The Tradition of the Plastic Necklace

November 5

A tradition on our team in recent years has been to hold a series of competitions in practice, both during the fall season and in spring training sessions, with the winner awarded a plastic necklace that has been passed down within the team for several seasons (although it had to be replaced last year as the original broke).

This year, we’ve done three competitions for the prize. Earlier in the season, we had an intra-squad scrimmage with each captain taking control of one team. The winning coach would gain control of the necklace and captain Kevin Goldberg was victorious as his team ran away with an easy victory. Then, over October break I earned my first winner’s medal when we conducted our annual 6-on-6 tournament. The team is split into random groups and we play eight 10-minute games, with the teams rotating each time. At the end, individual records are tallied and this year I was in first place at 6-2 along with sophomore Jimmy Worboys and freshman Brett Anker. We went into a sudden death penalty shootout which turned into a marathon tie-breaker, with Worboys and I taking over ten kicks each before I finally won the competition. The third challenge (also held over October break) was a golf tournament, with the pairing of Brian Bianchetti and Jason Cetel emerging victorious by one stroke. This was very exciting for my senior house, as I live with Kevin and Jason and we were able to keep control of the necklace for our entire senior season, with each player contributing a victory.

As a team, we are still practicing this week in case we are awarded an ECAC bid, which should be announced next Monday. If selected, we’ll play a first-round game a week from today. This weekend’s conference tournaments will have an impact on our potential seeding in the ECAC tournament, as tournament winners will be awarded automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, making them ineligible for ECACs.