Raiders ready to roll

Twelve area schools combine to form new team

ROME >> Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s George Netzband has been playing ice hockey since he was a toddler. Now a senior in high school, Netzband will get the chance to play on a varsity team in his final year on the ice.

As will students from Oneida, Morrisville-Eaton, Camden and eight other Central New York schools as part of the Mohawk Valley Raiders, a new team joining the Section III Division I National Conference for the 2013-14 season.

“It’s been good,” said Netzband before the final day of tryouts on Friday. “Getting to know them all, where they’re all from, it’s been very good.”

The team, coached by former Clinton coach Jon Sonderman, gave many players an opportunity they wouldn’t have otherwise. Oneida’s Andy LaSalle had previously played at Hamilton but sat out a year after that program was shut down before the 2012-13 season.

“I was excited that I was going to get to have it again,” said LaSalle. “They’re all pretty good kids. I think we can put together a pretty good team.”

“It’s different but I like it,” added Brad Mallinder, an Oneida sophomore.

The Raiders came about when several parents formed the Mohawk Valley High School Hockey Booster Club to fund the program, which was founded with Proctor as the host school. Sonderman had

quite a challenge throughout the process of forming a team, trying to find players and making sure they each meet their individual school’s requirement to play. Those efforts paid off as he rounded up 29 players for tryouts, a number that will be cut to 25.

Before Friday’s practice at Kennedy Arena, home of the Raiders, Sonderman said the team was just beginning to get used to each other on the ice.

“It’s a good group,” he said.

“They’re real coachable so far. They’ve been giving 110 percent to succeed and make this a good, successful program.”