It’s a busy time for John Jay coach Alex Smith, who finished up some of the paperwork that comes with a lengthy postseason run before joining his team at Brewster Ice Arena on Wednesday afternoon for practice.
There is hardly a hockey-free moment.
While the Indians were on the way home from Lake George last Saturday following a 4-2 win over Queensbury in a NYSPHSAA regional final, Smith kept vigil over his smartphone. He was getting updates from Terry Conners Rink in Stamford where his son, Liam, was playing for a FCIAC title with Ridgefield High School.
The sophomore forward had two goals in a 5-4 win over St. Joseph’s of Trumbull.
“We were riding home on the bus and I was getting texts about how the team was doing,” Smith said. “There was about a minute and 40 left when I got my last text from my daughter, and then 10 minutes went by. I was like, ‘What’s happened?’ ”
In order to reach the championship game, the Tigers had to go to overtime before taking down top-seeded Darien.
John Jay had practice after school on Wednesday, and Ridgefield was back on the ice for the first round of the CIAC tournament. Liam scored another goal in a 6-1 win over Greenwich. And yes, the next round is Saturday while the Indians are up in Utica competing for the right to play for a New York State title.
The cell phones will be fully charged beforehand.
11 Comments
Maybe I’m getting dull in my “Wille Mays as a Met phase”...(Bigby’s description..accepted with honor..)
But Mike, i had to read this article 3 times, slowly, and than check with Cliff’s site before I realized that Alex Smith was the John Jay hockey coach.
Al,
You know, I probably should’ve included that from the beginning …
No problem. On first read I thought that this might be one of those “Modern Family” situations.
Good luck to Coach Smith, his son and the John Jay and Ridgfield hockey teams !
new poll question??
Coach Smith has “conflicts of abundance”. All good things. Good luck to JJ and RHS. and that jj poll comment is funny. Mike still giving Rye a shot at the section championship.
I hate to bring up the power league subject.
But…
Cliff…were you able to find out average scores and/or goal differentials from this season (or maybe the past three seasons) vs the last year of power leagues?
ps…do NOT bring back the power leagues!
Don’t forget Bundy, you may be in the golden years, but keep it up…You have a lot of blogging left in you.
remember…even though Rocky Marciano beat Joe Louis to win the title…Joe Louis had come out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano…the man was 76 years old…And Joe Louis lied about his age…In fact, one time Frank Sinatra told me “hey Joe Louis is 137 years old”
Coach Smith was the goalie for Rye in the second regional game played at West Point.
Section 9 Suffern vs Section 1 Rye
History
The first Regional ever was in 76-77 Season Rye beat Clarkstown South
The second Regional was in 77-78 suffern beat Rye.
There were no states in those years but these 2 Regionals Sect 1 vs 9 led to the First State Tournament.
At the State Hockey Committee the question arose to have a State Tournament but they said we first had to have a Regional. The Committee was then told that 1 and 9 had 2 of them and they gave us permission to have the first State Tournament in 79-80 at the hallowed 80 Rink in Lake Placid.
Lake Placid HS was the champion.
Coach Orlando,
Not only was Alex a very good goalie for Rye, so was his older brother Billy before him.
He was a great friend and teammate back then and now is one heckuva coach. I wish him and the John Jay team all the best this weekend and hope they bring back a state title for themselves, their parents and all of Section 1.
Coach Orlando; What was the record for thr the orginal 5 games for the regional championship leading to the first State championship. I know Rye Beat Suffern 4-0 in the regional that year (81/82)
Battling Billy Smith ( not to be confused with THE billy Smith of the islanders dynasty days) was indeed a very good Goaltender for the Rye teams of the late 70’s