RinkWise podcast: John Messuri on the evolution of Massachusetts hockey

John Messuri joined the latest RinkWise podcast. (Brian Kelly/NEHJ)

Not many high school coaches boast the resume that John Messuri does.

Messuri (Arlington, Mass.) is entering his ninth season as the head coach at Arlington High, which he has led to two state championships. Before taking over at Arlington, Messuri spent 15 years at Winchester, where he rebuilt the program and won two state titles.

As a player, Messuri played college hockey at Princeton, serving as captain as a junior and senior. He led the team in scoring each of his four seasons and stands as the program’s all-time leading scorer. He went on to a brief pro career with stops in the ECHL and AHL. Messuri led the Johnstown Chiefs (ECHL) in scoring in 1989-90 and 1990-91.

His oldest son, Anthony (Arlington, Mass.) is entering his junior season at Northeastern. His son, JP (Alrington, Mass.) is entering his sophomore season at Arlington.

Messuri joined New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky and writer Patrick Donnelly on the latest RinkWise podcast to discuss the evolution and challenges in the Massachusetts hockey scene.

They also get into youth athlete development, balancing sports with academics, economic barriers, and the significance of fostering a competitive yet supportive environment. Additionally, they get into Messuri’s career as well as personal anecdotes and reflections.

RinkWise podcast: Arlington coach John Messuri

What are the challenges of youth hockey in Massachusetts right now?

Messuri: “In Little League, you don’t want to grow up being a .212 hitter. You want to bat like .600 and be able to run the bases like crazy, right? But I think too many people in Massachusetts and even most of New England, right now, we take all the best players, and we put them on all the best teams when they’re squirts, right? So, it creates a reverse pyramid. It’s supposed to be a pyramid. You got all these kids out here playing, and then it’s supposed to work its way up into college and funnel out. We funnel it out early. So you got all these kids playing on the Kings, Top Gun, Jr. Eagles all those EHF teams, right? The E9 is not even that competitive anymore, right? It’s just the EHF because people say, ‘I got to get my kid in the EHF.’ No, you got to get your kids somewhere where he could score up to four or five goals a game. Then all these kids come into the EHF, and some kids who would be really good in town hockey are just third-line guys on their EHF team, and they’re not having great success. By the time they’re bantams, they funnel out, right? So, you have kids drop out all the time, but there’s nobody to replace them with because town hockey is so beaten up now at the youth level. … It’s like, if you’re not an elite player at PeeWee’s in Massachusetts now, there’s not a lot of avenues for you, and then a lot of those elite players fall out.”

What could the future of Massachusetts hockey look like?

Messuri: “I don’t think the Mass. kids are getting the greatest shakes on these other teams. … If I were Massachusetts, I would start thinking about something along the lines of our own national development team. Starting at 15 or 16 years old, like putting all those best kids together. At 15, we’ve identified our best guys. Maybe, there’s two teams worth. You take them all summer, you do an eight-week, 10-week program with these kids and see if we can get them to just go one more level up, you know, by doing some sort of consolidated, the best 25 together all summer. Two teams, something like that.”