The ConVal boys’ hockey team was the best winless team in the state last year. Blessed with talent but plagued by low turnout, the Cougars labored away against the rest of their division.
“We’d give anybody a game for the first period,” said head coach Mark Leger. “But when you’re playing six, seven, eight guys, against teams that have four lines, their focus is just to run us down.”
ConVal co-captain Matt Kolk agreed.
“Last year we were in a lot of games,” Kolk said, “and in the third period, we’d just be too tired, we didn’t have enough players to keep us fresh.”
This year, that’s going to change — dramatically. After years of deliberation, ConVal finally got the go-ahead to form a cooperative hockey team with Conant, and that’s just what they did. Now, the new team is ready to forge ahead with plenty of skaters and a whole new look, and players from all sides are ecstatic.
“We’ve been waiting for this since freshman year,” said co-captain Wyatt Robbins, a Conant senior who played club hockey with the New England Edge for the past few years, all the while holding out hope that he’d have a shot at high school hockey.
Fellow Conant senior and co-captain Chance Kirby has been watching the process even longer. Kirby remembers his older brrother attending Conant and hoping for a co-op team to come together. He’s now 24. Now, Kirby and his two younger brothers will take the ice for the CC Griffins.
“I’m really excited,” Kirby said. “We’ve got a lot of young talent on the team.”
Kirby said he and his brothers would band together with other kids from Jaffrey and Rindge, joining leagues in Fitchburg or playing in tournaments, practicing on their own time under their own auspices, all for “the love of the game.” Now, he’ll join up with an already established team, and between him and Robbins, anchor a much-needed spot — goaltender. The Cougars needed a new keeper this year, and both Robbins and Kirby play the position, well.
“We feel we have two guys who can compete with anybody,” Leger said.
Co-captain Cam Merwede put it more succinctly.
“These kids are studs,” he said. “We’re going to be able to rely on our goaltending like we never have.”
Merwede was on the wrong side of too many games last year against huge co-op schools like Kearsarge-Plymouth last year. Kearsarge and Plymouth started playing together just last year, and the difference was notable, Merwede said.
“They had three kids from Plymouth that they didn’t have the year before — they were players — and it was difficult seeing that happen. Hearing about this, and it not happening…” Merwede was frustrated — until he heard the news.
“When it finally happened, I thought ‘We’re going to be one of those teams now that can compete.’”
The CC Griffins, as they are now known, will sport blue, white and orange, heralded by a Griffin, the creature of medieval fantasy which combines a ferocious wildcat with a winged bird — perfect for an Oriole/Cougar hybrid.
“I’ve been playing a lot of sports seasons, not only hockey, in that ConVal blue and gold and white,” Kolk said, “so it’s kind of weird, playing for my school and it’s not the same colors, but I like the combination, I think it looks slick.”
Aside from adding the Oriole mascot into the ConVal mix, the Conant players bring a lot more to the table, but the depth may be the biggest factor. Not only did the Cougars’ short bench hurt them in games last year, due to fatigue, but the sheer numbers deficit left them at a disadvantage even in practice, where they couldn’t run drills with enough players to adequately prepare them for games.
“We’re deeper now than we’ve ever been,” Leger said. “Our game, our whole system has changed. We’re doing things in practice now that we could never do because we didn’t have enough players to participate in certain drills. Now we’re running drills with ten guys.”
It’s not just Conant players who’ll show up this year and bolster ConVal’s roster — they’ve got a star center out of Germany who’s here as an exchange student.
Luca Haufler, who excelled during the soccer season for ConVal as they rode a winning streak to their best-ever regular season, is a great soccer player. But, the ConVal coaching staff knew, he’s an even better hockey player.
“When we saw how well he was doing in soccer, [assistant coach Scott Tracy] and I were just about foaming at the mouth,” Leger said, raving about Haufler’s natural skating stride. Haufler and Cam Tracy are expected to run the show on the first line, with Kolk and Trevor Johnson holding down line No. 2. The Cougars should go three and maybe even four lines deep this season, and have two senior co-captains at goalie.
“We’re excited we’re finally going to have a team that can skate in the second and third periods without running out of gas so quickly,” Leger said.
Robbins and the rest of the Conant players will now have the chance to put Jaffrey and Rindge — long strongholds in basketball, baseball and swimming — on the map for the sport they love.
“I think people are going to realize now that there is a deep love for the sport around here,” Robbins said. “ I think it’s going to be good for the future.”
The CC Griffins take the ice for the first time as a team Wednesday night, when they travel to Hollis-Brookline at 7:10 p.m.
Sports Editor Ben Conant can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 226, or bconant@ledgertranscript.com.