Hackettstown needs an ice hockey team
Hello everyone, I'm a fellow student at hackettstown high school. These past few months have been an awesome push for us, we finally got a lacrosse program for boys and girls in the high school and middle schools. My topic today however is a little different. I always wanted to play locally on an ice hockey team but since chillout has closed it has been much harder. I think with parents and players participation, we could create some ice hockey teams for hackettstown to play at the closest ice arena which would be Aspen ice in randolph. Now granted, ice hockey itself is a VERY expensive sport. I believe that in time if we get enough participation we could have a couple of teams and go from there. Please comment your thoughts I'm all ears, thanks
Robert Zukowksi Are you aware of Aspen's existing programs? If you want to play all you need to do is sign up at Aspen. They've got programs at both high school and middle school. If you get a dozen or so from Hackettstown then you've got a whole team. If not, you still play on what ever teams you want.
GC HHS had a team for a short time when Chillout was in town, however parents paid all expenses. (The school only sponsered the team so they could play other school tea,s and the team was covered under the school insurance, i believe)This worked well for several years, until the initial students graduated and the upcoming families were not willing to pay out of pocket. As you mentioned, it is a very expensive sport, especially when you have to pay for ice time and trael to and from Randolph. It would be a nice opportunity for students, but unfortunately there are many more hurdles to this than there were to lacrosse. Good luck.
bac In a different regard. I used to play in adult leagues at Skylands up in Stockholm but have since moved out to Hackettstown. Anyone play in any adult leagues at Randolph? I would like to play again.
Greener Pastures High school ice hockey is big in Morris County .... they have exciting playoffs at Mennen Arena in late February. Mount Olive, West Morris, Mendham, all have competitive teams that play real well.
Fencing goes on at HHS, thanks to a very busy Friends of Fencing group that raises money. That's what it takes, that's the reality of it.
Andy Loigu Andy is correct, Lacrosse was a Huge undertaking. Paying coaches for constant Clinics, Inside turf time, equipment ect ect. That all takes lots of money.
Parents have to pay for this.
A key is a booster club raising money and never stopping to help offset some of these costs.
It can be done with the right team of parents around you like I have.
"Always look into the Sun and leave the shadows behind you".
H-Town HS LAX Booster Club President
Anthony DInnocenzio 
Rebecka A good opportunity for young people to play some pond hockey.
That's why those Canadians, Finns, Swedes, and Russians are so good, that's how they grew up playing the game.
Rebecka - Me and my feline cheering section will be right over. ;-)
Andy - There's a lot more to it than that. Every single town has a rink. They play every day at lunch. Kids at age 13 go off to foster families to play semi-professionally. Or their government takes them off to the "hockey school" where it's all they do 24x7.
It was done already, the parents ended up paying approx. $1000 per player, which was not too bad considering the prices of travel teams. There was never enough interest generated from any future players. there was alot of fundraising at the time by the club and Donna tatarka who was instrumental in starting the program, she did an outstanding job keeping the league going. But alas, the upcoming students just did'nt seem to be interested enough to keep the team going. Good luck, It would be nice to see a team again!
bluelinrThe lack of a high school hockey team is honestly a reason I consider moving out of the Hackettstown area, or sending my son to a private school with a hockey team. It would be best to start with younger players and build up a rec program. A ton of effort, time, energy and dedication. It's an expensive sport. I know I'm telling you what you've already said and know.
hockey mom I still think Hackettstown would do well with a rink. Chill Out was managed terribly.
I played for West Morris and it was and is a great program because of great support from parents. That's how it starts and with the right coach, can be a great success. Hockey is the best sport, but also the most expensive and can only be sustainable in a wealthier area realistically. With enough support, school funding could help those less fortunate with the ability to become hockey players.
I for one, would happily back such a cause.
Find another school locally that does not have a team but might have some interest. Start it as a co-op team like Newton-Lenape valley or high point-walkill valley. If there isn't enough interest then at least they should be able to start a program with the efforts of two schools ?
Football fan As stated above, they had a team for several years, and there was not enough interest to sustain it once the core group of players (who had been playing together for years) moved through the high school and left. Plain and simple, there was not enough interest to continue the program!
The Hockey team was like watching slapshot! more fights and kids in the penalty box than on the ice! I would not even take my kids to watch those games.
droptine All this sort of makes me feel vindicated here. Back in 2006 I had about two-three minutes of air time, as Sports Boy, to talk about local sports with Russ Long on WRNJ.
Hackettstown had just won its first district wrestling title in 50 years, and ended 12 years of domination by P'burg ... a day Hackettstown could really be proud of its wrestling program.
I started talking about the guys who accomplished this wonderful thing (and two minutes goes fast when you've got something good to talk about) but then Russ broke in with "what about the hockey team?"
I'm thinking, hockey? Hackettstown has a hockey team?
Russ then read something he got in an email about Htown on the JV level winning some kind of a tournament, or I think it was just third place, not sure about that ... so, I just said well, "maybe in 50 years they'll have championships to celebrate, too."
