Archive for December, 2008

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   After making bond in Arizona Monday, former Walpole High School athletic director, head football coach and teacher Daniel Villa returned to Massachusetts Monday night unaccompanied on a commercial flight to face child rape charges.
    Villa, 44, was arraigned Tuesday morning in Wrentham District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of three counts of rape of a child over 14 and three counts of enticing a minor. He is being held on $100,000 bond.
    Upon arriving at Logan Airport shortly after midnight Monday, Villa was taken into custody by Walpole and State Police, who were aware of his impending arrival, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office.
    He was transported to the Walpole police station to be booked on warrants for the rape of a child and enticement that had been issued for his arrest, according to the D.A.’s office.
     Villa, an Arizona native, turned himself in to police Saturday night in Tucson, a day after Wrentham District Court issued a warrant for his arrest. He had gone to Arizona to spend Christmas with his family.
    Walpole Deputy Chief Scott Bushway said the rape charges stem from physical contact Villa had with a female student-athlete at Walpole High over a three-month period in 2008. He said the teen is the only victim.
    The allegations came to light when a parent of the student went to School Supt. Lincoln Lynch and Walpole police.
    The parents of the girl, Bushway said, were alerted to her contact with Villa after discovering "inappropriate" text messages from Villa on their daughter’s cell phone.
    In a written statement, Lynch said he had received "a credible parent complaint related to the conduct of Mr. Daniel Villa."
    Villa resigned from his positions at Walpole High on Dec. 23, hours after Lynch confronted him over the allegations and placed him on paid administrative leave.
    Police and school officials have not disclosed details of the alleged crimes, but Bushway did say, "The charges speak for themselves."
    Initially, Villa’s attorney told police her client would be flying back to Massachusetts last Friday to turn himself in. When he failed to arrive on his scheduled flight, Walpole authorities issued a fugitive warrant, Bushway said.
    "On learning … that Arizona police were nevertheless seeking to arrest him on the Massachusetts charges, Mr. Villa turned himself in to local authorities," Villa’s attorney said in the statement.
    Villa lives with his wife and four children on Bubbling Brook Road in Walpole. He has been the high school’s head football coach for eight years, compiling a 72-23 record with four postseason appearances. This year, his team capped an undefeated season with a Division 2 Eastern Massachusetts Super Bowl win.
    Among the hardest hit were students and former Walpole High School football players, like Tim Pelletier who graduated in 2005 and played for Villa.
    "He was a great coach, a great guy," Pelletier told WBZ-TV. "He was almost like a second father to all the players."
    As an offensive guard, Villa played in the NFL from 1987 to 1998, spending six years with the Patriots. He also played with the Phoenix Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers.
    He starred at Arizona State from 1984-86 before being drafted by New England.

Read “Villa arraigned in Wrentham District Court” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   Danny Villa, the former Walpole High School athletic director, head football coach and teacher, is in Tucson, Ariz. police custody, facing child rape charges in Walpole.
   An Arizona native, Villa was home for the holidays when Wrentham District Court issued a warrant on Friday for his arrest. He faces three counts of rape of a child over 14 and three counts of enticing a minor, when he is extradited this week to Massachusetts, according to police.
   According to Walpole Deputy Chief Scott Bushway, the charges stem from physical contact Villa had with a female student-athlete at Walpole High over a three-month period in 2008. He said the girl is the only victim.
   The alleged crimes first came to light when a parent of the student told Superintendent Lincoln Lynch about the misconduct, then the Walpole police. The parents of the alleged victim, Bushway said, were alerted to the matter after discovering "inappropriate" text messages from Villa on their daughter’s cell phone.
    According to reports, Lynch immediately put Villa on paid administrative leave last Tuesday morning and called him in for a meeting later in the morning. When faced with the allegations, Villa resigned all three positions at Walpole High School, Lynch said.
    Police and school officials have not yet disclosed the details of the incident, but Bushway did say, "The charges speak for themselves."
    Villa’s attorney told police her client would be flying back to Massachusetts Friday to turn himself in, but when he failed to arrive on his scheduled flight, Walpole authorities issued a fugitive warrant, according to Bushway.
   After hearing from an unnamed person that the news had broke in Walpole about the rape allegations, Villa turned himself in to Tucson police Saturday night, according to some news reports.
   Bushway could not confirm whether Villa willfully surrendered or if he was taken into custody by Tucson police.
     The 44-year-old lives with his wife and four children on Bubbling Brook Road. He has been the high school’s head football coach for the past eight seasons, compiling a 72-23 record and four postseason appearances. This year, he capped off an undefeated season with a Division 2 Eastern Massachusetts Super Bowl win – the school’s first since 1997.
    A guard in the National Football League from 1987 to 1998, Villa spent six years with the New England Patriots and also had stints with the then-Phoenix Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Carolina Panthers.
    He is being held without bond on a fugitive warrant, according to the Pima County, Ariz. jail.
    Walpole Times Managing Editor Brian DeCesare contributed to this story.  

