MENKENS LIGHTS IT UP!!

12/28/2006

Billy Menkins registered the first hat trick of the season as the Burke varsity rolled to a 7-1 victory over Essex in the opening round of the Skyland's tournament. Tommy Farr continued his torrid scoring pace with two goals while Greg Brushett and Billy Beysel rounded out the scoring with one goal each.

Goaltenders Dane Wakefield and Mike Beck combined efforts to register 23 saves in the win.

The Eagles will continue their holiday road trip with a Friday game vs Iona Prep and on Saturday play in the finals of the Skyland tournament.

Thanks to Kathy Pizzano for the photo--defensman Ross Flood

Tommy Farr and Chris Reinfried led a furious 4-3 Eagle comeback victory over Brewster ;scoring back to back goals one minute apart late in the third period.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, the varsity battled their way back into contention . Red hot Tommy Farr got the Eagles going with an assist from Chris Reinfried and ALex Pizzano got the Eagles even at 2-2 with assists from Ben Falkowski and Chris Reinfried.

The game remained tied heading into the third period.

Gut Check Time For The Varsity.

After dominating the period by out -shooting their opponents 13 to 4, the Eagles gave -up what looked like the winning goal with a shorthanded score from Brewster with 5 min to play. With their first big test of the season and time dwindling down, the Eagles responded with two goals in a span of two minutes and held off a 5 on 3 shorthanded dis-advantage to gain the win.

Although the referees did their best to ruin the game( calling 38 penalties), the Burke boys tested their metal by responding with a fine team effort.

Goaltender Mike Beck sealed up the net late in the game while the defense allowed Brewster only 14 shots on net.

Everyone have a safe and Merry Xmas....Next Practice ( regular schedule-Tues 5:45//Wed 9:15)...NEXT Games: 12/28-Skylands -4pm:::12/29-Iona-Ice Hutch-5pm:::12/30 -Skylands - TBA:::01/06-Monroe

12/16/2006--Varsity Rebounds With Big Effort

After a lackluster performance on Friday vs O'Neill, the Burke Varsity stormed to an early lead and never looked back; posting a 6-0 victory over South Glenn Falls.

Tommy Farr with two goals-two assist and Chris Reinfried with three assist paced the Eagle offense. Billy Hluchan,Greg Brushett,Ben Falkowski,and Declan Ludington each scored one goal to round out the scoring. Senior Billy Beysel , although not lighting the scoreboard, worked both ends of the ice that exemplified the effort of the offense.

Once again goaltenders Senior Mike Beck( two periods) and sophomore Dane Wakefield(1 period.) fielded all shots(15) and continued to make life difficult for opposing shooters.

Seniors Ben Falkowski and Billy Menkens bolstered a defensive corp that is improving with each game.

The win , the sixth consecutive victory for the Eagles, was a good team effort.

Next game: Brewster at Brewster::7pm--12/23/2006

Skating in Circles: Congratulations to one of our biggest fans-Joe ' Chuck a Puck'-- no need to explain his nickname--Joe won his fourth chuck a puck contest at the rink--instead of retiring on his winnings he donated 1/2 the money back to the program--his wife Sharon thinks big Joe will shoot for 10 wins before retiring to Fla.....thanks to all the parents for helping support the team with game fliers,chuck a puck, refreshments for the locker room, clapping between periods.......any digital game pictures for the web page can be sent to Burkehockey@gmail.com...

12/15/2006

Burke Varsity slogged their way to a 4-1 league victory over league rivals O'Neill. Tommy Farr,Greg Brushett(2),and Declan Lundington were the goal scorers in a penalty filled game. Goaltenders Dane Wakefield and Mike Beck split the game for the win. The Eagles out shot their opponents 33-13.

Once again the referees dictated the pace of the game calling 19 penalties;13 against the Eagles who have not figured out how to play within the new rules.

Sophomores Danny Kelly and Tommy Mahoney continue to play well on defense.

Burke improves to 6-3 with their 5th straight win;2-0 in league play. Glenn Falls will work its way down south to play the Eagles Saturday 9:15 at Ice Time.

Burke Varsity Ranked # 3 in State

As of 12/12/2006 tHE Burke Varsity ranked #3 in all NYS Division 2 High School Hockey Teams. Hit Link above for all the rankings.