The guy who sent Russ the email then sent an indignant email saying I was rude and discourteous to say the team would not win a championship for 50 years, even though that really wasn't what I said.
Hey, they tried to usurp Hackettstown's hard-earned moment of glory in a sport, on the high school level, that people actually care about. And I was disappointed in Russ that he didn't stick up for me --- Hackettstown wrestling really was the big story of the day --- the hockey could have waited.
Anyway, I hope Hackettstown does get something going in hockey, the more sports, the more chances for kids to do something that keeps them in shape and out of trouble.
But that particular hockey program did not stand the test of time, while wrestling interest is what it has always been --- really, really great.
I thought the only sport hackettstown people cared about was football, they sure put enough time and money into that program! You did say you were invited on to talk about local sports? not just wrestling. The hockey program received absolutely no support from the school admin, but they always wanted their say in how the program was run! The interest was only part of the reason why the program failed, there were some decent players on a few of the teams. it wasn't all goon hockey, though to the untrained eye it could seem that way, fighting sometimes takes place at ALL levels of hockey. I wish the baseball, football, wrestling,basketball and softball teams could all earn titles, but it is what it is, a good memory for these kids to always have the rest of their lives!
No offense to you Andy, but I don't understand your need to feel vindicated? I don't believe the hockey program ever had a JV team, they only had one team at the Varsity level, they barely fielded enough players for one team, so it had to be a varsity team. I also don't believe they won any tournament, they may have finished at 500 or maybe a game over 500 one year, but I really don't recall.
Hackettstown has a history of starting programs off with a year of JV competition, it worked great for field hockey, they were Hunterdon/Warren champs in just a couple of years.
I believe lacrosse is starting out as a JV program, if I heard correctly at the school board meetings last summer. It really is the only sensible way to start a program.
My "vindication" comes in the proof that wrestling has proven to be much more popular at the high school level than ice hockey has proven to be.
Hackettstown won the DISTRICT TITLE in wrestling ... ahead of PHILLIPSBURG ...(do you appreciate what that means historically?) and Russ wanted to talk about a hockey program that had never made an effort to establish any contact with me all season, that I was not prepared to talk about.
I have good judgment as to what is the top story of the day ... Russ came completely out of left field live on the air... on that day it was a no-brainer and those wrestlers deserved more than three minutes ... he's a great guy, but I haven't forgiven him for that one to this day.
Andy you are correct about a JV Lax team at the HS. The team of 25 strong is loaded with good solid H-Town HS student athletes. Thank you for all your support through your media outlets in your positive articles.
Anthony - I'm curious - you mention that you are the president of the HHS LAX Booster Club. Is that the boys team or the girls team or both?
This is why kids leave for private schools,you have to leave town to play hockey,that is crazy,just start a hockey team! People need to go to the board of education,and ask! We the tax payers pay there salaries,the high school needs to grow anyway,or go to TSA there a private company running football!Maybe they will start a hockey team,call Chuck Harvey,I believe he runs operations! They have a website,TSA Football!
LoBo >>People need to go to the board of education,and ask!<<
Let's see - the BOE has plans in the works to build a new grade school, and now I hear on WRNJ that the district is "partnering" with Essex (?) county for the ESL program due to the Hispanic population explosion in town.
And H'town "needs" a hockey team??
Really?
My elderly parents and my brother have homes in H'town. My parents currently pay north of $8K in property taxes for a three bedroom ranch. My other relatives in Independence have also seen jumps in their property taxes.
Our outmoded (from a late 1700's Prussian system designed to produce compliant, industrious citizens) educational system is obsolescent, to say the least. The continual expansion of "educational services" and increasing costs of sports programs (astroturf and stadium lights and transportation and...) is paid for by taxpayers.
Sounds innocent enough until you reason out that every dollar is forcibly taken, at the point of a gun, without the consent of a lot of taxpayers.
"At the point of a gun!!??"
Yup - don't pay your property taxes and, eventually, people with guns...and the legal authority to use them...will come by and either throw you out of your house or lock you in jail.
So yeah, just go ask the BOE for even more....
jjmonth4 You are right Andy, Russ Long was wrong. He should have allowed more time for your story before asking about other sports. i don't believe WRNJ had such time constraints as not to allow more time. But anyway the HS hockey team was a varsity team, 3 or 4 of the players were seniors, they would not have had enough players to play then, being seniors can not play down. I did'nt know they had an LAX team. Both of my kids are long gone from HS.
Some teams that deserve to be remembered in Hackettstown are those field hockey teams from 2002 to 2008 ... it started as a JV program in 2001.
Great going, girls!
I hope LAX has the same kind of success.
I would love to have a hockey team at hhs, I'm in 8th grade and I am moving up into the high school.I currently play goalie for the New Jersey Freeze in Flemington and have played for around three years, First of I would not only be happy to play in net for htown (Even if that means playing powerhouse teams such as Chattom, Morristown, Hunterdon Central, and Pope John as a freshman) but would happily support any type of team (Middleschool, High, Rec, Travel)
freezegoalie80 It has also come to my attention that on the aspen ice website there is a regestration form for a middle school team, the dead line is april 5 for team registration
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