For the fifth consecutive year, Ireton hockey welcomed home its alums at the holidays by hosting an alumni game between the current year’s varsity team and graduated veterans of Ireton’s earlier campaigns. This year’s affair at the Mount Vernon Rec Center featured players from Ireton inaugural season of 1998-1999 as well as members of the recently graduated class of 2009. For the alums, it was among the largest group of skaters to return.
“I haven’t played a competitive hockey game since I left BI” commented Phil Spiess after the game. Spiess, a VCU freshman, was home for the holidays and anxious to see many of his old mates from the current year’s varsity squad. Steve Bulcavage, class of 2000 and Drew Simmons, class of 2002, were anxious to see their “old” friends and each other as well. Bulcavage, a graduate of Towson, where he was a college football punter for the Maryland school, still plays recreational league hockey in the area. Simmons, a 2006 graduate from Iowa State and second year law student, still plays “rec hockey” in San Francisco and lugged his equipment home just for the event. He remembers fondly the Cardinals 2000-01 hockey season, perhaps the highwater mark for the program, where the varsity logged a 27-9-2 season record and fielded a junior varsity team in addition to a full varsity contingent under the mentorship of Brian and Ray Fleury.
A pair of snipers that graduated in 2006, Brandon Houle and Matt St Pierre, both returned home for the contest. Houle, now playing for West Virginia University, and St Pierre, skating for Arizona State’s Sun Devils, both made it a point to meet at the alumni game. Houle, playing in his third alumni game, is playing left wing for the Mountaineers as a junior in Morgantown. St. Pierre, who with his father and brother returned to Alexandria from the west coast, reported that Matt is a first line forward majoring in economics and marketing at ASU and has worked an internship on Capitol Hill with the John Deere Company.
Justin Smith, class of 2005, graduated from the University of Texas, with a degree in accounting and is working at Tyson’s Corner. It was Justin’s second alumni game, while Kevin Schreiber, class of 2008, Alex Perlmutter and Kevin Warnke, 06, joined other familiar faces like recently graduated Craig Simoneau, now at Georgetown, and Tim Faletti for the holiday affair.
Pizza and soft drinks followed the game, as did a group photo. For the current team, it was an exhausting workout with few whistles and wide open up and down the ice action. For the alums, it was short shifts, that got shorter as the game wore on, and a chance to catch up while on the bench and afterwards with old classmates long gone in other directions. While those alums will go home to enjoy the break, the current edition of the Cardinals prepares for the Gonzaga “Purple Puck” Dec 29-31 at the Ft Dupont Ice Rink in SE Washington.
“The team looked good,” commented parent Dr. Pat St Pierre, of the current edition of Cardinal hockey, “definitely a very competitive group compared to the squad that played with Matt back when he was here.” One thing was certain, they all remain Cardinals. The two teams prepared to depart the ice, they left with a group cheer, as they long have:
“IRETON!”
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