JV Team continues to play well::

The junior Eagles split two games this past weekend with a 6-3 victory over Fordham Prep and a hard fought 4-2 loss to Iona Prep.

On Saturday night at Newburg's Ice Time Complex, Iona opened the scoring in the first period with a goal and led after the first period. Despite goals from Danny Kelly and Chuck Gabriele, the junior Eagles could not prevail. Mike Cibaterri played another fine game in goal , stopping 23 shots on net.

On Sunday, the JV boys rolled down the highway to Yonkers where they recorded a 6-3 victory over Fordham Prep. The offense recorded 22 shots on net with Justin Smith banging home 4 goals. Josh Koerner and Jason Healey rounded out the scoring.

Brendan Menkins and Brett Roman played well in goal; stopping 19 shots against one of Burke's main Catholic School rivals.

What It Takes To Be Great

What It Takes To Be Great(excerpts from the article)

Fortune on CNNMoney.com
By Geoffrey Colvin

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work

What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway (Charts) Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.

Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful. (hit link for complete article)

Reinfried's Work Pays Off......

Sophomore Chris Reinfried scored two goals to help lead the Varsity to 3 to 1 victory over Lakeland. Chris has been a major contributor to the Eagles current winning streak working both ends of the ice .

Goaltenders Mike Beck and Dane Wakefield continued their fine play in goal stopping 18 shots in the win. Tommy Farr rounded out the scoring with a goal on assists from John Conroy and Alex Pizzano.

Greg Brushett was a key player on defense, playing on specialty teams as well as taking regular shifts.

Although this was not one of their better efforts, the Eagles continued their winning ways with their fourth straight win.

Next GAME::League game vs O'Neill--Friday- Dec. 15 - 9:30 pm // Saturday 9:30pm vs Glenn Falls

Varsity Enters Holiday Tournament

The Varsity will entering the Jefferson Township High School Tournament: See Below....We also have our reguarly scheduled game against Iona Prep on 12/29/06 --5PM@ Ice Hutch ......

The dates are Dec. 28 and 30 at Skylands Ice World and at this point we have the following schools:

John S. Burke High School (New York)

Jeff erson Township High School (NJ)

Nottingham High School (NJ)

Team TBA

12/28 Game 1: 4 – 5:45pm

12/28 Game 2: 6 – 7:45pm

12/30 Game 3 (Consolations): 4 – 5:45pm

12/30 Game 4 (Finals): 6:45 – 8:30pm

This should be a fun week of hockey and get us ready for the Monroe game 01/06/07

Beck and Wakefield Shut Down Opponents

12/03/06--In a game loaded with penalties(28), the Burke Eagles responded from an earlier loss to Christ The King with a 3-0 victory on home ice. Tommy Farr, Chris Reinfried, and Jason Healey scored for the Eagles while Dane Wakefield stopped 16 shots to post the shutout.

The Eagles have now won three straight games . During that period, they have scored 16 goals while a stingy defense has only given up two.

Skating In Circles: No mystery to the fact that since senior captain Ben Falkowski moved to defense the Eagles have won three games and have become very stingy--->swing players continue to play well with Jason Healey and Justin Smith contributing on offense while Danny Kelly, Chuck Gabriele, and Andrew Keating have done well on defense-talking about defense-Ross Flood,Tommy Mahoney and Greg Brushett have helped secure the backline-->the Goaltending tandem of Mike Beck and Dane Wakefield had a terrific week in net stopping fifty shots while allowing only two goals--->Junior getting it going.... Billy Hluchan off to a great start with a team best 9 pts ( 3goals/6assist--team stats ) while linemates Alex Pizzano and Chris Reinfried have helped shut down opponents top lines-- and John Conroy has also been finding the score sheet with 6 pts and only 1.5 minutes in penalties- > Assistant Captain Billy Beysel working hard both on the ice and off keeping things in order on the third line with Craig Rybicki and Declan Lundington---thanks to the team mgr Rob Hamilton for helping out on the bench......

Next Game: Saturday-Dec 9th - 7:30 pm vs Lakeland.

12/02/06--Chris Reinfried,Ben Falkowski,Billy Hluchan, and Tommy Farr led the Eagles attack with goals, as the Burke varsity stormed to a 4-0 league win over Newburgh. Junior goaltender Mike Beck also chipped in by shutting own NFA' s 19 shots on goal. The Eagles blasted 40 shots net.