Stay tuned for further updates.

Read “Former WHS football coach, AD faces child rape charges” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   According to Walpole police, former Walpole High football coach and athletic director Daniel Villa turned himself in to Tucson, Ariz. police Saturday to face charges of child rape.

   Villa, 44, who played 11 seasons in the NFL and who just led Walpole High to a Division 2 Super Bowl win over Mansfield on Dec. 6, faces three counts of rape of a child over 14. He also faces three counts of enticing a minor, police said. A warrant for his arrest was issued Friday in Wrentham District Court.

  Police believe there was one victim, a female student-athlete at Walpole High; the charges stem from a relationship between Villa and the student, according to Walpole Deputy Chief Scott Bushway. The parents of the victim were alerted to the relationship based on text messages on their daughter’s cell phone, according to Bushway.

  This past Tuesday, Villa resigned his posts at WHS effective immediately after having been placed on paid administrative leave earlier that day by School Supt. Lincoln Lynch.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Read “Villa surrenders to police on child rape charge” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

 Danny Villa has resigned his positions as Walpole High School head football coach, athletic director and teacher, according to a press release from the office of the superintendent sent out Wednesday evening.

Superintendent Lincoln Lynch said he had received a “credible parent complaint related to the conduct of Mr. Daniel Villa.”

Villa, 44, resigned when faced with those allegations in an early morning meeting Tuesday, according to Lynch.

In an interview Wednesday night, Lynch said he would not be releasing the details of the complaint at this time.

The resignation was effective immediately.

Villa had denied rumors that he had resigned in the Daily News Transcript Tuesday. He told the Transcript that he hopes to be the head coach of the Rebels next year but “you never know what the next day presents itself.”

It now appears he had already resigned at the time he made those statements.

Villa has been the high school’s head football coach for the past eight seasons. The Rebels under Villa completed an undefeated season this year with a Division 2 Super Bowl win on Dec. 6 over Mansfield.

A guard in the National Football League from 1987 to 1998, Villa spent most of his career with the Patriots.

Villa could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

 “The Walpole Public schools will do everything in its power to prevent this matter from interfering with the educational process, including, but not limited to, the school setting and related activities,” wrote Lynch in the release.

Read “Villa out as WHS coach, AD amid allegations” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

