Ice hockey: Roosevelt ends season on torrid run, wins Hudson Valley championship
During a raucous locker room celebration, as music blared, the bowl atop their trophy was filled with water and passed around by teammates to sip from.
The players mimicking, of course, what has long been a tradition for NHL teams after winning a championship. Except, in those instances, the beverages are a little more expensive and come with a proof percentage.
“We would’ve done it with champagne if we were old enough,” senior Aiden Matera said with a laugh, “but the water was good enough.”
Because this, for them, was the local equivalent of a Stanley Cup. Much like a professional squad, theirs was a collection of players from different districts and backgrounds, coming together and melding their skills to form an excellent team.
Capping a superb season that ended with a torrid run, the Franklin D. Roosevelt hockey team captured its second straight Hudson Valley High School Ice Hockey Association championship last weekend.
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“It was a great season with a great group of kids,” first-year head coach Mark Maroney said. “It’s the kind of season you didn’t want to end, but we ended it in the best way possible.”
The Presidents swept rival Arlington in a best-of-three series, notching a 3-2 win Saturday in the clinching second game at the Majed J. Nesheiwat Convention Center in Poughkeepsie.
Roosevelt raced to a 3-0 lead and withstood the Admirals’ late surge. The players and their fans eagerly counted down the final seconds, awaiting their cue to erupt in excitement.
“It felt like the longest minute of my life,” said Matera, a center. “We threw our gloves and sticks and mobbed our goalie, then skated over to our fans to celebrate with them.”
The Presidents rebounded from a disappointing start to the season and ended on a 21-game undefeated streak that included 17 wins en route to the title. They beat Saugerties in the semifinals, setting up a showdown with Arlington, whose four losses this season came against FDR.
After an 0-2-1 start, the team quickly began to click and realized its potential.
“We have a great mix of talent with kids who play on high-level travel teams, and many of whom have been playing hockey since they were 4 years old,” Maroney said. “We also had great role players who did the dirty work and were great for our chemistry.”
One of the more challenging, and fulfilling, dynamics for them is the fact their team is comprised of players from a handful of schools including Red Hook and Spackenkill.
Arlington is the largest high school in Dutchess County and has a big enough pool of talent to draw from, but FDR has only three players from its own high school and is allowed to fill out its roster with players from the local area whose schools don’t have hockey teams.
A difficulty in that, though, is the Presidents meet only on Thursdays for practice and some of the athletes have outside obligations, including other sports. Without the benefit of seeing each other daily, some of their rapport was developed through frequent communication on Snapchat and online gaming..
“I’m extremely proud of these guys, on and off the ice,” the coach said. “It took a combination of luck, skill and effort, but we made it work.”
One of their players, Adam Kovar, is a foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic who is being housed by a Rhinebeck family. A bit of luck there came in the form of coincidence as teammates Michael Dobosh and Tomas Hajek are of Czech descent and their families, who speak the language, welcomed Kovar and helped ease his transition. Maroney playfully nicknamed that trio his “Czech line.”
As well, some of the team members played together on a Millbrook-based youth team and have known each other for a decade. A quartet of standouts — Matera, Adam Jurkowski, and brothers Liam and Owen Maroney — are Red Hook students and close friends.
The hockey season began in the fall and continued into March, overlapping two scholastic sports seasons. Dylan Updike (Spackenkill) and Ryan Zindler (Roy C. Ketcham) are soccer stars for their schools and juggled the responsibilities of both sports last autumn.
Zindler, a defenseman, scored in the first game of the final, finishing a slick pass from Matera that went between an opponent’s legs.
Ethan Abrahams, Alex Hart and goalkeeper Thomas Mount also excelled for the Presidents.
“It was surreal and came in waves of emotion Saturday night,” Mark Maroney said of sharing a championship with his sons. Liam is a junior and Owen a freshman. “It’s rare they’ve been able to play on the same team because of the age difference, so it was a pleasure to have them together.”
Mark Maroney grew up in Germantown and enjoyed hockey, but with limited resources in a family of 11 children, he said, he didn’t play an organized version of the sport until college. His kids having this opportunity now, he said, means “we’re fortunate.”
Matera described this group as “a super team,” praising the collective skill and its coaching. The coaching staff includes Mike Stephan, Kris Herlitz and Michael Abrahams.
“It was awesome to go back-to-back,” Matera said of winning the championship in consecutive years, “but this year felt even better. That’s in part because I’m a senior, but also because this team was so talented and so focused. We had an amazing run.”
Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Hockey: Roosevelt tops Arlington to repeat as Hudson Valley champions
