Ice Hockey started practices the second week in November, their first game was scheduled to be December 1st against Newton but was postponed. Their first game is now scheduled to take place on December 4th against Parsippany at the Mennen Sports Arena., They already had their first scrimmage on November 20th, against Mount Olive High School. They have 18 scheduled games for this season, and are scheduled to end in mid-February. Last year the team went 8-3-1, and won the 2021 Charette Cup against Newton 4-3. It was the teams first year in the Charette Division, and they still came out on top.
The hockey team consists of players from Bernards, Somerville, and Middlesex. Some key losses to the team were seniors Maggie Smith, Paul Wendling, and Eddie Berman. They still have plenty of talented athletes like sophomore Baylyn Shankman who will be the starting goalie this year. Bernards has two seniors on the team this year Maile Carifa and Aidan Brown. Carifa is the captain of the JV team; Brown and two other players from Somerville are captains of the Varsity team.
The team is hopeful to have another successful year, and a longer one after last year’s season was pushed back and shortened due to COVID. Brown shared, “I used to play when I was really young. Then I started to play in sixth grade and stopped in eighth. I then picked it back up in eleventh grade”. Brown was out for the first scrimmage but hopes to be back in a few days, and play in their first game.
Some other notable players this year are sophomores Dylan Leonard, Ryan Leonard, Taylor Favreau, and Jimmy Hathaway. Last year, Shankman was nominated for top N.J. ice hockey freshman for the 2021 season; voted by almost 6,000 people and was the fifth most voted. Just last year she had a total of 91 saves for the season, and now that she is the starting goalie we can expect to see a lot more of saves from her this upcoming season.