Read “Villa out as Coach, AD” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   If there is one girls’ hockey team capable of sneaking up on the rest of the state this year, it’s Walpole High.
   The locals finished 6-13-1 last year, which certainly isn’t a red flag for the Div. 2 powers that be.
   However the girls were 6-8 to finish the season and of those eight victories the most notable, and most telling, was the last one on the last day.
   February  21, 2008 was the day that the Rebels proved they could play with anyone in the state as they picked off tourney team Duxbury two days after the Dragons had lost in overtime to Notre Dame of Hingham, another state power.
   The Rebels had lost to state champion Hingham, 7-1, in the Cougar Classic Tourney opener but that was more a result of a bunch of sophomores and freshmen being in awe of a team that had one loss and was trampling everyone.
   The Rebels are no longer in awe of anyone. Just hungry. A lot of that had to do with Milton, which beat Walpole just 2-0 both times they met, but getting al the way to the Div. 2 state title game where they lost to Hingham, 6-1.
   In all the Rebels played 14 of their 20 games against tourney teams, lost seven by two or fewer goals and were in all but two of the games at the end.
   Now, with all but one player back they are on the verge of not only making the state tourney for the first time, but also challenging defending champion Milton, Dedham and Wellesley for the Bay State Herget title.
   The only think that kept the Rebels from these goals last year was their goals, or lack of them. The anemic offense scored only 1.45 a game and was shut out eight times, although they had outshot opponents many times.
   Chalk that up to youth, inexperience and playing for a new coach. Now Joe Verderber is back (with Dad Ted again as assistant), the girls are used to him, and the girls are older and more confident. The future is now.
   Despite playing a nucleus of five freshmen and one sophomore, the defense was especially tough and the group is back in front of two solid goalies in senior Captain Sue Cunniff and senior Steph Kelly.
   The two won a league title with the swim team, and between them and the defense, cut goals against from 4.65 to 2.65 last year. Cunniff, spectacular at times, parlayed a 2.20 average into all-star status but Kelly also had her moments, especially a game against Milton.
   The defense has had some turbulence this year, but in the first three games has still been playing well despite personnel losses.
   They are playing without junior star Heather Foley, who dislocated her knee and is out for the year.
   The starting defense still has teeth, however, with second-team all-star Lauren Whitmore on the left and fellow sophomore Hannah Feeley on the right. Whitmore got off to a great start last year when she took the puck rink length through the Braintree defense and scored in a 3-1 loss at the Iorio to the 11-4-5 Wamps.
   The Rebels almost lost talented defender Tori Richardson to infection last year, and despite her life hanging in the balance after a serious condition, she is back to normal.
   “She was down and out last spring, ad then she came back and was back on the ice in July,” marvels Verderber.
   Richardson will be on the right opposite another top-level performer, Vittoria Petrillo. Up from jayvees as the fifth defender is sophomore Jackie Kelliher, but she’s playing like a veteran as well.
   “The good thing about her,” offers Verderber, “is that she knows what she’s supposed to be doing out there.”
   The forwards also know what they’re doing out there, especially junior center Stephanie “Frye-a-lator” Frye. Coming off two years as the team’s leading scorer, last year with seven goals and 10 points in an all-star campaign, she got the season off to a great start with a hat trick in an 11-1 drubbing of Dover-Sherborn at the Iorio Dec. 13. Until now no Rebel has had a hat trick, now there are two as she was joined that night by Julia Tosone.
   Frye has been centering the Yellow Line for sophomore left wing Kelsey Cosby, the hard-nosed hockey version of hoops sister Michaela, and junior right wing Kellie Duffy (4-4-8), fresh off a season as a starter for the sectional champion field hockey team. The Yellow Line will prove to be a misnomer, however, because this could be one of the toughest lines in the state. With Cosby back after a 4-4-8 season, it could also prove to be high-scoring.
   Junior Rachel McMillan started the year centering for White Line wings Tosone (3-6-9) and sophomore Kristen Morrissey, but a fractured tibia that will keep her out about six weeks will keep the stick that produced five goals and eight points on the bench for a while. McMillan was on a tear to start, including six assists in a preseason jamboree.
   The next line features Emily Cronin centering right wing Michelle Lennon and a tag team of Jacey Dold and Jacqui Dolan at left wing. With McMillan out, though, someone will have to step in at center for the White line.
   Of course Verderber could always pull up someone from Matt Haselhurst’s jayvee team. Since the varsity is virtually intact from last year so is the 13-member jayvee squad, which was 13-1-2.
   If they can manage to put the puck in the net more regularly, this could be a title year for the young Rebels.
 

