Green Brook Hockey Club / Matt Paltjon Memorial Scholarship Award
In Spring 2005, the Green Brook Hockey Club Board of Directors decided to offically name our yearly scholarship award the "Green Brook Hockey Club/Matt Paltjon Memorial Scholarship Award" in honor of Matt Paltjon, one of the original players in the earliest days of the Green Brook Hockey Club, who passed away in November 2004. The players that receive this honor are those about to enter college that have demonstrated a high level of commitment and responsibilty to our league and to the community. Here is a list of all of our scholarship award winners:

George Aller Wins Matt Paltjon Scholarship Award For 2008!!
The Green Brook Hockey Club was proud to announce that long time player and now also a coach in the league, George Aller was the 2008 recipient of the Matt Paltjon Scholarship Award. Dave Paltjon was on hand to make the presentation to George, and while making the presentation, Dave mentioned all the numerous things George has done to help the league. For example, George is the only player to have played in every single season that has taken place at the Green Brook Hockey Club, since the beginning of the league in the Fall of 1999. He has also helped us out in so many ways on our rink maintenance days and has pitched in wherever possible in helping get the rink ready for upcoming seasons. He has also helped the kids in the Learn to Play group, acting as an assistant to the Learn to Play director for a number of seasons. He also has been an assistant coach in our U8 and U10 divisions now for a good number of seasons as well. Besides the Green Brook Hockey Club, George also played ice hockey for Watchung Hills High School for 3 years. Outside the world of hockey, George attended the Police Academy's Youth Week for a number of summers and in 2007 was appointed a squad leader for his group. This has inspired George to obtain a degree in Criminal Justice, after which he will potentially pursue a career in Forensics. George also plans to help out the Green Brook Fire Department as well in the near future. George also has helped the community with projects such as cat rescue and snow shoveling for the elderly. But it's George's love of hockey and his willingness to help the younger kids in the league where he has really made in impact, and continues to do so. Again, we were very proud to make George the 2008 recipient of the Scholarship award and wish him all the best in the future!

2007: Dan Johnsen
The Green Brook Hockey Club presented its yearly scholarship award, the Matt Paltjon Scholarship Award, in 2007 to long time player and good friend of the league, Dan Johnsen. Dan has distinguished himself in so many ways, in both helping out the league and helping in the community and his school, that the league was very proud to make the scholarship award for 2007 to him. On hand to present the award, which was made right before Dan's team played for (and won) the U17 Championship Game, was league President Tom Sammon, who said some introductory words and then yielded the microphone to Dave Paltjon. Dave, in making the award presentation to Dan, mentioned some of Dan's accomplishments for the league, community and Dan's school, St. Joe's of Metucheon. Dan's league activities have included pitching in and helping out on rink maintenance days, being one of our team members for Green Brook Volunteer Day, and putting in numerous hours helping out at the concession stand. While Dan's community work included being a camp counselor for Green Brook Rec for 4 years and being a Green Brook 5K volunteer for 2 years, his school involvement also had some interesting highlights, with Dan being involved as a Peer Mentor for 2 years and was part of the campus ministry for 4 years as well. His scholastic acheivements have been impressive as well, as Dan was on the principals' list 3 years running and maintained a 4.9 average. Dan also was a member of National Honor Society, Science Honor Society, and Spanish Honor Society. All this added up to alot of reasons for Dan to be our award winner in 2007. Dan has been attending Manhattan College to pursue a degree in Business Finance.

2005: Jeff O'Connor
In 2005, The Green Brook Hockey Club congratulated long time GBHC player Jeff O'Connor on winning the GBHC Matt Paltjon Scholarship award. Dave Paltjon helped GBHC President Dan Parascondola present the award to Jeff in between playoff games on Sunday, June 4th, 2005. Jeff was a part of the Green Brook Hockey Club since the Spring of 2000 and has helped our league in numerous ways, not only as a player and team leader, but also as a coach in the U8 and U10 divisions, as a ref, as a scorekeeper, and simply as someone who is willing to pitch in and help the league whenever possible. Jeff has since pursued his goals in college as a communications major, with his focus on broadcasting. Jeff's players that he has coached in the past can certainly attest to the fact that he can, indeed, communicate well!! He has always been a very responsible person and is a part of the reason for the great success the league has had. We congratulated Jeff that day and we extremely proud to make him the well deserved winner of the 2005 scholarship award.

