By: Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
Up until the last couple of years, the most successful varsity sports program at Hightstown High may have been ice hockey. And the Rams’ greatest ice hockey player ever was Dale Scherholz, who will be inducted into the Hightstown Athletic Hall of Fame this fall.
A center iceman, Scherholz holds the Hightstown record for points with 271. He had 153 goals and 118 assists during his illustrious career. In his junior year (1999) he set a Hightstown season-single record for points with 93, 51 of which were on goals.
"My last two years I led the CVC in points and in goals," said Scherholz, who will be introduced at the Hall of Fame dinner by his older brother Glen, who was his varsity ice hockey coach at Hightstown.
Scherholz is the first ice hockey player to ever be inducted into Hightstown’s Hall of Fame. While Scherholz’ teammate Alex Patseliev set up many of his goals, he created many of his own scoring opportunities.
Scherholz considers "being at the right place at the right time" to be his primary strength as a player. But that didn’t come by accident. It took a lifetime to build up his skills and his incredible ice hockey "know how."
"I started skating when I was about two or three," said Scherholz, whose father Chris was and is a big ice hockey fan. And, of course, his brother Glen, who is 10 years older, played ice hockey too and taught him a lot about the sport.
When he was young, Scherholz skated at the Peddie ice hockey complex. But when that shut down, he played ice hockey at Iceland.
"I played for travel teams from the time I was 7 through my career at Hightstown," added Scherholz.
Although his older brother Glen knew he was ready to play varsity ice hockey as soon as he stepped on the ice as a freshman, Dale Scherholz never received preferential treatment of any kind. If anything, the opposite was the case.
"I liked playing for him because he knew the game real well. But he was always on me at practice," said Scherholz, whose older brother knew he could be great. According to Scherholz, the Rams only had two lines they could count on night in and night out. That meant he had to play extra minutes.
"I played 70 percent of the time in minute and a half shifts (which is an incredible amount of ice time for an offensive player)," said Scherholz. "I’d be out there for power plays and I’d play defense on penalty kills."
Once, when he was younger, Scherholz even tried the goalie position, but he didn’t like it. With the Scherholz Brothers leading the way, Hightstown would make it to the state quarter-finals every year. But without solid and reliable third and fourth lines, Hightstown could go no further.
Like most ice hockey players, Scherholz is tough as nails.
"I had my fair share of injuries. The worst was a separated shoulder. I tore ligaments in my foot and ankle. I had some guy fall on my leg my junior year," said Scherholz, who, despite the torn ligaments, stayed on the ice and played and led Hightstown to a tie with Hopewell in the Mercer County Tournament finals. So Hightstown was the MCT co-champ in 1999, thanks in large part to Scherholz’ tenacity and courage on the ice.
Scherholz also had a standout three-year varsity career as a baseball player for Hightstown, where he played shortstop and left field and batted around .300 for his career.
He loves baseball and still plays in the 18 and over league for Trinity.
Sherholz graduated from the University of Tennessee, where he majored in Sports Management and minored in Business. He played for the university’s club ice hockey team for four years. Scherholz currently has a job working for a computer software company in New Jersey and lives in the Hightstown area. After college he lived in Atlanta for two years, where he helped his brother coach an ice hockey team.
As a kid Scherholz was a big fan of the New Jersey Devils and he still follows the NHL until this day. Pavel Bure and Sergei Fedorov are two of his favorite all-time players. His parents have Trenton Titans season tickets, so he often sees their games as well. However, it’s been a while since Scherholz has played himself.
"I haven’t skated in over a year. I miss being part of a team sport but after playing for 19 or 20 years it gets a little tiring," said Scherholz, who had nothing left to prove on the ice.
The people who saw him play considered him to be Hightstown’s best ice hockey player ever. And once you’re the best, there’s no higher level.

