Coming off one of their best seasons in recent memory in which they went 9-6-5 and qualified for the State Tournament, Boys Hockey hopes to take this momentum into the new season.  With second year Head Coach Ron Dowd and a slew of core players coming back the  Rebels are looking to make the next step and clinch a Bay State Herget title and advance deep into the tournament.

Dowd, who brought a lot of excitement and energy to the program in his first year as Head Coach, looks to to improve upon last season and put Walpole Hockey back on the map.

Senior Captains Pat Baker, Sean Donnelly, and Tom McNamara lead the team, all of whom have had plenty of experience at the Varsity level with Donnelly and McNamara being on the team since their sophomore year while Baker has started since his freshman year.  Despite this experience, there is a lot of inexperience overall throughout the team after graduating 13 seniors.

The Rebels return a core group of players but have a lot of holes to fill.  One thing the Rebels learned last year was how to win and close out games,   Donnelly said, “We have a lot of returning players even though we lost a lot of seniors.  We have kids who won last year and want to win again.”

One hole the Rebels are searching to fill is who is going to fill the goal tending position after graduating Ray Mortali and Ryan Erwin.  Senior Tim Kurker and juniors Andrew Abbott and Robbie May will be the top contenders, all of whom played on the JV team last year.  The strength for the Rebels in the past few years has been from the goalie position and the Rebels hope to keep this going.

One player to watch out for is the return of senior Billy Moore, who played for Boston Advantage last year, after playing for the Rebels his freshman and sophomore year.  Moore played against Division 1 caliber players in this league as he has been exposed to elite competition for his age group.  Moore, with the help of Donnelly and McNamara and fellow senior Pat Quinn and junior Danny Hamilton look to lead this potent offense.

“We have a lot of depth at forward, which could cause many teams problems as our offense could be the strongest in the Bay State,” added Baker.

Coach Dowd along with the rest of the squad hope that last year’s success translates into the new season with high hopes to make a run deep into the State Tournament.