Hockey Ladder

Growing up I played for the same organization for the better part of 6 years, we had the same same coaches and the same core group of guys for every year. In the winter we were known as the '84 Merrimack Valley Cardinals, we played in the best amateur league in New England at the time against the top talent from all over, at least two guys from every team went on to play Division 1 and some have gone on to play pro. In the summer we were known as the '84 New England Generals and traveled all over the East playing in AAA tourneys. We played against guys like Marc Andre Fleury, Rick Nash, Eric Stall, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and numerous other guys who went on to the NHL.

Our head coach always talked about the "Hockey Ladder" saying that when we started in mites there was a large base of players and each year we moved up the ladder more and more players fell off. He said by the time one or two if any of us reached the top of the ladder no one else in the locker room would be playing hockey anymore. It wasn't an insult to anyone, it was simply the truth. Pee-wees and Bantams saw guys fall off, then midgets and high school came and more and more guys quit. Finally in juniors you looked around the rosters and only saw 3 or 4 of your former teammates. Now from looking at that old rosters of the core guys, not the fill in guys for a tournament here and there, there are only two guys still playing. Myself and my good buddy Paul D'Agostino, who after two years in Division 1 Hockey East decided to turn pro and is now playing university hockey up in Canada. Looking around the league and the players I only see maybe 5 or 10 guys still playing hockey at a pro or collegiate level.

It was something that we never really thought of as kids, that someday everyone would jump off that ladder and leave only a few guys left. It's crazy to think Dags and myself are the two guys still playing at high levels. I remember the knee hockey and street hockey games between the two of us always dreaming of playing pro hockey. And we may not be in the NHL, but we still have received paychecks for playing a kids game. To think of all the guys who were better than us at 12 and again at 15 who aren't playing anywhere now brings back alot of memories and makes us feel like we actually accomplished something. Whether this is our last season or we play another 5 years, I know we'll walk away happy knowing we went as far as we could and were lucky enough to play professional hockey (the dream of every kid).