Read “Icewomen cometh” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   If there is one girls’ hockey team capable of sneaking up on the rest of the state this year, it’s Walpole High.
   The locals finished 6-13-1 last year, which certainly isn’t a red flag for the Div. 2 powers that be.
   However the girls were 6-8 to finish the season and of those eight victories the most notable, and most telling, was the last one on the last day.
   February  21, 2008 was the day that the Rebels proved they could play with anyone in the state as they picked off tourney team Duxbury two days after the Dragons had lost in overtime to Notre Dame of Hingham, another state power.
   The Rebels had lost to state champion Hingham, 7-1, in the Cougar Classic Tourney opener but that was more a result of a bunch of sophomores and freshmen being in awe of a team that had one loss and was trampling everyone.
   The Rebels are no longer in awe of anyone. Just hungry. A lot of that had to do with Milton, which beat Walpole just 2-0 both times they met, but getting al the way to the Div. 2 state title game where they lost to Hingham, 6-1.
   In all the Rebels played 14 of their 20 games against tourney teams, lost seven by two or fewer goals and were in all but two of the games at the end.
   Now, with all but one player back they are on the verge of not only making the state tourney for the first time, but also challenging defending champion Milton, Dedham and Wellesley for the Bay State Herget title.
   The only think that kept the Rebels from these goals last year was their goals, or lack of them. The anemic offense scored only 1.45 a game and was shut out eight times, although they had outshot opponents many times.
   Chalk that up to youth, inexperience and playing for a new coach. Now Joe Verderber is back (with Dad Ted again as assistant), the girls are used to him, and the girls are older and more confident. The future is now.
   Despite playing a nucleus of five freshmen and one sophomore, the defense was especially tough and the group is back in front of two solid goalies in senior Captain Sue Cunniff and senior Steph Kelly.
   The two won a league title with the swim team, and between them and the defense, cut goals against from 4.65 to 2.65 last year. Cunniff, spectacular at times, parlayed a 2.20 average into all-star status but Kelly also had her moments, especially a game against Milton.
   The defense has had some turbulence this year, but in the first three games has still been playing well despite personnel losses.
   They are playing without junior star Heather Foley, who dislocated her knee and is out for the year.
   The starting defense still has teeth, however, with second-team all-star Lauren Whitmore on the left and fellow sophomore Hannah Feeley on the right. Whitmore got off to a great start last year when she took the puck rink length through the Braintree defense and scored in a 3-1 loss at the Iorio to the 11-4-5 Wamps.
   The Rebels almost lost talented defender Tori Richardson to infection last year, and despite her life hanging in the balance after a serious condition, she is back to normal.
   “She was down and out last spring, ad then she came back and was back on the ice in July,” marvels Verderber.
   Richardson will be on the right opposite another top-level performer, Vittoria Petrillo. Up from jayvees as the fifth defender is sophomore Jackie Kelliher, but she’s playing like a veteran as well.
   “The good thing about her,” offers Verderber, “is that she knows what she’s supposed to be doing out there.”
   The forwards also know what they’re doing out there, especially junior center Stephanie “Frye-a-lator” Frye. Coming off two years as the team’s leading scorer, last year with seven goals and 10 points in an all-star campaign, she got the season off to a great start with a hat trick in an 11-1 drubbing of Dover-Sherborn at the Iorio Dec. 13. Until now no Rebel has had a hat trick, now there are two as she was joined that night by Julia Tosone.
   Frye has been centering the Yellow Line for sophomore left wing Kelsey Cosby, the hard-nosed hockey version of hoops sister Michaela, and junior right wing Kellie Duffy (4-4-8), fresh off a season as a starter for the sectional champion field hockey team. The Yellow Line will prove to be a misnomer, however, because this could be one of the toughest lines in the state. With Cosby back after a 4-4-8 season, it could also prove to be high-scoring.
   Junior Rachel McMillan started the year centering for White Line wings Tosone (3-6-9) and sophomore Kristen Morrissey, but a fractured tibia that will keep her out about six weeks will keep the stick that produced five goals and eight points on the bench for a while. McMillan was on a tear to start, including six assists in a preseason jamboree.
   The next line features Emily Cronin centering right wing Michelle Lennon and a tag team of Jacey Dold and Jacqui Dolan at left wing. With McMillan out, though, someone will have to step in at center for the White line.
   Of course Verderber could always pull up someone from Matt Haselhurst’s jayvee team. Since the varsity is virtually intact from last year so is the 13-member jayvee squad, which was 13-1-2.
   If they can manage to put the puck in the net more regularly, this could be a title year for the young Rebels.
 

