BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer
JACKSON — Brothers Brian and Jeremy Dublon love to play ice hockey. For the past several years, they competed in travel programs and competed against some of the best competition in the area.
But as students at Jackson High School, the Dublon brothers and many other prospective ice hockey players have no program to be a part of. They would love to see the school district get the wheels in motion to start some kind of hockey program at the high school.
“There are a bunch of athletes at the high school that would love to become involved in a club or varsity sport at the high school level,” said Ralph Mazzoni, who coached the Jackson Ice Hockey Club, a team comprised primarily of Jackson players, during a summer league in Wall Township. “We have maybe 25 or 30 interested parents and players who want to try and get something started at the high school. Hopefully, with the interest we have generated this summer, we can get things rolling.”
Of course, Mazzoni realizes it is a huge task he and the other parents are undertaking. Approval from the Board of Education must be granted in order to get the program at the starting line. Most likely the program would have to start as a club team with the hopes of eventually transforming to a varsity sport.
“We’re hoping that we can get some interest and support from the people at the district and the school,” Mazzoni said. “We feel it would be a great thing for the high school and the kids. We understand that it is going to take some time.”
This past summer, the Jackson Ice Hockey Club had enough interest to enter teams into a summer league at the Wall Sports Arena.
The team in the A Division posted an overall mark of 11-3-3 and captured the championship with an exciting 10-7 victory over a team made up of players from the Manalapan area.
With the scored deadlocked at 6-6 after two periods, Jackson outscored its opponent 4-1 in the third.
“It was an extremely exciting game,” Mazzoni said. “With the game knotted after two periods, it could have gone to either side. But our guys remained composed and played very well in the final period. We put up a couple of early goals and our defense came alive.”
Jeremy and Brian Dublon combined for eight of Jackson’s 10 goals.
“They both had solid games offensively for us,” Mazzoni said. “They came up with key scores at crucial parts of the game.”
Mazzoni cited the team’s defense in the final period as a key to the victory. Mazzoni cited the fine play of his son Ralph, Chris Schiro, Andy Sindt, Shawn Stanaway and goalies Alex Lebron and J.R. King.
“We needed to stop them in the final period, and our defense and goaltending were great,” Mazzoni said.
Offensively, Alex Guimares, P.J. Kearney, Marc Kleinman, Dan Rynearson, Vinnie Sampino, Brian Wodzisz, Justin Canney and Chris Colman, all made significant contributions, Mazzoni said.
“Everybody pitched in during this game and during the season,” Mazzoni said. “Every game, we had different guys stepping up and making a huge play or giving the team a lift.”
Mazzoni just wants to see this group of players get a shot at playing hockey in high school.
“There is a lot of interest,” Mazzoni said. “We’re hoping the school district realizes that and is supportive. We’ve been doing some fundraising to keep the team going. We’re always looking for additional players.”
Anyone interested in joining the Jackson Ice Hockey Club can reach Ralph Mazzoni or coaches Rob Guimares or Howie Kleinman at www.eteamz.active.com/jacksonicehockey.