It’s About More Than the Score

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It’s been a difficult season at Malvern Prep if you go strictly by the numbers. The Friars are just 4-9 on the season and 3-5 in the APAC as they prepare to host The Hun School on Monday in the Founders Cup playoffs play-in game (3:30 at Ice Line). At one point, they lost seven consecutive games but they’ve won two of their last three heading into the postseason.

But there is much more to high-school hockey and high-school sports in general than wins and losses. There are life lessons to be learned and relationships to be nurtured.

 Bill Keenan understands that and in fact embraces that mindset. Now completing his sixth season as the Friars’ head coach, he reflects on what he wants the nine seniors on his roster to take away from their high-school hockey experience.

“The thing I want them to take away is that there’s more than just hockey, right?,” he said. “One of my philosophies is Malvern Prep is a great school, they have a great culture. My job is to yes, coach hockey but it’s to create better young people. I hope that they take that away from this game, this experience.

“It’s just a family and the brotherhoods that they make within the game, with their teammates, that’s what really carries them for the rest of their lives. They’ll look back and they’ll remember the guys they were playing with shoulder to shoulder. Guys they were out there practicing with. So, to me, that’s what I want them to take away.”

One lesson Keenan wants his players to learn is how do deal with adversity, on the ice and off; how to deal with the gut punches and occasional low blows that life hands out. He says hockey can be an effective teaching tool in that regard.

“Adversity comes in all facets of your life,” he said, “and with the game of hockey you’re going to have ups, you’re going to have downs, you’re going to have good games you’re going to have bad games.

“You can even break down the shifts, you’re going to have good shifts and bad shifts.

“You just have to be a resilient person and I think we have a resilient team. Yes, we’ve had a rough year. We had a good couple games where we fell short a goal or two but it’s good just to see the team start to rebound, hopefully through the end of the season and the Flyers Cup.”

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Published by Rick Woelfel

Rick has worked in print and broadcast journalism for more than 35 years. He's covered golf in one medium or another for more than 30. He is the co-author of the book So You Want to Play Golf with PGA professional Kim Verrecchio and the host of the Women's Golf Report podcast. Most recently, Rick served as an associate editor for The Mulligan Magazine. He also served as an associate editor for Philadelphia Golf Magazine and New Jersey State Golf from 2004-07. Rick covered his first LPGA Tour event in 1986 and continues to cover women's golf for various media outlets. High on his bucket list is having the opportunity to one day play in an LPGA Tour pro am. Rick is also a longtime correspondent for two suburban Philadelphia daily newspapers, the Intelligencer and the Bucks County Courier Times in Doylestown, PA. Over the course of his career he has coverzed a wide variety of sporting events. He is also a veteran play by play and public address announcer, and handles the PA mic for the nationally ranked Delaware Valley University football program. Rick is also a longtime contributor to Referee, a magazine devoted to sports officiating. He called his first baseball game at age 13 and continues to umpire softball and baseball today.

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