Continuing with the tradition of coaching through Experience, the Vipers have added some great coaches to our staff.

98Vipers-Selects: Mark O'Meara - current Endictott College Head Coach

99Vipers-Elites: Paul Pearl - current Holy Cross Head Coach

02Vipers-Elites: Kevin Haggerty - playing experience Norwich Univ.

03Vipers-Elites: Mark Cullinane - playing experience Coast Guard

 

For more information, please email: vipers@vipersicehockey.com

 

A goaltender's craft, according to David Letarte

March, 4, 2011 Mar 4 8:50 PM ET

By Scott Barboza

It's a couple hours before St. John's Prep will take the ice in its season finale against Catholic Memorial. The Eagles have the historic opportunity to knock CM out of the playoffs for the first time in more than a quarter century.

But Prep goaltender David Letarte is already busy. He stands along the end boards of the Cronin Memorial Rink in Revere. While a bunch of youngsters fall and flail on the ice during public skating hours, Letarte is listening to music on his iPod while feverishly taping his stick. It's not typically part of his pregame ritual; he usually tapes his stick during the previous night's practice. However, his stick broke during practice, so he's going to his backup and trying to get it ready for game action.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

St. John's Prep goaltender David Letarte's preparation for a game begins more than a hour before the Eagles hit the ice with playing ping pong against the wall to work on his hand-eye coordination.Soon after, about an hour before the Eagles are to take the ice, Letarte goes off into a secluded corner of the rink with goaltending coach Scott Hentosh. The pair work through a battery of reflex drills. The series lasts about 20 minutes and it incorporates all elements of hand-eye coordination that are beneficial to playing between the pipes. Hentosh and Letarte started this particular ritual about halfway through the season; its impact has been evident in Letarte's play.

"You can really see the difference." Hentosh says.

Whether it's motor reflex drills, taps against the goal posts, or hopping over the blue line, goalies are always looking for an edge. They're a tightly-bound pile of nerves, ticks and idiosyncrasies. They're a breed of their own and they also happen to be a critical part to any team's postseason hopes.

But, as Letarte will have you know, there's a method behind all the madness.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

In the next phase, Letarte works with goaltender coach Scott Hentosh, who throws a tennis ball against the wall from behind Letarte. He then reacts, making the "save" with either hand."The thing about anyone's routine is that it makes you feel like you're mentally prepared," the Prep junior said. "It's whatever you need to do to make you feel you're ready to play."

Playing goal is more than just a collection of superstitions - well, somewhat. Letarte also confesses to having his own set of mannerisms in the crease. Moreover, it points to a frame of mind, a sort of Zen that a goalie accesses to play at their highest level.

"The biggest part about this game is the mental," Letarte said. "If your mind isn't right, you're not ready to play."

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

Letarte says the drills help him tune his mind and body in preparation for upcoming game.A mainstay of Letarte's pregame preparation is visualization. He spends quiet time in the locker room running through the game in his mind before he dresses. Putting himself mentally on the ice, Letarte visualizes himself playing the angles, making the saves.

During that process of introspection, he also focuses on breathing patterns. He's taught himself how to slow breathing, which in turn slows his pulse, which in turn has a calming effect. It's an aid he picked up with the suggestion of his brother, Andrew, a 25-year-old Prep graduate and former hockey standout who is now a member of the Army Rangers.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

In the next round of excises, Hentosh faces Letarte and holds the tennis ball at the height of his head, dropping the ball and calling out which hand Letarte should catch the ball with -- again reinforcing reflex time."My brother told me about how snipers use breathing techniques to slow their heart rate and how it helps them hit their shots," Letarte said. "He's always been a big help to my game."

Letarte hopes to follow his brother's path into armed forces. Andrew is up for deployment next year, but even when he can't be in attendance for David's game, his younger brother "carries him" into every game. He wears an U.S. Army t-shirt underneath his chest guard the Airborne eagle logo is emblazoned on the back of his mask.

He wears the Army t-shirt during his pregame session with Hentosh. The first installment lasts around five minutes with Letarte playing a game of ping pong against himself. Like Forrest Gump, Letarte bats the ball against the wall, gripping the paddle with his right hand and then his left.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

Hentosh next tests Letarte's reaction time. The goaltender stands about 30 paces away, crouched in the starting position. Hentosh drops the ball and Letarte tried to catch the ball on one bounce.Next, Hentosh uses a tennis ball to test Letarte's reflexes. Standing behind Letarte, who's crouched in butterfly style, Hentosh bounces the ball off the wall, forcing him to make a "glove save." After going for several minutes, they switch to a face-to-face drill, where Hentosh holds the ball at eyes' height. While dropping the ball, he calls out: "Left, left, right, left," and Letarte catches the ball with the according hand. Finally, there's a sprint reaction drill. Letarte stands about 30 paces to either side of Hentosh, who then releases the ball. The idea is that Letarte will catch it, mid-sprint, on one bound.

