Entering the 2002-03 hockey season, Allie Skelley (Wolfeboro, N.H.), then a junior and assistant captain on the St. Lawrence men’s hockey team, had high aspirations for hockey and life after hockey.
He was an economics major with dreams of heading to New York City or Boston to make heaps of money. That would all come after he played out what was shaping up to be a great hockey career.
Everything changed in December 2002.
In a game against Lake Superior State, Skelley was hit from behind and went head-first into the boards. He couldn’t feel his extremities while laying on the ice, but he was allowed to leave the ice on his own. Shortly thereafter, he was rushed to a nearby hospital where he learned he fractured and dislocated the C-5, C-6 and C-7 vertebrae in his neck.
Skelley was lucky to escape with two things: his ability to move and his ability to live. His hockey career was over.
“That injury put life into perspective for me,” Skelley said. “It took away something from me that I really was super passionate about and at the time, what’s the only way to get that back? Standing on the bench coaching.”
Gone were the ideas of Wall Street and life in economics. He went on to finish at St. Lawrence with an undergraduate degree in economics and a master’s degree in educational administration. He wanted a life in education and coaching.
That life began at Holderness in 2004 and helped him earn the Holderness head coaching job in 2010. After five seasons, he moved on to Portsmouth Abbey. He took over in 2016.
The next chapter of his new lease on life will take place at St. George’s, where he recently moved into being the senior associate director of admission, as well as the head boys hockey coach.
“I’m beyond excited for this opportunity,” Skelley said.
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It’s not an opportunity Skelley went looking for. With Jeff Dwyer (New Canaan, Conn.) leaving, the St. George’s coaching job got a lot of applicants, including many from the college ranks. Still, St. George’s recruited him. It helped that Skelley had great relationships with people already at the school like director of admission and former boys hockey coach Ryan Mulhern.
But what motivated Skelley to become a fixture in prep school hockey is a large reason why he will help St. George’s compete in a crowded marketplace.
As hockey academies pop up all over the region and junior leagues score players at younger ages, prep schools have had to adapt to earn talent. St. George’s, which is situated with a magnificent view of the Atlantic Ocean in Middletown, R.I., doesn’t have to do much to get parents’ eyes to widen and kids’ jaws to drop.
Skelley provides the embodiment of the importance of education when a hockey career doesn’t work out.
“I’m a big believer in the prep school model,” Skelley said. “Especially with what happened to me in my career. Just being able to have the education to fall back on.”
That wasn’t something that started when Skelley’s career was cut short either. Rather than head off to juniors before making his way to St. Lawrence, Skelley opted for a postgraduate year at Phillips Exeter in 1999.
“Education was always at the forefront for my family and me,” Skelley said. “I’ve been doing this long enough where I understand the pull of juniors and of the hockey academies. I understand the appeal. I don’t think it’s the right direction for kids, but I do understand the appeal for a 14-15-year-old kid who has aspirations of playing Division 1 hockey and professional hockey.”
Skelley is stepping into a much better situation than the one he stepped into in 2015 with Portsmouth Abbey. The goal at St. George’s won’t be building the program up, but elevating top talent that’s already there.
Much of this past season’s roster will be intact next winter. Forwards Colin Walsh (East Greenwich, R.I.) and Tate Pecknold (Fairfield, Conn.), both ‘05s, and Danny Buckley (Warwick, R.I.), an ‘06, ranked second, third and fourth on the Dragons this past winter in scoring. All three are set on returning.
Everett Baldwin (East Providence, R.I.) highlights the defensive crew. The ‘07 raised his stock at the New England District Select 16 Festival earlier this month, standing out with his skating and making the team.
Skelley has already had his hand in recruiting. He met with Ryan Staples (Middletown, R.I.), an ‘06 center from Loomis Chaffee who just made the New England District Select 17 team, at a Dunkin' to explain his vision. Staples, along with forward Aiden Ferreira and defenders Nathan Walsh (Mendon, Mass.) and Marco Senerchia (Greenville, R.I.), will be welcome additions to the 2023-24 squad.
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“We’re going to amp up the schedule,” Skelley said. “I think the schedule is strong already but there are some schools there that I’m targeting that I’d love to be able to play. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. I don’t want any cupcakes on the schedule — I want to really challenge these kids.”
What’s sure to help against that tougher schedule is the tandem Skelley will get to turn to in net. Both Ryder Shea (Framingham, Mass.), a standout ‘06 who’s committed to the University of Maine, and Matthew DellaRusso (Darien, Conn.), an ‘04, will be back. While DellaRusso posted a solid 2022-23 campaign, Shea struggled.
Shea was one of the first players to reach out to Skelley to discuss his intentions for next season and beyond.
“He was really passionate about expressing his wants and desires to leave St. George’s hockey in a better place than he found it,” Skelley said. “He talked about hanging a banner and all these different things. But he really believes strongly in the team and obviously in himself, as do I.”
Skelley is also fortunate to walk into a situation with a roster that features some powerful parents. Buckley’s father, Jerry, founded and is president of Buckley Sports Management. The son of Peter Donatelli, the vice president of Global Hockey Consultants, Max (Barrington, R.I.), was a standout freshman ‘07 on this year’s St. George’s team.
“They’ve had wonderful experiences at St. George’s,” Skelley said. “They’re able to relay that to families and help continue the funnel to us.”
As Skelley enters his new job, a lot of the core pillars that motivated him at Portsmouth Abbey and Holderness will continue.
The big one is gratitude, which is something Skelley learned from Travis Roy (Yarmouth, Maine).
“He spoke a lot about gratitude,” Skelley said of Roy, the late Boston University icon. “I try to convey that to the kids like ‘hey guys, we may have lost a hockey game but let’s be thankful that we were able to lace them up today because there’s a lot of kids that would love to be in this position.’
“Keep that in the back of your mind. Keep things in perspective. Keep life in perspective.”