This was a good team effort. The defensive corp of Brushette,Flood,Falkowski,Kelly,Mahoney, Keating, Gabrielle, helped secure the whitewash.

With the Win, the Eagles up their record to 1-0 in league play and 3-3- overall.

Next game: Christ The King--Sunday 12/03-Icetime--6:45.

Brushett and Team Light It Up

Junior defenseman Greg Brushett scored two goals and assisted on two as the Burke Eagles trounced the Harvey school 9-2 on Wednesday. Freshman Jason Healey scored his first varsity goals , 2 goals 2 assist, as the varsity got scoring from six different players to complete the win.

Captain Ben Falkowski , assistant captains Billy Menkins and Billy Beysel, contributed to the win.

Scoring Notes: Brushette(2/2)-Healey (2/2)-Hluchan(1/2)-Ludington(1)-Conroy (1)-Rybicki(1)Mahoney(1)-Flood(0-3)-Falkowski (0-1)-Beysel (0-1)- Pizzano (0-1)

Next Game:Newburgh -12/01- Icetime 9:30 pm/////Christ The King - 12/03- Icetime 6:30pm

Weekend Update 11/26/06

• The Varsity traveled downstate to the The Ice Hutch on Saturday to compete in a round robin tournament with Scarsdale, Pear River and Fieldstone Prep. The Eagles won two of the three thirty minute scrimmages; the only blemish being a 1-0 loss to Scarsdale. Goaltenders Dane Wakefield and Mike Cibatari allowed only two goals on the afternoon. Although the offense blasted 55 shots on net over three periods, they would only net four goals for the tournament. Chris Reinfried and Ben Falkowski were the offensive players of the tournament for Burke while Greg Brushette and Ross Flood played well on the defensive end.
• A speedy ST.Joe's team scored two goals in the first period and held on to a 4-1 victory over the Burke Varsity. Once again penalties and an anemic offense kept the Eagles from the win column. Despite out shooting their opponent 28-18, the Eagles gave up three power play goals to seal their fate. Billy Hluchan scored the lone Burke goal with an assist from John Conroy.

Notes: Optional parents meeting after practice on Tuesday (7pm)-11/27////next game/scrimmage Wednesday @ Harvey School-4pm///League -Section 9 Game-Newburgh-9:30pm Icetime-Friday-12/01////Christ The King - Sunday 12/03

Youthful Stars Provide Penguins With New Life

Harry How/Getty Images
Marc-André Fleury is 10-5 with a 2.82 goals-against average in 17 games this
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are two of the young stars for the Penguins who are helping the franchise become successful again after a decade of being weighed down by instability on and off the ice.
It is a nearly identical replica of Fleury — even a soul patch dots the doll’s chin — but it is hard to match the real-life effect of Fleury’s colorful gear or his sterling play.
“As soon as you walk in our dressing room, it’s the first thing you see,” Ed Johnston, the Penguins’ senior adviser and former coach, said of the bright pads. “With how he stops the puck, he can wear anything he wants.”
Fleury, who turns 22 on Tuesday, is part of a unique collection of young players setting a new winning trend for the Penguins after years of poor play on the ice and distractions away from it.
One season after the Penguins finished last in the Atlantic Division for the fourth consecutive time, they are 10-7-3 (2 points out of first place) with a roster of fledglings who have drawn comparisons to the Edmonton Oilers when Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier were their young stars. Sidney Crosby, the 19-year-old center, does commercials in English and French, leads the N.H.L. All-Star fan balloting in the Eastern Conference and creates passing lanes in tight spaces.
Evgeni Malkin, a 20-year-old center, has 10 goals and 10 assists. A federal district court ruling last week allowed him to keep playing for the Penguins after his former team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, in southwestern Russia, initiated legal action against him, claiming it still had Malkin under contract.
Pittsburgh also has an 18-year-old center, Jordan Staal, a large, limber skater who stands 6 feet 4 inches.
“Some cities never get a superstar,” Johnston said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “We’ve got a couple of them.”

WEEKEND UPDATE 11/18/06

11/19/2006
Senior Ben Falkowski had a goal and an assist as the Burke Eagles won their first game of the season. Final score Burke 4 - Lakeland 1.

In a game that was highlighted by 25 penalties , Burke was able to win the battle of specialty teams.