The additions to Letarte's pregame regimen with Hentosh's assistance have helped him to a 2.52 goals against average this season. He's also been no small reason for the Eagles' run to the Super Eight, which begins with Prep's battle against play-in winner Woburn at 4 p.m., Saturday, at Merrimack College.

Scott Barboza for ESPNBoston.com

With his exercises behind him, Letarte pulls his gear on and takes the ice for the pregame shoot-around with his teammates."We started out kind of slow this season, but then we started to get know each other's games," said Letarte, a Salem resident. "We've got a good group of seniors and then we had some younger players step up like [freshman Shane] Eiserman. We started to play more physical hockey and we started playing the way we wanted to play."

On Saturday, as before any other game, Letarte will go through his usual routine.

When he skates to his crease, he'll get down in his split, stretch out, get up. He'll put his mask along with catching glove, blocker and stick on top of the net and take one last big swig of water (as he does habitually after every whistle). He'll slip the mask back on, tap the pads in his ceremonial form, face center ice and raise his arm to the official.

Let the puck drop.

 

For the original ESPN story: http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/5392/a-goaltenders-craft-according-to-david-letarte

Marlborough, MA (Youth1) – Over Presidents' Day Weekend, some of the top Squirt Minor through Bantam Minor teams traveled to Massachusetts to compete in the Eastern Hockey Federation (EHF) Elite Invitational and after five days of competition, the winners have been decided.

 

Squirt Minor – Minuteman Flames (Elite)

As the tournament's top ranked team with a record of 47-1-2, the #2 Minuteman Flames came into the EHF Invitational as heavy favorites.  Placed in the Squirt Minor Black division for the preliminaries, they opened with wins against the #22 Assabet Valley Patriots and #15 Team Comcast.  They then closed out the opening round with a 3-3 tie against the #7 New Jersey Colonials and a victory over the #18 Long Island Gulls.

 

The Flames coasted through the playoffs, defeating the 6^th ranked Mid Fairfield Blues 4-1 in the quarterfinals before topping the 11^th ranked Westchester Express 10-2 in the semi-finals.  In the championship game, the Flames shut out their league opponent, the #10 Middlesex Islanders, 5-0, giving them the championship.

 

Squirt Major – Boston Jr. Eagles (Elite)

The 22^nd ranked Jr. Eagles started off strong in the Squirt Major Black division, beating the New Jersey Rockets, #12 St. Louis Blues and #14 Bridgewater Bandits (Elite) before dropping a surprising game to the Florida Jr. Panthers.

 

In the quarterfinals, the 4^th seeded Jr. Eagles faced the #8 Middlesex Islanders (Elite).  Despite Boston having struggled against Middlesex all season, going 1-1-3 in the five games they have played against each other, they were able to pull out a 5-4 win thanks to a great effort from the entire team.  During their semi-final game, they edged past another EHF league opponent, the #9 Minuteman Flames (Elite), to advance them to the finals where they would play the #2 team in the country, the Tampa Bay Jr. Lightning. In a stunning upset, the Jr. Eagles were able to shut out the Jr. Lightning 3-0 to earn their second tournament title this season.

 

Pee Wee Minor – Syracuse Nationals

During the preliminary round in the Peewee Minor White division, the 6^th ranked Syracuse Nationals had wins over the #9 South Shore Kings (Elite), Long Island Gulls and #15 Mid Fairfield Blues and tied the #19 Minuteman Flames (Elite).

 

As the division's top seeded team, Syracuse earned a bye in the quarterfinals and then took on the #4 New Jersey Colonials, who the Nationals had played twice, winning one game 2-1 and losing the other 6-2.  In a very evenly matched game, the Nationals were able to defeat the Colonials 2-1 to send them to the finals.  There, they played the #11 New England Jr. Falcons, who they had also split a pair of games with earlier this year, but with a full team effort, the Nationals were able to defeat the Jr. Falcons 5-3, earning them the championship title.

 

Pee Wee Major – Greater Boston Vipers

With a record of 41-13-6, the 34^th ranked Greater Boston Vipers entered the tournament as underdogs. They struggled during the preliminary round in the Peewee Major Black division and after beating the Seacoast Spartans, tying both the #28 New England Jr. Falcons and Minuteman Flames (Elite) and losing to the #27 Providence Capitals (Elite), they entered the playoffs as the bottom seeded team.