2004: Mike Johnsen
In 2004, the Green Brook Hockey Club was proud to present its scholarship award to Mike Johnsen. Mike, whose final season as a player was Fall 2004, was another player from the early days of the Green Brook Hockey Club. In fact, he was one of the players that participated in the league's inaugural season in Fall 1999. He was inducted into the league's "10 Season Club" in Spring 2004. Mike showed a tremendous amount of responsibilty and was appointed as head referee for the league in Spring 2004. His love for the game and for the league made it possible for us to expand the league to include 17 year olds beginning in Spring 2004, after Mike had successfully petitioned the Board of Directors regarding this. Besides being a tremendous hockey player, Mike's leadership, responsibilty, and contributions to our league made him an easy choice for our scholarship award in 2004. Mike currently attends Manhatten College and is still involved with the Green Brook Hockey Club. He came back and helped with reffing some games near the end of the Spring 2005 season and remains a great friend to the league. Thanks Mike!!

2003: Jigesh Shah
Jigesh has been an integral part of the Green Brook Hockey Club since 2000, and has contributioned to both our league and the community. He played a number of seasons as goaltender in the U16 Division and finished his playing days as goaltender of the U17 Division champion Predators in the Fall 2002 season. In 2003, Jigesh became the youngest person ever elected to our Board of Directors and displayed a high degree of responsibility in this position while serving. Jigesh is presently one of our referees and also helps out with scorekeeping and rink maintenance as well. In addition to this, he has coach in the Learn To Play Division and and in the U10 Division as well. Jigesh also serves the Green Brook community as an EMT and even recently responded to a call to our rink when one of our own players was injured. Jigesh is also studying medicine at Seton Hall University and again, we want to congratulate him on all he's done for our league. Thanks, Jigesh!!

2002: Devin Quigley
Devin, also a kid from the Green Brook Hockey Club's inception, helped his dad, Mike, gather township support for our rink and has never stopped supporting us as a league. He has been a player, coach's assistant, referee, and rink manager for our league. Devin has shown leadership skills the entire time he was associated with our league. Devin also acheived the rank of eagle scout in his days with the Boy Scouts. For all these reasons, the choice was a rather easy one in 2002 when the Green Brook Hockey Club chose Devin for our schplarship award. Thanks Devin, for all you did the GBHC!!!!

2001: Chris Baldowski
Chris Baldowski, with whom most of us who've been around the league for the last couple of years are now familiar, is a kid who was a player from the Green Brook Hockey Club's inception. A great kid, always smiling and loved the game of hockey. When he had his accident in 2001, it was only natural that the club do what it could for him including the 2001 donation, several fund raising events, and helping organize "MLRH"s "Christopher Cup" which involved all of the Major League Roller Hockey teams from New Jersey at the time. Chris and his parents have shown a great deal of courage to us and for that we were very proud to honor him as the second recipient of our Scholarship award. Thanks Chris!!!

2000: Andrew Lorenc
Andrew Lorenc was one of the original kids in the Green Brook Hockey Club program. It was actually Andrew that urged present board member Michael Quigley to build a rink made for roller hockey, and of course the rink that was built is the one the Green brook Hockey Club uses. He was involved from it's inception and demonstrated respectable adult qualities at a young age. After receiving our first ever scholarship award, Andrew attended New Hampshire college. In 2000 we were proud to make him the first recipient of our Scholarship award based on all he did for our league and the outstanding qualities he displayed in helping us get started. Where would the league be (if at all) if not for Andrew Lorenc. Thanks Andrew!!!

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