes a guiding factor on the ice.
Each player carries about as much equipment in a bag as he weighs.
It is a major commitment, too, for their families. There are a
couple of practices a week and one or two games a weekend, many
off-Island. Not to mention hockey is a very expensive sport.
Squirts games are short - there are three periods, each
lasting 12 minutes. That is not a lot of time for an event that causes
mothers and fathers and children to jump into the car and head for the
Cape. It has to be about more than winning.
Every 12-member team has its pivotal players. Yet in youth hockey,
as in all sports teams, it isn't always the scorers who make the
team glow.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/squirts_jake_hart_sm.jpg" Goaltender Zoli Clarke of Chilmark is the team leader on the
MV-White team. Throughout the season when the players rode the bus,
young Mr. Clarke was there to get his teammates singing. Then there is
the team's spirited female player, Callie Jackson, 9, of Vineyard
Haven. Top scorer Kip Cooperrider, 10, of West Tisbury is usually a
quiet MV-White team player. But on Tuesday he asserted himself and shot
the puck in the net twice.
The Purple team had a host of good players. Nine-year-old Tyson
Araujo is the team's best skater and scorer. Other top scorers
include Harrison Rodrigues, Max Davies and Shay Hill. Connor Chisholm
offered an assist in the last goal of the game. Emily Hammett was a
defensive force.
So when the two top Squirt teams in the Cape and Islands had their
showdown, it was no accident they both wore purple and white uniforms.
They were Vineyarders.
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