 

After pulling out a 4-3 win in the quarterfinals over the top seeded Bridgewater Bandits, the Vipers advanced to the semi-finals.  There, they beat the Middlesex Islanders 4-2 to send them to the championship game, where they would face the Jr. Falcons again. With great offensive play from Brendan White, Evan Daddario, Kyle Hentosh and Alex DelVento and an excellent performance from goalie Nick Fiorentino, Greater Boston pulled off the upset and topped New England 6-2, which earned the Vipers their first win over the Jr. Falcons, as well as their first tournament title.

 

Bantam Minor – Westchester Express

Ranked 14^th in the nation with a record of 42-17-4, the Express were one of the favorites to win the tournament at the Bantam Minor level.  During the preliminary round in the White division, they had wins against the #24 New England Falcons, New Jersey Colonials and Florida Alliance before tying the #21 Providence Capitals (Elite) 4-4.

 

In the playoffs, they earned convincing wins over the Rochester Alliance in the quarterfinals and Providence Capitals in the semi-finals, beating both teams 8-3 to advance to the championship game to play the Boston Jr. Eagles (Elite).  In the finals, led by a great offensive performance, the Express defeated the Jr. Eagles 9-1 to become the tournament champions.

 

Provided by http://youth1.com

If the Vipers were going to win this one it was going to have to be without JT Chamberlain as he would miss this one but the 98s stepped up as a team and got a solid effort from the goal out and cruised to a 6-2 win over the New England Junior Falcons in the finals. The Vipers would shake off a slow start and pick up the pace against the weary Flacons and after some great forechecking set up by Noah Maercklein (0-2-2), Braden Haley's (0-2-2) shot from the slot was kicked out and Brendan White (2-0-2) was johnny on the spot and knocked in the rebound for the 1-0 lead. The lead would be stretched to 2-0 with just 6 seconds left in the second period as Evan Daddario (2-0-2) would jump on a turnover high in the slot and snap the shorthanded goal by the keeper. Two minutes into the 3rd period the Vipers would jump out to a 3-0 lead on Whitey's second goal as he knocked in a goal mouth scramble, with help from Maercklein and Haley. The Flacons would would answer just 16 seconds later to trim the lead back down to 2. The Vipers would not be rattled as Kyle Hentosh would collect a Dante Maribito chip of the window at center ice win a foot race for a breakaway and deposit it over the goalies blocker to get the lead back to 3. Just two minutes later the Falcons would respond again  with a long hard slapper that evaded Nick Fiorentino and made the score 4-2 with 5 minutes left in the game. The Vipers would call timeout at this point to settle the troops and it worked as on the very next shift Evan Daddorio would sweep one in that was set up by some tenacious forechecking by Ross Wahl and Alex Delvento, who did a fine job filling in at right wing. The Vipers would add the empty netter by Kyle Lynch with a minute left that would put this one in the books. Nick Fiorentino was a rock in the nets keeping the strong talented Flacons off the board late. The Viper defense also stood tall and did a fine job of taking away time and space and holding their blue. A tremendous weekend by the 98s as they were underdogs all the way through and played near perfect hockey down the stretch of this tournament.

The Vipers controlled this one from the start and never really let the Islanders get on track as they advanced to the finals of the EHF Championship game with a 4-2 win. Special teams played a big part in this one as the Vipers PK killed off a 4:30 major penalty in the middle of the second period. Braden Haley got he 4th seeded Vipers on the board first as he one timed a beautiful centering pass from Noah Maercklein into the open left side, Brendan White picked up a helper also. The Islanders would come back and tie it up in the second but not for long as Kyle Hentosh (2-1-3) would blast a one time feed from Kyle Lynch (0-2-2) upstairs off the bar for the 2-1 lead. Kyle Hentosh would stretch it to a 3-1 lead as he finished off a beautiful 2v1 with Lynchy, Christian Kukas started the play with a nice outlet to Lynchy. Dante Maribito (1-1-2) would make it a 3 goal lead early in the third as he popped in a Hentosh rebound off the post. The Islanders would try to make this one interesting with a late goal in the third but the Vipers would not let them any closer. Aaron McDonnel was solid in this one between the pipes and he was helped with some solid team defense. Ryan Connearney, Steven Tettoni, Aaron Dollin, Patrick McCarthy, Christian Kukas and Alex Delvento would stand out on the blueline