Read “Icewomen cometh” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   There are a lot of teams at Walpole High built for speed this year, and the boys’ hockey team isn’t one of them.
   That doesn’t matter to them, though, as the Rebels return this year bigger, stronger and tougher than they were last winter.
   Oh yes, there’s also some speed, on the swift first line, and also on a defense, backboned by two talented goalies, that could be the teams’ core strength this year.
Throwing everything together, there’s no reason why Walpole High can’t be back in the state tourney this March.
   The only thing that could get in its way is having to play in a very balanced Herget Division where almost anyone can beat anyone else on any given night. That means that the team among defending champion Wellesley, Milton, Norwood, Natick and Walpole that makes the fewest mistakes, has the fewest injuries and discovers the biggest surprises, could win the Bay State Herget title. Either that, or the team with the most luck.
   Walpole has already discovered a couple of major surprises on offense where they need them most. One is Dave Conroy back from a promising freshman campaign much bigger and capable of muscling his way to the crease almost every time out.
   Another is speedy Mike Rockwell, who joins captains Tyler Golden and Tom Tempesta on the first line, which can keep up with most lines in the league.
   With offense again the biggest question mark, it’s nice to see the hard-working forwards striving to give Coach Bill Meehan the answers needed to get a 9-11-2 team over the hump in 2009.
   They should do it this winter, and should be back in postseason play for the first time since the 2005-2006 season when the Rebels were 14-7-3 following an exciting state tourney run.
None of the current players were on that team, but veterans Golden, Tempesta, Brendan Corcoran, Kevin Jelloe, Corey Menno and A. J. Rossi still remember the 2006-2007 season where everything that could go wrong did and the Rebels ended up just 3-16-2.
   That was the first year for Menno and Rossi, who both made a major impact as freshmen. Rossi already had some size at the time but Menno was a smaller ninth-grader with impressive skills. Now Rossi is a rock as a junior and Menno, an all-star last year, has sprouted to a solid six feet.
   The juniors are part of a veteran, five-man rotation on defense that should be one of the best in the Bay State Conference, and will help first-year starting goalies Jack Eckart and Bill Sweeney, who will split the duties, transition the net from Ryan Johnson, who turned in a lot of great performances last year after a speedy recovery from a major knee injury.
   It was defense and goaltending that almost carried the Rebels into the tourney last season. The offense had three games of six or more goals but they were against three “sisters of the poor” as former Medford Coach Charlie Driscoll always likes to say – Dedham, Medfield and Durfee.
   In 11 losses last year the Rebels scored two or fewer goals; in a win at Brookline they scored just one. They were shut out six times over their last 17 games.
   On the other hand they played 11 games in which they surrendered two or fewer, and were on fire in their zone the middle of the year, until junior defenseman Kevin Jelloe was lost for the season.
   In one stretch at midseason, starting with a 3-2 loss to King Philip in the title game of the Milbury Cup and stretching six games until a 5-3 loss to Wellesley, the Rebels had allowed just nine goals, or 1.50 per game.
   Now the Rebels hope to recapture that magic. The defense will actually be stronger than last year and should improve on the 2.41 goals allowed per game.
   Leading the charge is senior captain Pat McClellan, off to a rough start by sustaining an injury that has had him out the first three games. The stay-at-home defender will play the left side opposite Rossi, who could become one of the best two-way blue liners in the league.
   Senior Ran Gulla, another steady stay-at-home defender, will be on the right side opposite Menno, one of the better skating defensemen in the league.
   A healthy Jelloe is slated to play right side opposite junior Mike Semler, who brings a lot of skills up from the jayvees, and Patrick Connolly and Mike Doherty round out a strong defense.
   The unit will front junior Billy Sweeney and senior Jack Eckart. For two years Eckart struggled with consistency, and lost the starting spot last year to Johnson. But hard work made Eckart a new man and when he was in net last year he was brilliant, to the tune of a 0.50 goals against average.
   Sweeney was waiting in the wings as well, and finished with a fine 2.22 GAA following a great freshman season with KP-W youth hockey. With both back-up goalies – who could have started at many other schools – back fronted by a veteran defensive crew, the play in Walpole’s zone will be as steady, and at times spectacular, as it was last winter. Whoever gets hot will get the nod in the tourney push.
   The biggest difference this year will be up front and with scorers up from the jayvees like Mike Rockwell, plus improved veterans and support from the D, the Rebels should increase last year’s average of 2.36 goals per game.
   The defense is so strong that Meehan was able to move O’Coin up to forward, and when the Rebels, already without McClellan, lost Menno a little over halfway through the Natick game, O’Coin bounced back to the blue line and helped preserve a 3-1 win.
   Menno returns as one of last year’s top scorers, with 14 points, and the top goal scorer with eight. His production, along with more from the rest of the defense, would be a help.
The offense almost can’t help but score more, as long as the key players remain healthy, however.
   The top four scorers return from last year’s club, with three of them up front. Speedy Tom Tempesta, one of the captains, tied Menno for the scoring lead with 14 points, seven of which were goals, second on the club. Senior Captain Tyler Golden had four goals and 12 points, and Brendan Corcoran potted six goals with six assists.
   Golden will be centering the first line with Tempesta at right wing, and Mike Rockwell, one of those who can keep up with the pair, will be on left wing.
   Corcoran will center the next line, with junior Tim Bailey on his left and O’Coin on his right, and junior Christian Miller is sandwiched between sophomore left wing Brendan O’Neil and right wings Dan Matthews (junior) and Aaron McCabe (senior) on an exciting third line with a lot of potential.
   Walpole appears ready to field four competitive lines as well, with big wings Nick Rockwell, a senior, on the left, and Dave Conroy skating with fellow sophomore Mike Nadeau, a center.
Tempesta is a returning all-star and Rockwell has shown all sorts of speed and skill with the puck, and their line could potentially be one of the best in the Herget.
   Corcoran, who increased his speed and stamina with an outstanding season of cross-country, will benefit from O’Coin’s passing and the instincts of his linemates.
   “I look forward to watching the growth of the younger players,” offers Meehan. “The strengths of the team will be senior leadership and depth at defense. Also, the team has more potential to light the lamp than we’ve had in a few years.”
   If things go right, the Rebels could be the team that rises to the top in the balanced Bay State Herget.
 

