Green Brook Hockey Club: Welcome

Well, our Fall 2009 regular season is now officially over and the playoffs will be starting the week after Thanksgiving, as we get ready for another exciting finish to another great season of hockey!!

Our Playoff schedule for Fall 2009 will be as follows:

Tues., Dec 1st:

7:30 PM: U17 First Round - Rangers vs Bruins
 

Thurs., Dec. 3rd:

6:30 PM: U13 First Round - Ducks vs Blackhawks

7:30 PM: U13 First Round - Blue Angels vs Phantoms

Fri., Dec. 4th:

Possible rain makeups of Tues & Thursday playoff games, if needed

Sat., Dec. 5th:

10:00 AM: Learn to Play-off

11:00 AM: U8 First Round - Bears vs Snipers

12:00 PM: U8 First Round - Vipers vs Cyclones

1:00 PM: U10 First Round - Checkers vs Lightning

2:00 PM: U10 First Round - Wolfpack vs Sharpshooters

3:00 PM: U13 Second Round - Lower seeded winner of U13 First Round vs Titans

4:00 PM: U13 Second Round - Higher seeded winner of U13 First Round vs Panthers

5:00 PM: U17 Second Round - First Round winner vs River Rats

6:00 PM: U17 Second Round - Mudcats vs Devils

Sun., Dec. 6th:

10:00 AM: U8 3rd Place Game

11:15 AM: U8 Championship

12:30 PM: U10 3rd Place Game

1:45 PM: U10 Championship

3:00 PM: U13 3rd Place Game

4:15 PM: U13 Championship

5:30 PM: U17 3rd Place Game

6:45 PM: U17 Championship

Well, our Feature Game of the Week from Week 7 of our Fall 2009 season is from our U13 Division. This was a great matchup between the Event Capital Ducks vs the Stooney's Auto Transport Blue Angels. The Ducks would strike first in this one with an unassisted goal by Luke Rizzoli. That would be followed by two more Duck scores, as Matt Celeste scored unassisted and Xavier Deida scored on a pass from James Hansell, for a 3-0 Ducks lead at the half. The Blue Angels would get on the board first in the second half, as Ben Neri scored unassisted to cut the Duck lead to 3-1. The Ducks would get that back a short time later, as Dillon Robinson scored on a pass from Luke Rizzoli to put the Ducks back up by three, to make it a 4-1 game. but with time winding down under 5 minutes left, the Blue Angels would fight back with two more goals from Ben Neri to complete his hat trick, with the last one coming on an assist by John Hermann to make it a one goal game at 4-3. It was a real battle down the stretch as both goalies, Dustin Demarsico of the Blue Angels and Sam Robinson of the Ducks, played great and turned away alot of scoring chances for each side. The Ducks would get one last goal with 28 seconds left, scored by Xavier Deida on a pass from Luke Rizzoli. Final score, Ducks 5, Blue Angels 3. You can catch all the great action shots we got from the game in the pictures section of our website!!

On Sunday, October 11th we announced the winners of all of our raffles and have also now determined the winners of our fastest shot contest. Our raffle (blue ticket) winners are as follows:

Grand Prize - Pulsar Men's watch: The Renzo Family

$25 Shogun 22 Gift Certificates:

- The Bereheiko Family

- The Bickerton Family

- The Graham Family

- The Buonvicino Family

- The Nieliwocki Family

Perch Hockey Custom Made Jerseys:

- The Reiss Family

- The Buccino Family

- The Petrozelli Family

- The Bickerton Family

Just Hockey $20 Gift Card:

- The Chaparro Family

Coca Cola Tote bags:

- The Sarnowski Family

- The Russomanno Family

All of these gifts will be available for pickup at the concession stand this coming weekend. we congratulate our winners and ask them to pick up their items at the shack!! We also wanted to thank all of our GBHC families for supporting the league so well with this raffle, which netted the league over $500.00.

OK, now our contest winners! As we mentioned previously, our Most Accurate Shot Contest was won by U10 player Ryan Boettcher, who won a new hockey bag! The winners of our fastest shot contest are:

U8 Division: Brett Miller

U10 Division: Thanasi Tsivgas

U13 Division: Ben Neri

U17: Winner to be decided this weekend (Oct. 17-18)

Each of these winners will receive a new hockey stick, for pickup at the concession stand this weekend.

Again, we thank all of our families and players for participation in our raffles and in our contests!!

During the Summer of 2009, many volunteers help put together our new rink system and helped with other projects around our rink, allowing us to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in great fashion for our Fall season!! This project involved many tasks that needed to be done, and the numbers of volunteers we had to help out with this project was truly something special. The project started off with the dismantling of our old rink, as well as the fencing around the rink. Once the new rink was delivered, it took a real team effort to do the new rink layout, piece everything properly, make sure the rink was shimmed for good drainage, and secure the boards to the surface. On top of this, we still had other things we needed to address and our volunteers did so in fine fashion!! We had the fencing and netting to reinstall and secure around the boards. We had to fill many holes around the rink area. We had to put down sealer on both sides of the the rink. We also had to reinstall the player bench boxes and scorekeeper areas and clean them out as well and had to install kickplating at the bottom of each new rink panel. A couple of the league moms, Barbara Todtenkopf and Keri Benscoter, pitched in and cleaned out and sorted all of our equipment sheds. Finally, the last chore was to seal all the cracks that existed on the rink surface, a job done nicely by Dan Parascondola and Bob Sarnowski. In all it was a great effort, and we thank the following people who chipped in their time to make it all happen: Dan Parascondola who led and coordinated the entire effort, with Bob Sarnowski and Matt Zientek, who also put in many many hours of their time as well. Other star players in our New Rink Project were:

