TEACHING OPPORTUNITY: Princeton Day School boys’ hockey head coach Scott Bertoli makes a point on the bench in a game this winter. With a roster dominated by freshmen and sophomores, the Panthers took their lumps this season, going 3-16-5. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

With a roster packed with freshmen and sophomores, Scott Bertoli knew that his Princeton Day School boys’ hockey team was destined to take some lumps this winter.

“It was about getting experience at this level; they had to play outside their comfort zone,” said PDS head coach Bertoli, whose squad included 11 sophomores, six freshmen, and just three seniors.

“They were playing older and stronger players and playing at a faster pace than they are used to. I have seen them play at their level and they are comfortable. The forwards score and their d-men control things. It was freshmen and sophomores playing against juniors and seniors. Things got ratcheted up, it was overwhelming at times, giving up inches and 20, 40, or 60 pounds at times.”

Showing growth, the young PDS squad acquitted itself well in its last weekend of the season, battling hard at the Hill School (Pa.) tournament, losing 4-2 to Hun, 4-2 to Lawrenceville, and 5-0 to host Hill.

“We went up there with a very light lineup; three of our top four defensemen didn’t go,” said Bertoli, whose team had lost 6-1 to Hun and 6-0 to Lawrenceville in regular season meetings.

“We had only four defensemen and one of them was Peter Shannon, who had played forward all year. Given our performances earlier in the year against those teams, I thought it was going to be ugly. We had players who hadn’t played a lot of minutes on the ice and they surprised us. Shannon hadn’t been on the blue line and played every other shift and did well. All in all, it was a successful weekend. We went out and competed well.”

Bertoli is confident that his team will be able to compete better next winter. “As the season progressed and played out, they got experience,” said Bertoli, reflecting on the team’s 3-16-5 campaign.

“We will be better off for the experience. I had an interview with every single kid and the last thing I said to most of them was that they needed to find a weight room and make an effort to get stronger. You can’t control how tall you are but you can make yourself stronger. I think with that and a year of experience, we will be much better next year. The freshman group is talented and I expect big things from them as early as next year.”

The team’s freshman contingent boasts some strong players in Eugene Yoon, Tyler Coffey, Ryan Lisk, Eric Sherman, and Nic Petruolo.

“Yoon started the year as the sixth defenseman; he has talent but it is raw talent,” said Bertoli.

“He has an abundance of energy and he is a bulldog on the ice. At times down the stretch he was our best defenseman on the ice. He played really well at Hill tournament. Tyler Coffey got injured early and that turned out to hurt us. He would have been on the first line and would have helped us on the power play. Our power play was really inefficient and we missed him. He is not that big physically but he is strong. He is committed to weightlifting. Lisk, Sherman, Petruolo are all talented players.”

Junior forward Connor Fletcher’s commitment to excellence help hold things together.

“He was unbelievable on so many levels for us,” said Bertoli, noting that Fletcher was elevated to captain midway through the season.

“He was arguably the best player on the ice at the Hill tournament. He was bigger, stronger, and faster than just about everyone there. He doesn’t play club hockey any more so he was just playing 25 high school games. His hockey skills really progressed. He had to do a lot of things on his own to create offense. Besides the hockey piece, he was such a presence in the locker room. He was always upbeat and always encouraging. He is a smart kid, he gets it. He knew we had a lot of young guys. We will be much deeper next year and he will have a good supporting cast.”

Seniors Will Garrymore, Will Wright, and Harrison Latham did a lot of good things in their final campaign with the program.

“I feel for Will Garrymore, he had two good years playing on two really good teams,” said Bertoli,

“Being only upperclassman on defense a lot of the time, we had to overplay him. He was competitive and he battled. He was sick the last weekend and I was sad to see that. Will Wright and Harrison had two years on the varsity level; they are both great kids. They played two years on JV, they persevered and stuck with it. That was great to see, some kids give up after two years on JV. They scored some big goals for us this winter. Harrison dislocated his shoulder in the first scrimmage and his shoulder popped out almost every game. After the Lawrenceville game, I thought he was finished. He got a brace; it limited him but he didn’t stop competing. I named him assistant captain midway through the season which is something I don’t normally do but he deserved it.”

While the Panthers suffered a steady diet of losing this winter, they didn’t lose their appetite for competition.

“One thing that really impressed me is that they were able to shake off a loss and show up with a smile at practice the next day and the work ethic to match,” said Bertoli. “I still had fun, it was a good learning experience.”