Read “Rebels checking in” on the Wicked Local Walpole website

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   There are a lot of teams at Walpole High built for speed this year, and the boys’ hockey team isn’t one of them.
   That doesn’t matter to them, though, as the Rebels return this year bigger, stronger and tougher than they were last winter.
   Oh yes, there’s also some speed, on the swift first line, and also on a defense, backboned by two talented goalies, that could be the teams’ core strength this year.
Throwing everything together, there’s no reason why Walpole High can’t be back in the state tourney this March.
   The only thing that could get in its way is having to play in a very balanced Herget Division where almost anyone can beat anyone else on any given night. That means that the team among defending champion Wellesley, Milton, Norwood, Natick and Walpole that makes the fewest mistakes, has the fewest injuries and discovers the biggest surprises, could win the Bay State Herget title. Either that, or the team with the most luck.
   Walpole has already discovered a couple of major surprises on offense where they need them most. One is Dave Conroy back from a promising freshman campaign much bigger and capable of muscling his way to the crease almost every time out.
   Another is speedy Mike Rockwell, who joins captains Tyler Golden and Tom Tempesta on the first line, which can keep up with most lines in the league.
   With offense again the biggest question mark, it’s nice to see the hard-working forwards striving to give Coach Bill Meehan the answers needed to get a 9-11-2 team over the hump in 2009.
   They should do it this winter, and should be back in postseason play for the first time since the 2005-2006 season when the Rebels were 14-7-3 following an exciting state tourney run.
None of the current players were on that team, but veterans Golden, Tempesta, Brendan Corcoran, Kevin Jelloe, Corey Menno and A. J. Rossi still remember the 2006-2007 season where everything that could go wrong did and the Rebels ended up just 3-16-2.
   That was the first year for Menno and Rossi, who both made a major impact as freshmen. Rossi already had some size at the time but Menno was a smaller ninth-grader with impressive skills. Now Rossi is a rock as a junior and Menno, an all-star last year, has sprouted to a solid six feet.
   The juniors are part of a veteran, five-man rotation on defense that should be one of the best in the Bay State Conference, and will help first-year starting goalies Jack Eckart and Bill Sweeney, who will split the duties, transition the net from Ryan Johnson, who turned in a lot of great performances last year after a speedy recovery from a major knee injury.
   It was defense and goaltending that almost carried the Rebels into the tourney last season. The offense had three games of six or more goals but they were against three “sisters of the poor” as former Medford Coach Charlie Driscoll always likes to say – Dedham, Medfield and Durfee.
   In 11 losses last year the Rebels scored two or fewer goals; in a win at Brookline they scored just one. They were shut out six times over their last 17 games.
   On the other hand they played 11 games in which they surrendered two or fewer, and were on fire in their zone the middle of the year, until junior defenseman Kevin Jelloe was lost for the season.
   In one stretch at midseason, starting with a 3-2 loss to King Philip in the title game of the Milbury Cup and stretching six games until a 5-3 loss to Wellesley, the Rebels had allowed just nine goals, or 1.50 per game.
   Now the Rebels hope to recapture that magic. The defense will actually be stronger than last year and should improve on the 2.41 goals allowed per game.
