The APAC is Expanding

The Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference will be a five-team alliance for 2021-22. The Hun School from Princeton, N.J. will join Malvern Prep, Holy Ghost Prep, St. Joseph’s Prep, and two-time defending champion La Salle for the upcoming season.

Ian McNally is the Raiders’ hockey coach. “We’re excited to join the league,” he said. “We have competed with each of the APAC school programs for several years now and it will only improve the level of competition in our games when implications on standings, stats, playoff seeds and everything else that comes with league play are introduced. I think we share a common understanding of scholastic athletics with the APAC member schools and so we have strong existing relationships with the other coaches and athletics offices.”

Tracey Arndt is the Co-Director of Athletics at The Hun School. “The Hun School of Princeton is grateful for the opportunity for our Ice Hockey team to join the APAC this season,” she said. “This is a top-notch ice hockey league with likeminded schools that will allow us to compete at a high level throughout the year. We look forward to the competition with such respected programs.”

The Hun School is no stranger to the other conference members, having regularly competed against them in non-league games.

“The APAC was founded with the belief that exceptional schools and scholastic hockey could thrive side by side in a competitive league that values sportsmanship, academic distinction and a quality Spirit,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “The Hun School is a welcomed addition to strengthening our rivalries, traditions and desire for excellence.”

La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner is enthusiastic about the Raiders coming on board. “La Salle is very excited to have Hun School join the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference,” he said. “Hun has had a long history of great competition versus the founding APAC schools. Their commitment to competing at a high level further strengthens the conference.”

St. Joseph’s Prep coach David Giacomin is looking forward to competing against the Raiders. “St Joseph’s Prep is extremely excited to welcome The Hun School into the APAC,” he said. They are a great school and we can’t wait to compete for years to come.”

Bill Keenan is the head coach at Malvern Prep, the reigning Class AAA Flyers Cup and state champions. “We are excited to have The Hun School join the APAC this upcoming season. It is great to have another quality, competitive team join our league. We are looking forward to competing against them this season.”

APAC institutions have been successful at the highest levels of scholastic hockey, competing at national tournaments and capturing every Class AAA Flyers Cup and Class AAA Pennsylvania State Championship since 2017.
Last year’s postseason was not completed. La Salle and Malvern Prep were scheduled to meet in the Founders Cup final but that game was eventually cancelled because of Covid issues. Malvern Prep went on to win the Flyers Cup and the state championship.

Drexel Coach Kyle Zoldy Has Cherished Memories of His Time at La Salle

For Kyle Zoldy, playing hockey at La Salle College High School was a life-changing experience. It’s been nearly 13 years since Zoldy graduated from La Salle. But his experiences at the school determined the direction of his life and certainly influenced his decision to remain involved in hockey.

After leaving La Salle, Zoldy went on to play at Drexel. Today, he’s the head coach of the Dragons’ nationally ranked ACHA Division I program, when he’s not tending to his responsibilities as an executive at Comcast.

For Zoldy, who grew up in Quakertown and had always attended Catholic school, enrolling at La Salle was a case of following in his father’s footsteps.

“I was looking at Lansdale Catholic, or La Salle,” Zoldy recalls. “My dad was an alumni of La Salle which was the primary reason it was on my radar; he had a great experience there. He loved the values and brotherhood it was about.”

Hockey also factored into Zoldy’s decision to enroll at La Salle. I’d been playing competitive hockey my whole life,” he said and La Salle had one of the better programs in the area. I had gotten in touch with (head coach Wally Muehlbronner) and started talking to him. I visited the school, did the official tours, visited practice and just fell in love with everything about the place from the academics through the athletics, and ultimately took a chance going there.

“Coming from a small Catholic School in Quakertown I went in there not knowing a soul and left with a handful of brothers and teammates that I played four years of hockey with and are still great friends to this day.”

Visitors to the La Salle campus may notice two signs, one reading ‘Enter to Learn,’ the other ‘Depart to Serve.’

Zoldy took those admonitions to heart.

“Enter to Learn is the kind of the first thing you see when you’re coming in,” he said, “and whether its learning academically, athletically, or just having the right values of selflessness, sacrifice, and kind of a true brotherhood mentality, looking out for the guy next to you, you’re learning that all throughout the days that you’re on campus.

“Then when you leave every day the last thing you see is that Leave to Serve sign and I think that’s your calling to being to the world all of the teaching and lessons you’ve been fortunate enough to be blessed with at La Salle.

