WILMINGTON, MA — This is the last in a series of articles celebrating Wilmington Youth Hockey’s graduating class of seniors. This year, WYH will graduate 13 boys from the organization. We, in the organization, are proud of our seniors. Many many years ago, the boys were given a jersey with a “W” on the chest and they leave youth hockey with a “W” on their chest. Some would never leave and others took many travels but in the end they finished representing Wilmington because they started a Wildcat and will always be a Wildcat.
This year, Wilmington Youth Hockey will graduate Ryan St Jean, Bobby Lord, AJ McKearney, Micheal DuCharme, Jarred Aucoin, Calvin Stafford, Steve Bowker, Nate Demico, Max Shapiro, Tom Worob, Joey Mirabella, Tom Robarge and Dylan Bresnahan.
This week’s edition features Calvin Stafford and AJ McKearney.
Calvin Stafford
The Stafford family is synonymous with Wilmington Youth Hockey. There is no family in the past 20 years that has been more impactful to the success of WYHA than the Stafford’s. Joanne Stafford spent many many years on the board of directors. Among the many hats Joanne wore on the board, she had the thankless job of keeping all the coaches in check. Joanne was the rule follower and nobody did it better! Husband Scott, has also been a fixture of youth hockey. As part of the profile series this year and last, I asked the family’s to provide some highlights and influential people during their youth hockey career. More than any other note I received, the name Scott Stafford came up. Nearly every single player mentioned Scott as being their first experience in coaching and his influence their skating abilities. Scott has devoted and donated countless hours to WYH’s Learn to Skate and Learn to Play programs, he has been great keeping the kids excited and ready for more and more. Scott has been running the program for so long that nobody within the board can accurately state how many years he has been doing it. All his time devoted to the organization’s youngest skaters was been in addition to Scott coaching his children’s team. The volunteerism did not end on the ice or at a meeting; the Stafford’s were the hardest working family at all the 4th of July festivities in Wilmington. You can bet that every week of the 4th, that Joanne was manning the Whack A Puck booth and Scott was out being the glow in the dark salesman hawking all the light sticks that cover the common lawn.
The children behind the Stafford devotion are Chris, Melissa and Calvin. As a long time observer of WYHA, this writer knows that much of the reason Wilmington Youth remains a strong institution is because of the Stafford family. Also, as a long time observer one can say without question that Calvin Stafford is one of the nicest, hardest working, most coachable young men that ever graced the Ristuccia ice surface.
Calvin was bound to play hockey from the start. He was dragged from rink to rink to watch his older brother Chris and sister Melissa. Chris would later go on to play at the Shawsheen Tech and Melissa skated with the Wilmington Figure Skating Club.
As stated previously, Cal was the hardest working player on every team he played for. He was a great practice player and in games he bounced around from forward to defense and back. Wherever you may ask Cal to play, he would fill in admirably with a quiet enthusiastic attitude. As a player, Cal has always been fearless. He has never shied away from contact, and likes to dish out the hits but you will not find him hurting his team with trips to the penalty box. No one would ever confuse Calvin as a sniper, but he had way to find the net with dirty goals and would be on the ice when good things happened.
Over the years, Calvin found his home on defense. He can be seen this season manning the blue line for the Rams of the Shawsheen Tech.
Cal had an interest for all sports growing up. He played baseball, soccer, and was part of Wilmington’s inaugural season of lacrosse. Cal played from LTP to Midgets for WYH and is grateful for all his coaches that he had over the years. At the Shawsheen Tech, Cal has played four years of hockey and two years of baseball.
Calvin is weighing his college options as he looks pursue studies in computer science. As a Tech student, Cal has been working at IBM in Littleton every other week putting his trade and craft to work while establishing a valuable resume and work experience to take with him into the field.
Wilmington Youth Hockey owes the Stafford family the sincerest form of the thank you for all of their devotion to the program. But, the biggest thanks owed to the Stafford family is one for lending their son Calvin to us. Calvin is truly one of the nicest kids one will ever meet and we got to see him grow from a young child to the young man he is today with a great future ahead of him.
