James Buffoline is entering his 15th season as the head coach of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity Hockey Team. Coach Buffoline holds a overall record of 142-108-22. His teams have reached the Final 4 Sectional 2 Playoffs in 6 of his 14 seasons and the Section 2 Finals once. Coach Buffoline was awarded the Section 2 "Coach of the Year " in 2015.
Coach Buffoline has been coaching hockey for over 20 years. Buffoline is a Level 5 Certified Coach through USA Hockey. He has also been coaching high school wrap teams through SYHA for the last 10 years.
Coach Buffoline holds a bachelors degree in physical education and a masters degree in health education. He has been a physical education teacher at Ballston Spa High School for the past 20 years.
Along with being the varsity hockey coach, Coach Buffoline has also been coaching soccer at Ballston Spa High School for the past 15 years and coached JV Baseball and Varsity Softball from 2006-2019.
Buffoline and his wife Scarlet live in Ballston Spa. They have two children, their oldest daughter Gabrielle is currently a social worker in Syracuse and their son Geordan is a graduate of Cortland College where he played D3 College hockey for the Red Dragons and is currently pursuing law school.
Dear Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa Hockey Fans,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 2024-2025 Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity High School Hockey Season.
I am very excited about the potential we have this season. This year our team will comprised of 16 returning players and 8 new players. We will be a fast and exciting team to watch. We will be a well-prepared team that pays attention to detail, plays with passion and structure as well as a team that takes pride in always outworking our opponent.
This year we will be led by team captain AJ LeBlanc and assistant captains Colin Pickard, Josh Darcy and Vinny Rossetti. Our team captains have demonstrated leadership skills on and off the ice. They are positive role models and will push their teammates to achieve our team goals that we have set for the season.
Our team has a strong Senior class led by captains AJ LeBlanc, Colin Pickard as well as goaltender Christopher Pooler.
We will be looking to our junior class to contribute to the scoring this season. We are loaded with some very skilled young forwards led by Cameron Olsen, Tim Moynihan, Joey Gabrielle, Tyler Choi, Ronan Kuhn and Vinny Rosetti.
The blue line will be led by our captain AJ LeBlanc. He has some very skilled teammates to help him anchor our defensive core. Senior Collin Pickard, Juniors Josh Darcy and Marcus Sollecito as well as Sophomore Matt Broker will round out our defense.
Our goaltending will be very strong this year. Senior Christopher Pooler and Junior Kash Kinowski will battle for playing time throughout the season.
Our Sophomore class will look to take a step forward this year and contribute to our team. They are led by Andrew Banares, Jeremy Barber, Weston Rakivica as well as Freshman Connor Cook.
We also have 6 skilled young Freshmen this year that will make up our practice team. Can’t wait to see them in a BHBS jersey.
I would like to wish our three seniors (AJ LeBlanc, Colin Pickard, and Christopher Pooler) a very successful season and thank them for being such a valuable part of our program.
I am grateful for the generous support of our hockey parents and all the hard work our booster club does to support our team.
Thank you to our Athletic Directors, Joe Scalise (Burnt Hills HS) and Joe Guardino (Ballston Spa HS).
I am once again joined this year by Assistant Coaches Robert Mergen, Jason Darcy and Kyle Grace.
This is Coach Mergen’s 14th year coaching with me. I have tremendous respect for his insight and dedication to this team.
This is Coach Darcy’s second year with the program, he brings tremendous knowledge and experience to the team.
This will be Coach Grace’s 3rd year as our goalie coach on our staff. His work ethic, knowledge of the game and experience are invaluable.
I am very fortunate to have these gentlemen on my coaching staff.
Please join me in supporting our athletes as they pursue their hockey dreams.
Sincerely,
James Buffoline
Head Coach Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity Hockey
