Schools

Sportsmanship Earns Stoughton High Hockey Team Second Consecutive Trip to TD Garden

The SHS ice hockey team received the James F. Mulloy Team Sportsmanship Award at a special ceremony at the TD Garden on March 17, the second straight year the program has been honored for its high level of sportsmanship.

For the second consecutive season the Stoughton High Hockey program was honored at the T.D. Garden, home of the Boston Bruins, for playing the game in an exemplary manner, winning the James F. Mulloy Team Sportsmanship Award.

The award was presented to Stoughton High, represented by head hockey coach Dan Mark, Principal Julie Miller, and team captains Cory Greenblatt (senior), P.J. Sheehan (junior) and Brandon Lima (junior), Sunday, March 17, on the Garden ice, prior to the start of the MIAA Division 1A high school championship game. 

Only three boys' teams, including Stoughton, were honored with this award, which is named for the late James F. Mulloy, a former high school hockey coach, past president of the Massachusetts State Hockey Coaches Association and former Chairman of the MIAA Ice Hockey Committee.

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Mark, who finished his 32nd coaching the team, said it was Stoughton's fifth time winning the Mulloy sportsmanship award (2003, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013). 

Stoughton is also the Hockomock League team sportsmanship winner for this winter season, Mark said. 

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"I like the fact that the MIAA places a lot of emphasis on [the Mulloy sportsmanship award] and they really make a big deal out of it, which is really nice," Mark said. "Obviously you would rather be skating on the Garden [ice] but just to be out there in front of the crowd is a huge deal."

"We are so proud of our ice hockey team," Stoughton High Athletic Director Ryan Donahue added. "Young and very willing to work hard day in and day out. To get an award that recognizes their efforts to do the right thing over and over again truly speaks volumes about the kids on the team, and of course the coaching staff.  By no means am I suprised that they have been recognized by the MIAA for the second year in a row, I am just beyond impressed."

Stoughton finished the 2012-2013 season 3-15-2, but maintained a high level of sportsmanship and character throughout the season, similar to the year before when the Black Knights were honored following a 1-18-1 finish in 2011-2012. 

"It's so easy when you're losing to act up. That's what impressed me about these kids - they never acted up," Mark said. "I got a nice email from the North Attleboro coach [Steve Snizek] praising us for the way we behaved the last game of the year - the kids worked hard, no after the whistle stuff."

This year's team was full of youth - more than half of the roster made up of freshmen and sophomores.

"The older kids were good to the younger kids, the younger kids got along with the older kids. It was never 'I'm a senior, you're a freshman' - the kids just got along really well, which goes hand in hand with sportsmanship," Mark said. 

Mark said his three captains - Greenblatt, Sheehan and Lima - had a "direct impact" on the team's high level of sportsmanship.

"They know what's expected. It's understood that's the way it's supposed to be," he said. "All Stoughton High sports teams are great. Any sport at Stoughton High could win that [type of] award."

"Being honored with the sportsmanship award this season is yet another example of a "proportionately successful" season by a youthful program headed in the right direction," said Sheehan, who made a whopping 918 saves in 20 games in goal this season.

"The team dealt with a lot of adversity as does any team in this sport, however the team was very mature especially for such a young group. They showed their true colors during hardship, and those colors look bright for the future of the program." 

Sheehan added, "With limited numbers and/or talent this team achieved the two main goals set at the start of the season - these goals were to improve as the year went on, which we did as shown by the overall [competition] level in games toward the end of the season, as well as the first pair of back to back wins in the program's recent history. With a young core and more great kids coming up, this program is on the rise and it's being led with great character and sportsmanship, as exemplified with the honoring of the sportsmanship award again."


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