Varsity hockey is coming to Broome County! Windsor, Vestal and Seton Catholic are coming together to create the Broome County Varsity Hockey team that will compete at the New York State High School Public High School Athletic Association level, joining Ithaca as the only other Section IV team. 

This team is not a member of the Broome County High School Hockey Association which plays at the club level and is unaffiliated with the NYSPHSAA.

Jim Lalley, former SUNY Broome Head Coach, coaches the squad.

"I was approached, I think, last spring about the idea of possibly having a merged team and I was totally on board," Lalley said. "I definitely think it's a good thing for the area to give these boys a chance to compete against some of the best competition in the state. Generally, it's just been a club league around here and this will give the guys a chance to play a bunch of teams from outside the area and get some exposure and possibly play for a sectional championship and then a chance at going to states."

Lalley and Co. will compete against Ithaca for a Section IV Championship in February, with the winner making it to the State Tournament.

According to several players on the team, the roster is made up of players, who for the most part, have already played with one another.

"I feel like a lot of these kids have played together for a while on travel, so they already kind of know each other," said junior goalie Peterson Kressly. "They know how each other play but instead of playing against each other in a high school season, they're playing with each other and I find it more enjoyable."

"I played travel with these guys last five years and last year I took a year off from travel, so it's good to get back with the guys," said junior defenseman Ashton Werner. "So, you know, the chemistry is just already here. I mean, it's just a good like a brotherhood almost. We've been playing with each other since we were eight, nine years old. We're always messing with each other and just trying to make each other as best as we can."

Lalley said that because the team is a merged one, it isn't too dissimilar to what he had to do at SUNY Broome.

"Oh, coaching college is a little bit different," Lalley said. "Got to go to recruit guys. It's a little similar to this because we're a merged team. So we have guys from three different schools right now. Be nice to have some other teams join in, maybe next year. But it's just getting guys to gel together competing. A lot of them know each other from playing travel hockey in the past. So they're a good group of guys. They get along together right now. So we're just we're excited to get them on the ice and then playing some game situations."

Although getting three different schools to get along with each has been easy, it doesn't mean everything has been.

"I think the difficult part, it's not so much the hockey, the hockey's easy part, guys, get out there, we just do our thing and play," Lalley said. "I think it's the logistics of everything, bussing, equipment, stuff like that. Just getting everything up and running, and scheduling a lot of games [and] ice time because we were a little late this year."

The team will play most of their home games at SUNY Broome, per Lalley. 

"We are playing a majority of our games at SUNY Broome that are home," Lalley said. "And I think right now we have one outdoor game up at the farm (The Farm Rink in Vestal, NY)."

“Players improve when they can spend more time on the ice. We’re excited to share our farm with this collaborative team and see what our local talent can create,” said Christina Pierce of the Farm Rink in a press release sent out from the Windsor Central School District.

The team will play at Cortland on Friday in a scrimmage before starting the season in Geneva.

"It's obviously exciting," Werner said. "But at the same time, you never know how good they're going to be, you can't watch film on them either. So you just got to come out, fly and be ready for anything because, you know, they can be really good. So we gotta be ready for everything."

The team hopes to add more schools to the mix as time goes on.

“From the K-12 public education perspective, it is really about providing opportunities for student-athletes,” said Windsor Central School District Athletic Administrator, Christopher Klumpp per a press release from the school district.  “The research is clear, students involved in the arts and athletics perform better academically and socially, and this merger provides a unique opportunity for all area schools with high school aged hockey players.  We are fortunate to have the support of Seton Catholic, Windsor and Vestal School Boards as well as that of the Pierces. We are hopeful more schools will come on board in the future”

The team does not currently have a nickname or mascot and will play as the Broome County Varsity Hockey Team.

The roster is as follows:

Joseph Pierce

Christopher Pierce

Camden Adams

Max Fiumera

Peterson Kressly

Anthony Mazzeo

Bennett Snyder

Will Pipher

Korbin Mercia

Aidan Ruhm

JT Roberto

Keyahn Sethi

Ashton Werner

Kohen Werner

Alex Burpee

Max Devoe

Broc Malyszek

Dylan Terrell

This is the team's logo.