   Leading the charge is senior captain Pat McClellan, off to a rough start by sustaining an injury that has had him out the first three games. The stay-at-home defender will play the left side opposite Rossi, who could become one of the best two-way blue liners in the league.
   Senior Ran Gulla, another steady stay-at-home defender, will be on the right side opposite Menno, one of the better skating defensemen in the league.
   A healthy Jelloe is slated to play right side opposite junior Mike Semler, who brings a lot of skills up from the jayvees, and Patrick Connolly and Mike Doherty round out a strong defense.
   The unit will front junior Billy Sweeney and senior Jack Eckart. For two years Eckart struggled with consistency, and lost the starting spot last year to Johnson. But hard work made Eckart a new man and when he was in net last year he was brilliant, to the tune of a 0.50 goals against average.
   Sweeney was waiting in the wings as well, and finished with a fine 2.22 GAA following a great freshman season with KP-W youth hockey. With both back-up goalies – who could have started at many other schools – back fronted by a veteran defensive crew, the play in Walpole’s zone will be as steady, and at times spectacular, as it was last winter. Whoever gets hot will get the nod in the tourney push.
   The biggest difference this year will be up front and with scorers up from the jayvees like Mike Rockwell, plus improved veterans and support from the D, the Rebels should increase last year’s average of 2.36 goals per game.
   The defense is so strong that Meehan was able to move O’Coin up to forward, and when the Rebels, already without McClellan, lost Menno a little over halfway through the Natick game, O’Coin bounced back to the blue line and helped preserve a 3-1 win.
   Menno returns as one of last year’s top scorers, with 14 points, and the top goal scorer with eight. His production, along with more from the rest of the defense, would be a help.
The offense almost can’t help but score more, as long as the key players remain healthy, however.
   The top four scorers return from last year’s club, with three of them up front. Speedy Tom Tempesta, one of the captains, tied Menno for the scoring lead with 14 points, seven of which were goals, second on the club. Senior Captain Tyler Golden had four goals and 12 points, and Brendan Corcoran potted six goals with six assists.
   Golden will be centering the first line with Tempesta at right wing, and Mike Rockwell, one of those who can keep up with the pair, will be on left wing.
   Corcoran will center the next line, with junior Tim Bailey on his left and O’Coin on his right, and junior Christian Miller is sandwiched between sophomore left wing Brendan O’Neil and right wings Dan Matthews (junior) and Aaron McCabe (senior) on an exciting third line with a lot of potential.
   Walpole appears ready to field four competitive lines as well, with big wings Nick Rockwell, a senior, on the left, and Dave Conroy skating with fellow sophomore Mike Nadeau, a center.
Tempesta is a returning all-star and Rockwell has shown all sorts of speed and skill with the puck, and their line could potentially be one of the best in the Herget.
   Corcoran, who increased his speed and stamina with an outstanding season of cross-country, will benefit from O’Coin’s passing and the instincts of his linemates.
   “I look forward to watching the growth of the younger players,” offers Meehan. “The strengths of the team will be senior leadership and depth at defense. Also, the team has more potential to light the lamp than we’ve had in a few years.”
   If things go right, the Rebels could be the team that rises to the top in the balanced Bay State Herget.
 

Read “Rebels checking in” on the Wicked Local Walpole website