Gloucester fishes for big things
Boys are off to a hot start
Gloucester entered the weekend with a 6-2 mark.
HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
Senior Jack Costanzo and coach Derek Geary say the team’s early success can be attributed to the balance brought by the presence of another line with plenty of scoring pop centered by talented sophomore Emerson Marshall, who leads the team with 14 goals and 10 assists.
“That’s been the biggest thing. We don’t really have a first line,” said Costanzo. “I think by far we have the top two lines in the (Northeast) Conference. Having two lines in this conference is the difference between being a really good team and an average team with a few good players.”
Costanzo has been an impact player since his freshman year, earning an All-Conference nod in that season and each since and displaying a knack for putting the puck in the net that Geary was quite familiar with, having
coached him in middle school before ascending to the varsity job,
Geary, a former Gloucester star who was drafted by the Bruins out of Dartmouth, raves about Costanzo’s skating and strength on the puck, but believes it’s more that his physical gifts that set him apart.
“It comes a lot from his love of the game. He plays with heart,” said Geary. “You can tell how much fun he is having out there, matched with the competitiveness of an elite athlete. At our level, his skill set is probably unrivaled in Div. 2. To me, if we are talking about what makes him a special player, it’s some of these intangibles.”
Costanzo is a three-sport NEC All-Star. He’s drawn interest from colleges as a standout shortstop for the Fisherman, although he’s decided to continue to pursue hockey next year through juniors or a postgraduate year, and played No. 1 for the golf team.
“I have plenty of friends who freshman year quit all the other sports that they did so they could focus on one sport, and I noticed it didn’t really do much for them,”
said Costanzo. “Working with a team in another sport, and playing with your friends, I have always loved it and I’ve kind of needed it. It keeps me busy.”
“I think he is one of the best athletes this school has seen in many, many years,” said Geary.
Gloucester began the season with six consecutive wins, lighting the lamp 40 times, before dropping two straight, one of them in overtime to NEC rival Masconomet. Sophomores Colby Jewell and Joe Orlando have flourished as wings on Costanzo’s line, while classmate Brett Cunningham has also been a big contributor with five goals and 11 assists alongside Marshall.
And the Fishermen’s best hockey may be ahead of them. Costanzo sat out the first two games of the season, and junior Jack Delaney, one of the team’s top forwards, and senior Tim Marrone, a key defenseman, have both missed time with injuries. The team was also without Geary this week due to COVID protocols.
At full strength, Gloucester figures to be among the main contenders in Div. 2 when the puck
drops on the new state tournament in March, aiming to add to crowns won in 1993, 1998 and 2006.
“I don’t want to give away any karma, but I think we can get to the Garden,” said Costanzo. “When we get everyone back, it’s going to be crazy.”
Asking for a change
The New England high school hockey community was dealt a devastating blow last week with the tragic death of Teddy Balkind ,a sophomore at the St. Luke’s School in Connecticut, who sustained a fatal on-ice injury when an opponent’s skate blade severed his throat.
Balkind’s passing spurred an outpouring of support locally as programs across the state honored him through #sticksoutforTeddy, leaving hockey sticks outside their doors as a memorial. One of his closest friends hopes his legacy can be even larger. Wayland’s Sam Brande has established a petition to push USA Hockey to make wearing neck guards a requirement to help prevent the type of catastrophic incident that took Balkind’s life in the future.
Currently, neither USA Hockey or the NCAA has any neck-guard requirements. The National Federation of High Schools, the rules that govern MIAA ice hockey, recommends but does not require them.
You can sign the petition at www.change.org/p/hockey-neckguards-mandatory-to-play-hockey. As of Friday morning, the petition had received over 72,000 signatures toward its goal of 75,000.
Hockey rankings
Boys: 1. St. John’s Prep, 6-1. 2. Belmont, 10-0-1. 3. Xaverian, 7-1. 4. Catholic Memorial, 5-1. 5. Arlington, 6-1-1. 6. Hingham, 6-3. 7. Braintree, 5-1-1. 8. Austin Prep, 4-1. 9. Malden Catholic, 4-2. 10. Tewksbury, 7-0.
Girls: 1. Austin Prep, 9-0. 2. Duxbury, 7-0-2. 3. Arlington, 5-1-1. 4. Winchester, 5-0. 5. NDA, 2-0-1. 6. A-B, 6-0. 7. Westwood, 5-0. 8. Winthrop, 5-0-1. 9. St. Mary’s, 3-2-1. 10. Archies, 6-1.