The Dodger Boys hockey team had an impressive underdog story during this year’s fight for the Halvorsen cup. After a tough first game this season, where the boys lost by 1 to their rivals WMC, they went on to have an astonishing winning streak of 11 games. Consequently, this streak ended when they faced West Morris Central for the second time. WMC has both of the Dodgers losses this year and ended their season last year. West Morris has been having a very successful season of their own with a 11-3 record, which is still not as good as the Dodgers current 12-2 record.
Coming off of a 4-16-1 record last season and the devastating loss to WMC, the boys knew they needed to make a change if they wanted a chance to take the cup this year. And, only losing 3 seniors, left the boys with a lot of returning starters who have had time to grow as players and have already built team chemistry. This chemistry is only perpetuated by the strong leadership of the Captains Patrick Layng, Lucas Gero, Claes Machacz, and Nick Worthington.
But, they are not led by just the captains, they have a passionate head coach Joseph Cecala. It is clear that Cecala has really taken time to make strong plans for this season and ideas of how to utilize each player in the best way possible. He has been on the coaching staff at Madison High School for 16 years and this being his 6th year as head coach. In his 6 years as head coach he won his first cup in 2021. After this win there was a major decline in the performance of the team until this year. Cecala clearly knows how to win a cup and sees this as a new opportunity to do it again this year.
This change can not be accredited to just one person or thing that was changed, but to every single element that makes up this year’s impressive team. At the beginning of the season when asked about how they were preparing for this season they shared that they really prioritized dryland workouts and watching film to be ready before the season even started. This change and plan clearly paid off and has already shown a promising future for the Dodgers boy’s hockey team.