On April 12, 2012 WYSA held its annual banquet at the Wakefield Elks. Award winners include: Kirk Award, Joseph Cerulo. Ramsdell Award, Ben Yandell. MacKaay Award, Nicholas Bassett. Mite Gentile Award, Evan Simoneau. Squirt Gentile Award, Chris Coombs. PeeWee Gentile Award, Austin Collard.

Please check your email accounts for a notice from wakefieldyouthhockey@gmail.com

If you haven't already replied with "confirm" please do so immediately.  Placements are due to go out before the end of vacation.  

SPRINGFIELD – The Wakefield Squirt AAA competed in the Mass Hockey State Tournament in Springfield, MA.  The tournament, held in early March featured twelve of the best Squirt teams in the State. 

 

The team came out strong in first game of the tournament, beating Andover 6-0, with 2 goals by Shane Haggerty (assisted by Mike Lucey and Josiah Brown),  Daniel Guarino (assisted by Timmy Coggswell), Cameron Souza (assisted by his twin brother Brian), Brian Souza (assisted by Joey Greenwood) and Josiah Brown (assisted by Cam Souza).  Strong offense, including Colin Jaena, Jack Penney and Kevin Wilson contributed to this effort.  The defense also played well with a sliding save in front of the net by Mike Lucey and aggressive play by Joey Greenwood.  Goalie Tucker Hanson made many glove saves to keep the shut-out.

 

Coach Mike Guarino commented “with their confidence up from their big win Friday night I felt like that would give us a little boost for the big match up with Waltham on Saturday morning.  Waltham is a very tough team to play against. They play a similar style as we do. They are a fast skating team that can move the puck.”  The second game was a true battle, as Waltham came out strong and scored one minute into the first period.  Colin Jaena assisted by Shane Haggerty tied it up at the end of the first period.  The second period was nearly scoreless until Joey Greenwood's relentless hustle put the Warriors ahead with over a minute left in the second frame.  In the third period, Wakefield was on their heels defensively allowing a Waltham power play goal, knotting the score at 2.  Finally, with less than 5 minutes left to play, Colin Jaena scored again bringing Wakefield into the lead.  Excellent defense by Connor Santos, Joey Greenwood, Mike Lucey, Josiah Brown and goalie Tucker Hanson allowed Wakefield to hold on for a hard-fought victory.  The Wakefield parents were on the edge of their seats as their Warrior boys prevailed despite intense pressure created from a Waltham power play and an empty Waltham net for a 6 on 4 man advantage for the final 90 seconds of the game.

 

 

The third game of the tournament was tough.  Framingham came out hard and was up by 3 at the end of the first period.  The second period was scoreless until Colin Jaena snuck one by the Framingham net minder on an assist from Shane Haggerty to bring the score to 3-1.  The third period continued to be an insane battle, with Framingham scoring again with under three minutes left in play.  With 29 seconds left in the game, Jack Penney found the back of the net off a rebound from a Mike Lucey rip from the point to bring the score to 4-2.  Wakefield was unable to mount any sustained pressure after pulling goalie Tucker Hanson for the man advantage.  It was a tough loss for the Wakefield team, which was then left to wait for the other games to finish before they could find out if they had made it to the semi-finals.

 

At the post-game team dinner, they received the bad news of missing an invitation to play in the tournament semi-finals the next morning.  Despite the disappointment of not playing another day, the team was proud to have made it so far and done so well.  Coach Guarino declared “I was very impressed with how our team played at States.  The boys gave it everything they had as they have all year.  Remember the names of these boys; they are truly a great bunch of boys.  We now have our sights set on a run at the Valley League Championship, as we say on our team ‘ALL IN'.”

 

Wakefield Youth Skating Association Programs, 2012 - 2013

WYSA offers programs for young beginner players to those under 18.  These programs vary in price based on the number of games played and the league they play in.  A brief outline of these programs and tuition costs are listed below.  The season starts in September and runs through early April. Registration and tryouts for these programs take place in late March, unless otherwise noted.  Tryout fees are applied to the total tuition cost for the year.  Each team has one hourly practice per week (split with another WYSA team) on a Wednesday, Friday or Saturday at Hockey Town in Saugus.  Teams also have one to two skills session per week at either Hockey Town or the Flynn Rink in Medford.

• Learn to Skate $175  15 sessions - This program is designed to be a skaters first on ice experience and designed to develop basic skating skills – stopping, forward and backward skating, introduction to edge control during turns.  This program is staffed by volunteers and professional skating instructors.  This program is for ages 3 to 9.
• Introduction to Hockey $175 12 sessions - This program is a low cost and low commitment alternative to Instructional Mites.  This program is designed introduce the game of hockey and focus on fundamental skating.  Intro to Hockey has 12 sessions in fall (Nov-Jan) and 12 sessions in winter (Jan – Mar).  This program is for ages 4 to 9.

 

• Instructional Mites (I Mites)  $950 –This program is designed for the first years of the hockey experience to get players introduced to the fundamentals of the game and continue to improve skating skills. There are 24 cross ice games played at the Stoneham Arena against other I Mite teams from surrounding Cities/Towns.
• Mite Program  $1200 – This program is designed to build on the I Mite experience and begin to introduce players to more structured hockey play, with 30 games played in the Valley League.  Rink locations and game times are scheduled by the league and teams play Cities/Towns from around the region.
• Squirt, Peewee and Bantam Programs  $1500 – These programs also play in the Valley League and play 45 games per season.  Rink locations and game times are scheduled by the league and teams play Cities/Towns from around the region.
• Midgets   $200  - This program is designed for those players that have aged out of the Bantam level and is a games only half season (10 to 12 games).  This program is played in the fall prior to the High School hockey season. 

Note: Registration and Tryouts for I-Mites – Midgets are in the spring for falling season.  Registration for Learn to Skate and Introduction to Hockey are in the fall.

 

Age requirements

• Instructional Mites – Birth year 2004 and younger
• Mites – Birth year 2004 and younger
• Squirts – Birth year 2002 and 2003
• Peewees – Birth year 2000 and 2001
• Bantams – Birth year 1998 and 1999
• Midgets – Birth year 1995 through 1997