HockeyTown: Hometown pride is the X factor in Reading, Mass.

Reading fans (Dave Arnold/New England Hockey Journal)

If you look closely, it’s easy to trace the arc of what makes Reading, Mass., a premiere hockey town in New England.

Of course, like any great hotbed of athletics, it’s not just one moment. It’s a gradual build-up over decades, backed by a community willing to support its teams through good times and bad, knowing that a sheet of ice, a pair of skates and a stick can provide so much for players and spectators alike.

For this quaint town, located just north of Boston, the tide really began shifting on the ice in the early 1980s.

Though the sport had been played in Reading for many decades prior, the 1982-83 boys high school team pushed the envelope when it captured the town’s first league title.