4 area hockey players among elite
FOX CHAPEL — Play for the best, then play on.
Such is the mind set of Mars resident Cole Douglas, Seven Fields resident Dryden Hawn, Michael DiMarsico of Wexford and Chip Strano of Franklin Park when it comes to hockey.
All four play for the Shady Side Academy prep team, which is a member of the Midwest Prep Hockey League. The 10-team MPHL consists of teams in Chicago, Ohio, Buffalo, New Jersey, Ontario and Quebec.
“Our players come from all over,” senior defenseman Strano said. “This is the highest level of hockey I could play at.
“I'm hoping to play junior hockey somewhere next year, whether it's in the United States or Canada.”
Shady Side Academy prep hockey coach Jonathan Johnson is also the league's commissioner.Shady Side Academy also has a varsity hockey team that competes in the PIHL, but the prep team is much different. It has players on the roster from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Ontario and Quebec.“I went to North Catholic before transferring over here,” said Hawn, a junior left wing who has five goals and five assists so far this season. “It's the academics as much as the athletics that challenge you.“My grade point is 3.5 here and it's hard to maintain that. I used to carry a 4.0. This school is like a college, the way you have to prepare for exams and how the teachers challenge you. Sometimes you're asked to revise a term paper and turn it in again.”Douglas, a sophomore defenseman, echoed the academic challenge.“Guys come here having carried a 4.2 or so at other schools and they have a 3.5 here,” he said. “I mean, it's tough. We're worked hard on the ice and in the classroom.”
Hawn and Douglas have goals of playing college hockey. A senior right wing, DiMarsico had eight goals and four assists in the team's first 15 games this season. He is committed to playing lacrosse at Johns Hopkins next year while majoring in chemical engineering.Shady Side Academy plays a 40-game schedule overall, including an 18-game MPHL slate. The team got off to a 12-2-1 start this year and is riding a 12-game winning streak.With Shady Side Academy having its own ice rink, the prep team practices for nearly three hours every day after school, then plays games on weekends.“We're on the ice a lot, but all of that practice, the weight program we're all on and the competition we play against ... It's made all of us better,” DiMarsico said. “You're forced to play at a high level at all times in this league.”The MPHL was founded in 2000. Its objective is to prepare its student-athletes to succeed in the college hockey environment.
Beginning Thursday through Jan. 3, the SSA prep team is embarking upon a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic and to Munich, Germany, to play international hockey and learn about other cultures.The team does fund-raisers for this trip, which it takes every three or four years.“When I was a freshman, we went to Switzerland and France,” Strano said. “The learning experience is incredible.”“From a tourist aspect and a hockey aspect, it's such a unique thing,” Douglas said. “We're going to meet players from other countries, interact with them, learn about them and play against them.“I've never done anything like this before in my life.”While SSA Prep's players come from all over, teamwork emerges over time.“Our roster is like a family, we're together so much,” Strano said.Hawn agreed.“To get to where I want to be, I feel like I'm in the right place,” he said.