AJ McKearney
No youth hockey player has ever had more pressure, responsibility and expectations placed upon him. No child could ever handle some much responsibility and not only survive but step above the crowd, lead a team, and excel as a player except for AJ. The last profile written in this extended series of Wilmington Youth Hockey player profiles is of AJ McKearney. As the saying goes, we saved the best for last.
As the incoming captain of Wilmington High School’s varsity team, it was felt the best way to prepare him for the job would be give him responsibility and with that responsibility he was given more and more responsibility. In fact, in the end, the Wilmington’s State Championship U18 Team was AJ McKearney. It was his team. Intentionally, the team was not a coach driven team it player leader driven team and Captain AJ McKearney was steering the ship.
It was a progressive build to make sure that captainship meant leadership. We started the year with Austrian born Tom Poeck running the practices. AJ was asked to monitor the kids having trouble with the thick accent or direction and give assistance when needed. Then during a game AJ was told with a minute left in the period that he would be talking to the team. The coach simply walked away from the gathered players, and AJ was given the voice of the team. The in-between period talks would be taken over more and more by AJ, later in the season, other leaders would emerge and talk to the team as well like Bobby Lord, Jarred Aucoin and Tom Worob. As the season progressed, it was AJ that ran every drill of every practice. When the team needed a tongue lashing after a poor performance, AJ brought the fire. When they played well, AJ let them know.
Not only was AJ being asked to be a leader, he was also being asked to think like a coach. He was consulted like an assistant coach for input on strategy and lineups. He was asked for opinions on player pairings, combinations and other suggestions.
It was officially AJ’s team on the day of the Semi-finals against Stoneham when the coach stayed out of the locker room and it was AJ that seized the team, talked to the team, pumped up the team and lead the team to the ice. The team was his, he was their leader, and they were going to win the state championship.
AJ came to Wilmington Youth Hockey as a four year old Buzzer. The Buzzers is the youngest level of hockey for WYHA, and the term “buzzer” comes from the horn sounding off every two minutes as another group of eager skaters pour through swinging door and onto the ice. Four year old AJ, was ready for the ice but he wasn’t quite ready for the loud horn. Observant and engaged youth coaches Joe Higgins and Sean Benoit saw the scared AJ and knew they needed to help him. For that year, the Buzzers could have been re-named the Whistles as the coaches adjusted the thundering horn to a whistle and allowed AJ to develop his passion for hockey and saving his eardrums.
All through youth hockey, AJ would be chasing the State Championship before winning it in his final season. Along the way, he built twelve years of friendships with teammates that he will never forget. The proudest moment of winning the state championship was accomplishing the win as a team, a team of friends and every single friend on the bench skating just as much as the guy next to him and playing their hearts out for each other, a true team win.
Another great WYH moment was in 2009 playing in the Boston Bruins Futures Game as AJ scored the goal that would be shown in between periods of the Bruins game on jumbotron.
AJ credits his development to coaches Higgins, Benoit, Kippenberger, Barrett, Robarge, Aucoin, Fiorenza and Nally. AJ says, “Their volunteer time over the years as well as their teaching of the game helped me tremendously and is truly appreciated.”
In true form for AJ, he not only appreciates the coaches, but everybody else involved as well, “I would also like to thank the parents and families of our entire close knit group. We have all shared many laughs and a few tears together, I am thankful for your friendships. I would also like to extend out my complete respect and admiration for the hard work and team commitment of my brothers on and off the ice. It’s been a great ride, but it’s not over yet.”No wonder he is the Captain
Lori and Steve McKearney are so proud of their son and are excited to watch him venture off into the future this fall when he attends college to study business. He will have his choices, because colleges want AJ McKearney on their campus. He had been accepted to UMass Lowell, Endicott College, Merrimack College, UNH, URI, Providence College, Bryant University and any day now Bentley. Not only has AJ been accepted but he has been offered the Presidential Scholarship to most of them.
The future is bright for AJ McKearney, and Wilmington Youth Hockey could be prouder of Captain AJ.
(NOTE: The above press release is from Wilmington Youth Hockey.)
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