2012-13 STATE/WMASS DIVISION III HOCKEY CHAMPION WESTFIELD BOMBERS
WESTFIELD – Just when you thought the recently crowned state champion Westfield High School Bombers ice hockey team’s dream season had reached its curtain call, another squad, more familiar with Westfield hockey tradition than any the champs faced all season, have thrown down the gauntlet to challenge the rink kings of the Commonwealth.
That challenge is coming from a crew of former Bomber greats in an effort to raise funds for the program in a contest that will be held at Amelia Park on April 21, with the puck dropping at 3 p.m.
While admission will be free to spectators, donations will be accepted and encouraged. And as event organizer John Collier says, the donations will be going to a good cause.
“This was such a great team and, being that they recently got fitted for their championship rings, I want to collect enough in donations to pay for their rings.” the former four-year Bomber letter winner (’82) said in a recent interview with The News.
Despite the age of the brave Bomber alumni set to face off against the champs (39, youngest, 51, oldest), they are bringing considerable swagger of their own to the ice. Collier’s brother Brian (’86) who will be tending the net for the Greybeards, was a Basone award winner during his junior season, and Collier himself was an all-Western Mass selection during his time at WHS.
The roster of old timers looking to knock the champs down a peg will include both Colliers, Eric Schnopp ’96, Jimmy Blascak ’95, Jeff Bucko ’94, brothers Matt and Mike Goodreau (’92 and ’95, respectively), brothers Danny, Mike, Pat and Danny Leonard (’84, ’89 and ’94 respectively), Donny Levere ’90, Dave Chartier ’87, Skip Diamond ’86, Lee Helliwell ’84, Mike Parody ’81 and Ricky Monahan ’80.
Of the retro skaters facing off against the current crop of Bombers, they come steeped in the tradition of Westfield hockey. Both Goodreau brothers served as team captains during their senior seasons, as did Levere, Diamond and Parody, while Noblit, Monahan and Danny Leonard all served as assistant captains during their tenures in black and red.
And the man entrusted with the enviable task of coaching these stars of yesteryear is Joe Nassar ’79, whose own son Ethan served as a captain for this year’s varsity squad. A star on the football gridiron and lacrosse field for the Bombers during his time at Westfield High, Nassar took up hockey later in life, and is now set to lead several of his WHS contemporaries from the late ’70’s and early ’80’s into battle against this latest championship Bomb squad.
Assisting him will be Joe Noblit and Sean Leonard ’82, former varsity teammates who, due to recently sustained injuries, are unable to play, but will both be contributing to the coaching staff.
Regardless of the outcome, though, all in attendance on April 21 will be treated to an athletic spectacle unlike anything the Whip City has seen in a while, a classic matchup between championship Bombers, past and present.
