Western Mass Hockey on Fire !

Western Mass Hockey is alive and well. We have many local high school teams and they seem to continually get better. Then, of course, there is Cathedral High, now Pope Francis, our only Division I team in Western Mass. In the last several years they have been highly ranked in the state's top Division. Can't wait to see what kind of team Coach Brian Foley has this season.

We are also loaded with Junior Hockey and all the U's. You know, U-18, U16, U15, U14, etc. The Springfield Pics play in some of the best hockey played in the East, starting with the Premier Division of the USPHL. They also play against nationally ranked competition at the various levels. As do the Springfield Rifles who play U18 on down, and have been nationally ranked. By the way I have talked to parents in the last couple of weeks from far away places...like California, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Canada, and other including Riga, Latvia! These young boys, now young men, love hockey so much that they play in Western Mass and live in "billet" families while enrolling in local high schools. They do this to play in the Northeast where there is not only great hockey, but some of the best hockey colleges in the nation all concentrated in this region. Coaches and scouts at these colleges find it easy and convenient to scout locally, and this is what most players long for, to play college hockey. My hats off to the parents / caretakers and young men. We take all this for granted but this is a major sacrifice for all of them. The parents shell out big bucks and at times travel long distances to see them play. The love of hockey is infectious.

College Hockey is also strong in Western Mass led by two Division I schools, American International College (AIC) and UMass Amherst. At AIC Cathedral grad, Austin Orszulak, is a senior and has just been named Captain. Congratulations to him! AIC will be playing their home games at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield this year. UMass Amherst who plays in the powerful Hockey East Conference has a new Coach in Greg Carvel and we wish him the best toward bringing UMass back to hockey prominence. DIII Hockey colleges are represented by Western New England University and Westfield State University. Springfield College has a DII Club Hockey Program.

In addition to all of the above Western Mass has an exciting new AHL Professional Hockey Team, the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds start their season on October 15 with an away game, followed by 2 more away games. Their first home game is on October 22. Mark that down on your calendar, we want to make sure we support Western Mass's professional hockey team.

As you can see from all of the above, Western Mass is Hockey Strong!

Janis Vizbelis Springfield Pics U18

Janis is From Riga, Latvia

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Alfredo DiLascia

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