Jerry Russomanno

Vinny Russomanno

Danny Russomanno

Pete Brady

Dean Miller

Lou Castellanos

Andrew Serge

Mike Quigley

Anthony Parascondola

Bob Robinson

Sherry Bickerton

George Aller

Joe Villa

Tony Coco

Rich Nieliwocki

John Giamundo

Ed & Anthony Lubrano

Greg Mas

Jeff Greenman

Mark Green

Keri Benscoter

Gene Bradley

Dennis Costello

Tom Sammon

Check out all the pictures we got during the summer, of our rink project, just click on the pictures section of the website and then scroll to our New Rink Project Photo Album.

Again, many thanks to all of the people that chipped in, es[pecially those that showed up numerous days!! The new rink is truly a proud accomplishment for the league, made only possible by those people who are truly dedictaed to seeing this league become the success that it has!!

Green Brook F.O.P. Lodge #23 Lightning 10, Boretz Orthopaedics Checkers 2

Lightning Goals: Philip Ciliberto (3), Brian Reiss (3), Katelyn Bereheiko (2), John Hoppeler, Jonny Chang. Assists: Brian Reiss (2), Philip Ciliberto, Tommy McNulty. Goalie: Reese Robinson.

Checkers Goals: Aaron Benscoter, Ryan Betz. Assists: None. Goalie: Christopher Liebau.

Performance Dynamics Sharpshooters 10, Shogun 22 Wolfpack 7

Wolfpack Goals: Mathew Piro (5), Ben Giangrasso, Chris Liebau (sub). Assists: Ben Giangrasso, Daniel Lee. Goalie: Kate Stoll.

The Green Brook Hockey Club requests that all parents, players, and fans obey all of our rules around the rink area. These rules include the following:

1) No standing, sitting, or skating on our handicapped ramp (For handicapped use only!!!)
2) No dogs are allowed at the rink or on the school grounds.
3) Players, refs, and coaches only are allowed in the area in the back past the gate.
4) Do not leave trash around the rink area. Also, please help out by picking up any trash you see around the rink! Starting in Fall 2009 we have recycling bins around the rink. We ask that everyone please recycle their plastic bottles, etc. and put all other trash in the trash bins.
5) Do not park anywhere on the basketball court area or on the sides of this area as well.
6) Do not direct any disparaging remarks at our players or our refs. Anyone heard doing this will be subject to ejection from the rink area.

Our annual scholarship award, known as the Matt Paltjon Memorial Scholarship, was awarded for 2009 to Patrick Sammon. The award goes to a player that has displayed a good sense of sportsmanship, scholastic ability, volunteerism toward the Green Brook Hockey Club, and service to the community. Dave Paltjon presented the award to Patrick during our playoffs, on Sunday, June 7th, 2009, with Patrick's friends and family present at the rink. Last year's recipient, George Aller, was also on hand to help present the award to Patrick. During the presentation, Patrick's accomplishments in the areas that are necessary for the award, were noted by Mr. Robinson. These included league activities such as being one of the few members of the 20 season club, volunteering for rink chores, helping out at the concession stand, refereeing and scorekeeping a number of seasons, and serving as a junior coach for a number of seasons in the league. He also played ice hockey for St. Joseph's High School in Metuchen, and his scholastic achievements there included being awarded an "Excellence in French" award and a Founders Scholarship to La Salle University. Patrick's community service achivements included such things as church community projects, church administrative tasks, and a trip to New Orleans with a group to do construction work on homes that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Patrick's is now attending La Salle University, where he is majoring in Digital Arts and Multimedia Design. When presenting the award to Patrick, Dave Paltjon noted other family members of his that had attended La Salle, thus making the presentation of the award named in honor of Dave's son an even more pleasurable one.

Pat finished his playing career in style, by notching the Championship winning goal in overtime for his team in June 2009. On behalf of the Green Brook Hockey Club, we wish Pat all the best and thank him for his many season's with the Green Brook Hockey Club!!

Wow!! What a great time everyone had on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 when the New Jersey Devils Alumni Association held a clinic at our rink for all our kids !! Former Devils players Grant Marshall and Rob Scrlac were on hand to show the kids alot of great skating tips, as well as some interesting stick handling moves. Of course, they also provided some overall great hockey advice as well. Grant and Rob then signed autographs afterwards and everyone had a great time, as the kids got t-shirts, autographs, and most importantly, alot of great hockey learning that day!! The Devils have posted pictures from the clinic on their own website, and the link to those pictures is as follows: 

http://devils.nhl.com/team/app?service=page&page=MediaGalleryBrowser&type=3 

 We thank all the kids that were at the rink that day, and most importantly we thank the New Jersey Devils for putting this great clinic on for us!! All pictures we got ourselves that day have now been posted in the Pictures section of the website!!