Huntington's Special Olympics Hockey is Golden
The 1980 United States Olympic hockey team will always remember what it accomplished at Lake Placid. Likewise, a group of Huntington School District students will never forget what it did at the Special Olympics Peter Aquilone Memorial Floor Hockey Tournament at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
Despite it being the team's first competitive outing, members brought home a horde of medals. Liam Mrotzek, Charytin Ortiz, John Manaker all won gold medals, Isabel Casey captured a silver medal and Meghan Latini, Nick Smyth and John Cronin earned bronze medals. Eric Vallecillo took fifth place.
As stunning as Huntington's performance was, Huntington very well could have had an even greater haul of medals had the squad been at full strength. Unable to attend were team members Griffin Reddington, Alex Gerdes, Andrew Oh, and Stephanie Quesquen, each of whom are quite skilled in their own right.
The squad is coached by Linda Roth, Chris Hender and Glenn Manaker and supported by several volunteers. "Mr. Manaker was invaluable in helping us get this off the ground," said Mrs. Roth, who is one of the district's special education chairpersons.
The Huntington Booster Club chipped in by purchasing the sticks, pucks, helmets and nets used by the team. "We could not have done it without them," Mrs. Roth said
The Blue Devils have been practicing on Friday nights at Woodhull for the past two months. "The children have been very dedicated to the team and we are looking forward to expanding next fall to include other students," Mrs. Roth said.