You try to deliver that just in being a good person, being a good father, husband, whatever it might be. For me, I’ve tried to take it on a little bit and continue serving in a hockey capacity, as the coach at Drexel. Wally obviously played a big role in inspiring me to pursue coaching.”

Zoldy says the faculty at La Salle, along with his fellow students, helped him grow and mature as a person.

“There are a lot of people that spend most of your time with,” he said. “Certainly, certain professors have a greater impact than others and then too, some of the upper classmen you spend a lot of time with if you’re playing hockey, lacrosse, or football, whatever it might be. I think it’s who you have the opportunity to spend the most time with that has an impact on you.

“For me, obviously, a lot of it happened within the hockey program. I think Wally instills a mentality in his players right off the bat that the team always comes first. Work ethic will always be prioritized above skill and that was something that always resonated with the seniors, the juniors, all the way down to the freshmen.

“That was instilled in me and it’s something I still take (with me) to this day. Always putting your teammates and others first and again never being outworked in anything, whether its work, life or hockey, take pride in that work ethic.”

Zoldy feels La Salle prepared him well, for college and the world beyond. “La Salle challenges you to excel and prepares you to do well in university and college after high school,” he said, “but I think above all your communications skills get strong at La Salle. Obviously communicating with the professors, they’re great. They want to interact with their students and the same thing with the coaches that you meet.

“So, taking the work ethic, the challenging aspects of the academics at La Salle of always being eager to learn more and challenge yourself, and your communications skills, those are certainly the big things that served me well in my career, even before Comcast.”

To learn more about La Salle College High School Click Here

La Salle’s David Kimmel a Serious Student of Hockey

David Kimmel is counting the days. The La Salle senior is eagerly anticipating next Friday, January 29 when he and his Explorer teammates will open the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference season against Holy Ghost Prep.

Kimmel, who is primarily a center, has been practicing and playing occasional games with his club team. But the Covid-19 pandemic has kept the APAC teams off the ice for much of the last month-and-a-half, save for occasional practices.

“It’s definitely been very different,” Kimmel said. “We haven’t been able to get into school all that often; we’re in a hybrid mode, like every other day, so we’ve relied on technology to communicate and choose to kind of keep our hopes up about when we’re hoping to be able to start the season.

“And when we’re at the rink itself, it’s very different. Having to get dressed all separated, not having that locker room camaraderie that every hockey player enjoys. So, it’s definitely been very different this year. We had to get dressed six feet apart and we weren’t able to bond in the locker room like we have been in previous years.”

While he hasn’t seen a lot of game action this season, Kimmel is taking advantage of the practice time he’s getting with his club team.

“Our practice schedule has been virtually unchanged,” he said, “so I’ve been able to keep my stamina up, working hard to stay in shape for when (La Salle games begin). Just being on the ice at least three times a week has really helped me to keep in the flow of hockey and avoid any minor setbacks that could start at the beginning of the season.”

Kimmel, who is primarily a center, has also watched a lot of hockey, specifically the recent World Junior Championships; he watched virtually every game the United States played and a lot of Team Canada as well. For someone as committed to hockey as Kimmel, the tournament was a learning experience.

“I think it’s amazing that the players are just a couple years older than (high-school players),” he said. “They look like they could complete with the best of NHL players. Watching them is definitely a really big advantage to my game.

Kimmel enjoys studying players who play his position. “I like to kind of focus on one player that would match my position out there on the ice,” he said, “and just notice everything that he does well. Also, having the overhead perspective, I can see some of the things that maybe he could have done better and then try to envision my own self on the ice and think what I would do in that scenario.”

When he’s watching televised hockey, Kimmel views the game differently than a casual fan would because of his on-ice experience. “I would say most people that don’t have a hockey mind would focus on the scoring plays,” he said. “I’m just taking note of key passes that kind of start plays and generate scoring chances, and also defensive positioning and shot blocking, especially in the final seconds of the U.S.-Finland game (in the World Junior semifinals); a couple US players laid out their bodies on the line and that’s nothing I think a normal hockey fan would notice.

“And then also there just so many skillful plays that largely go unnoticed, like (plays) in the corners and ways to get the puck on net. People who haven’t really played hockey wouldn’t understand how difficult it is.”

Seeing some of the plays world-class junior players are capable of making got Kimmel thinking about what he could add to his own game. “You just get a lot of creative ideas from what they’re doing, he said.” So, I definitely like to take note of the special things that I see out there.”