While Tabor Academy only managed to play two scrimmages last season, the Seawolves did their best to turn a negative experience into a positive one.
Because the NEPSAC lifted its out-of-season team activities ban, the Marion, Mass., prep school spent a lot of time in practice before playing a pair of exhibition contests against Nobles and Middlesex to wrap up the pandemic-stricken campaign.
For head coach Gerry Dineen, entering his 22nd season at the ISL Keller program’s helm, it was a nice change of pace considering the nature of the past year.
“The whole season was really different but it was really positive,” said Dineen, a former Middlebury College player who hails from Bourne, Mass. “It was a little refreshing for me as an older coach to be able to really focus on player development. Not that I don’t do that already, this time there just weren’t any concerns about what line am I on, or why am I not on the first power-play unit or why didn’t I play the last minute of the game? There was none of that stuff, it was all about getting better.”
With just two scrimmages against outside competition, Tabor had to find other ways to keep the competitive juices flowing. One way they did that was by competing for the Lord RedBlack Cup, the annual intrasquad showdown for program bragging rights.
“We’ve been doing that for 20 years,” Dineen said. “It’s kind of a tradition that we have here and we had that to compete for, which was great. It gave our kids something to look forward to because we didn’t have very many opportunities to play against other schools.”
Now, with the fall season in full swing and the calendar turned to October, it's another month closer to the start of the winter campaign.
Dineen and the Seawolves are looking forward to what is shaping up to be the 'return to normal' season at the prep level in 2021-22.
“I’m super excited for our kids. More than anything, they’re excited to get back to normalcy," the Tabor head coach said. "I was chatting with our captains the other day and they’re so excited about the simple things like going to the St. Paul’s Jamboree, spending a night together in a hotel and having an opportunity to scrimmage and compete — the Avon tournament, our own tournament, competing for an ISL championship, all that good stuff. The kids are excited and I’m excited to help them navigate that again.”
A closer look
Like most prep schools this season, Tabor will feature a large cast of players who have yet to play their first official NEPSAC game.
“We've got a nice group of kids here," Dineen said. "I think we’ll be very competitive and I think we’ll be pretty deep in all positions. It’s just going to be a matter of how quickly these kids can adjust to playing prep school hockey.”
A pair of 2003 birth-year seniors, forward Coleman Jenkins (Mansfield, Mass.) and defenseman Carter Patterson (Burlington, Ontario), both of whom were on the team as sophomores in 2019-20, will serve as captains.
Jenkins, a Holy Cross commit, is a 6-foot-2, 170-pound center. Without a true prep season, he played 26 NCDC games with the Boston Junior Bruins, scoring six goals for 12 points.
Other returning forwards include ’04 Jack Brandt (Columbus, Ohio/River Rats 18-U), '03 Reed Allen (Burlington, Ontario) and '04 Jack DesRuisseaux (Manchester, N.H./GBL Bruins 18-U)
Aside from Jenkins, Brandt is the only other Tabor forward who has played an actual prep hockey game. Like Jenkins, he, too, played in the NCDC last season, skating in seven games with the South Shore Kings, scoring a goal and an assist.
In the back end, Patterson, who plays split season with the East Coast Militia 18-U, will be joined by '04 Tyler Messier (Montreal, Quebec/River Rats 18-U), another member of the Seawolves' group two years ago.
Jason Zaccari (Junior Eagles 16-U) will be another key figure in Tabor’s defensive zone. The Santa Ana, Calif., native is an '05 product of the Anaheim Junior Ducks. In addition to his time at Tabor, Zaccari attended USA Hockey Select 16 Player Development Camp in July and was selected by Cedar Rapids in the third round of the 2021 USHL Futures Draft.
While the key returning pieces are in place, there are still several question marks heading into the winter slate.
“We didn’t play a lot of games last year but there was a lot of growth in terms of skill development and I know our kids worked really hard in the offseason,” Dineen said.
“They’re playing on their various split season teams now, too, but it’s hard to predict. We’ve been in a bubble for a year, so I know how our kids are progressing, but I don’t know how they’re progressing relative to the other kids and how our team will be relative to the rest of the world because I don’t know what the rest of the world looks like right now.”
It’s been a strange 19 months but after a year without prep hockey, Dineen and the Seawolves are ready to embark on the fast-approaching 2021-22 campaign.
“We have a lot of new faces, a lot of talented new guys, so it will probably take us a little bit of time to get into our rhythm but I like the pieces that are here. I think we should be very competitive.”
(Previously in New England Hockey Journal’s prep school preview series: Brunswick, Gunnery, New Hampton, St. Mark's)
Liam Flaherty can be reached at liam.flaherty@hockeyjournal.com and on Twitter @_LiamFlaherty.