Juniors Alex Pizzano, Tommy Farr and sophomore Justin Smith( his first varsity goal) rounded out the scoring. Freshman Jason Healey got his first varsity point , an assist, and was a key player on the power play.

Next Game: Scimmage at the Ice Hutch--11/25//// 11/26 -Game vs ST.Joes @ West Point 7:30pm

***********

11/18/2006

Despite the continued fine play and hot hand of John Conroy (3 goals in two games), the Burke varsity fell to Iona Prep 4-2.

Tim Carr and Mike Beck were sharp in net, stopping several short-handed opportunities by Prep, yet the Eagles undisciplined play late in the third period resulted in three shorthanded goals by Iona; final score Iona 4- Burke 2.

Although they eventually gave away the game late in the contest, this was a far different Burke team from Thursday night. Their willingness to compete made for an exciting contest and hopefully the foundation for the season.

Notes: Team Picture before practice on Tuesday 11/21--5:30pm-Players bring White Jerseys-all swing players included.

Next Game: Sunday 11/19--4:30--Brewster---vs Lakeland

See The Varsity Page for all the news-schedule -results

*************************************

11/16/2006:

The 2006-2007 Varsity opened their season with a tough loss to Christ The King. Final score -- Christ The King 3 Burke 2.

After falling behind 2-0, the Eagles came roaring back thanks to two goals from John Conroy with assists from Billy Hluchan and Alex Pizzano. Despite out-shooting their opponents 25 to 15 the Burke boys could not finish off the comeback and gave up the winning goal with 1:46 remaining on the clock.

Team Notes: Senior Ben Falkowski was named team Captain; Billy Menkins and Billy Beysel were named assistants.

Next Games:: Sat--- 11/18--7:30pm---Ice Time --- Iona Prep//Sun-11/19--4:30--Lakeland--Brewster

Notes: Team Picture before practice on Tuesday 11/21--5:30pm-Players bring White Jerseys

See The Varsity Page for all the news-schedule -results

Player travels path from `hostility' to priest

'TOP PROSPECT TO PRIME SUSPECT': After throwing punches at his minor league manager and bouncing around as an actor, a hitter found a new direction in life



Ed Cipot on Tuesday at the Holy Child Parish on Staten Island, where he watched the Mets' playoff games. When he was 22 and ''190 pounds of pure hostility,'' he said, he did not live his faith. PHOTO: NY TIMES

News-11/01/2006

NEWS 10/18/2006

To All Players and Parents

John S. Burke Ice Hockey

To All Hockey Players and Parents;

As the new Head Coach of the Varsity Hockey Program, I would like to introduce the coaching staff:

Head Varsity Coach: AL Trezza SR-- Assistant Varsity Coach: ALex Trezza --School Liaison/General MGR: John Dolan--JV Head Coach: Brent Stuart
Our Philosophy for the program will be simple: respect the fact that the Burke Program has established itself as a solid program that instills all the qualities that a student athlete should possess: responsibility to the school and all it represents, responsibility to the program with respect to teammates and the coaching staff, responsibility of each player to work hard and be prepared to give maximum effort to succeed, the responsibility to have fun.

As with all programs, the need to follow guidelines is an absolute must to be successful. In every aspect of the season,the coaching staff will emphasize team as opposed to the individual. We will be very specific in what we expect from each player and will work hard to put our philosophy into practice.

If for any reason aside from the team roster, playing time or on-ice decisions; please do not hesitate to express your concerns by calling me directly.

I think if we work within the framework of this philosophy, we will have a great and exciting season.

Things to know::::

-- Varsity Practices will be Tuesdays 5:45pm to 6:45pm//Wednesdays 9:15pm/Thursday 3 pm at the school(off ice)
-- All practices are mandatory -- all games are mandatory( schedule TBA)
-- JV practices begin October 17th 5:45 pm ( day and time will be changed after Nov.1st)--
-- School rules regarding grades and eligibility will always apply
-- There will be pre-season workouts at the school for all varsity/
JV-Assitant Coach Trezza will supervize.
-- JV Practice will be on Mondays-schedule TBA

All information regarding scheduling-updates-changes will be handled as follows:

--New web page:http://www.Burkehockey.blogspot.com
--In-school announcements:: Mr. Dolan
--Contact: Coach Trezza -BURKEHOCKEY@GMAIL.COM