BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
When Bob Auriemma rejoined his high school football coach from Memorial High School in West New York – Warren Wolf, an assistant at Memorial at the time – at Brick Township and eventually succeeded Wolf as Brick’s hockey coach, he never would have imagined it would be a 40-year commitment.
“I think it’s a great community, and this 50th anniversary shows how it has evolved over the years,” said Auriemma of the celebration, which includes the Kickoff Carnival going on in the Brick Township West Parking Lot through Saturday. Former Brick Township great Jim Dowd, who has gone on to play in the NHL and most recently a second stint with the New Jersey Devils, is signing autographs and meeting with fans in the early evening there. The carnival is a fundraiser to help the school make improvements.
“To see him produce a program starting with the younger kids and to win championships …,” said Wolf, who started an intramural program and a club team before playing varsity matches against northern New Jersey teams such as Montclair and teams from the Morris County area. “He took it over and had amazing success.”
That success includes eight championship victories in 11 trips to the Gordon Cup finals, the toughest division in the state, as well as five public schools championships and six overall state titles before the NJSIAA split the public and nonpublic schools. No one has matched Auriemma in longevity or championships. It comes in a program that started out with players wearing football jerseys and padding that offered minimal protection, including for the goalie, as well as practices that ran from 6 to 7 a.m.
“Hockey has come a long way,” said Wolf, who always loved the sport, going back to his days in West New York, and is preparing for his legendary 50th season as the school’s football coach.
“A heck of a lot of people helped out,” said Auriemma of the hockey program’s success. “The township was cooperative and the township’s administration made it possible. Plus, they kept a steady flow of players.”
That steady flow came from the Brick Recreation program that had six teams in the early years and then from the Brick Hockey Club, which these days has grown tremendously and is presided over by Auriemma’s son, Bob Jr.
“The success, Number 1, is because of the Brick Hockey Club as the foundation,” said Chuck McCabe, who has been Auriemma’s loyal assistant since 1980.
“That was the feeder system, and Brick Recreation, going way back, and it became a tradition, a great tradition that is expected to win all the time.”
At the heart of that tradition is Dowd, who has gone on to play for eight different teams in his 14-year NHL career. Fans remember most vividly Dowd’s seven goals that all came in the third period when Brick rallied to overtake Bergen Catholic, 9-7. Fans also remember the first Gordon Cup title when defenseman Don Davis took the puck and scored with 32 seconds left to beat Montclair, 3-2.
“You always have to remember Jim Dowd and how great he was,” said McCabe.
“He didn’t always want all of that [fanfare]. There were times we’d play teams from the Shore just getting started, and he didn’t even want to score.”
“He didn’t look flashy, but he got the job done,” said Auriemma. “He also was an excellent passer, so it was hard to cover him alone. Just when you’d double- or triple-team him, he’d get the puck to an open player.”
And who in town could forget the 1997 season when Brick Township, in the public schools championship game, beat Brick Memorial, 2-1, in overtime and then hammered favored Seton Hall Prep, the nonpublic champion, by a 4-0 score? Or the controversial 2002 Tournament of Champions game when Brick Township lost to Delbarton, 1-0, with a Brick goal disallowed in that game?
The staff that includes longtime assistant Glen Barnfield as well as Mike Guarino and Steve Maurelli nowadays realize they have a great challenge to uphold that tradition. They know that they have to make this another great season because fans will remember it as the school’s golden anniversary.
Two years ago, the team was moved from the Gordon Division, where it was struggling after winning its last Gordon Cup in 1999, to the Southern White Division. No longer would it get an automatic spot in the NJSIAA tournament as a Gordon team, but needed a .500 record or better. Brick fell short of that the past two seasons and sat out the state tournament for the first time. Tradition demands that the team return, especially for this milestone season.
“We have a number of boys coming back, and freshmen and sophomores developing,” said Auriemma. “We’ll be in the thick of things.”
What makes it even more difficult is seeing some tremendously talented players who would have played for Brick Township go instead to nonpublic schools.
“No doubt about it, that makes it more difficult,” said Auriemma. “We’re limited to township boundaries.”
Conversely, the Brick Hockey Club has an open-door policy for nonresidents. One of the top players for the Junior Midget AA team that twice made the national championships resides 50 miles away in Stafford, not far from Atlantic City.
“Hopefully, it’ll all return and they’ll get Brick Township boys to stay in the Brick Hockey Club program,” said Wolf.
Auriemma admits that a long coaching tenure has the liability of making everything a blur to people’s memory. After all, 40 years is indeed a long time.
“You can only look forward to next year, the talent coming to the ice,” said Auriemma when asked about highlights and reflections. “You have to work for the moment.”
Dowd credits the discipline Auriemma instills for catapulting his career.
“He was good for me,” reflected Dowd. “I loved going to the rink every day and playing. He was a disciplinarian. He got on your butt, which was great for me. He always said the harder you work, the better you’ll be.”
“You can only get from the game how hard you work in practice,” said Auriemma. “It’s what you prepare for.”
Auriemma believes the game has opened up to a quicker and less physical game, especially with the tightening up on slashing calls.
“It’s opened up the game more for skating and passing,” said Auriemma.
And he has taken on that notion more and made it his credo.
“You have to pass and receive the puck better and keep up the tempo,” he said.
What also helped the program, said Wolf, was the opening of the Ocean Ice Palace down the street. Dr. Leon Dwuelet, a prominent physician serving the Brick area, opened the rink in 1962 initially for his daughter, Joan, who had lofty aspirations in ice skating. Nowadays, the rink is used continually, especially in the fall and winter.
“We struggled in the beginning, and then we won the B Division over Morris Knolls, and from there we went into the top [Gordon] division,” said Auriemma.
Before coaching at Brick, Auriemma actually went from Memorial to Colby College in Waterville, Maine, to play football, but was encouraged to come out as a goalie for the hockey team. He continued that love of the game at Brick, coaching in the recreation program in the early years with Pat Doyle, and assisted Wolf with the high school program.
By the mid-1960s, the Brick Hockey Club had been started, with Jim Blackburn as a coach in those early years, along with Doyle. Wolf, meanwhile, had moved up to an administrative position at the school and relinquished his position with the high school program, handing the baton to Auriemma.
Auriemma remembers those early years, where the equipment at Colby was as modest as what Wolf and he had to use at Brick afterward. His college coach was Jack Kelly, who went on to coach at Boston University and the defunct Hartford Whalers, and also was a general manager for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Kelly talked him into coming out for the team because he needed a goalie.
“I learned to skate and play the game at an older age,” laughed Auriemma. “You didn’t have to know too much about the game, just stop the puck. There were no helmets. You had little pads in the front and back and no mask. I lost two or three teeth in a game against New Hampshire. I had to stay in the game because I was the only goalie. We won the game, 4-3.”
Auriemma said the team had another goalie by his senior year, when he suffered a dislocated elbow during football season. He decided it would be better not to play hockey. His experience of playing organized hockey ended in three seasons.
But Auriemma said his knowledge and love of the game grew and he wanted to share that excitement with the youngsters at Brick, where he had been teaching, including the grandchildren he has coached at the school in recent years. And with that college experience grew the program’s legacy, as well as Auriemma’s legacy at the helm.