2020 Robins Nest Charity Exhibition hockey teams each comprised of players from Portsmouth and RMR.  See the end of this article for a roster of each squad.

 

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The Patriots met with their greatest rival, RMR, on the ice at the Abbey on Sunday afternoon.  This time, though, the  game wasn’t the intense grudge match for position in the league standings and, perhaps even more importantly, bragging rights on Aquidneck Island.  No, this time the teams joined together to celebrate hockey and skate to benefit a local organization, The Robin’s Nest affiliate of the Rhode Island Social Skills Academy (RISSA).

 

RISSA is a charitable program that was created just over a year ago to aid young adults with disabilities who have aged out of the public school systems, to transition to jobs and new living arrangements.  The organization states it helps the young adults, “gain experience, knowledge, confidence, skills, and awareness so as to be successful in their daily lives within the community.”

 

The Robin’s Nest is the local Aquidneck Island facility of RISSA, and is dedicated to the memory of Robin Pacheco, who passed away shortly before her goal of seeing the establishment of the program become a reality.

 

It was the second year for the benefit event.  It started last season when, after an intense league game between the teams led to excessive rowdiness among the fans, coaches and administrators looked for a way have the teams compete in a scheduled non-league event, while avoiding the crowd control issues.  Portsmouth’s head coach, Bryan Kriner, came up with the idea of having the teams join together in a lower key event to support the new RISSA program.

 

The concept of the event was unique.  The majority of the players on both Portsmouth’s and RMR’s teams learned their hockey skills beginning at a young age with the Newport Whalers Youth Hockey Program.  They all skated together, and competed on the same teams against other squads from around Rhode Island.  The players all know each other well because they were teammates from the time they were Mites and Squirts, right up until they skated in the Midget and Bantam levels which cover players already in high school.  The fact that most of them know each other and have played together for years, is part of what makes the rivalry so intense when they find themselves playing for separate schools.

 

To capitalize on that idea, take the edge off the competition on the ice, and therefore give fans no reason to misbehave, all the while doing some good for the community, it was decided to turn last year’s non-league game into a charity event in which the players from both teams mixed to form two squads comprised of players from each rival squad.  To further emphasize the past, and the fact that the game was not Portsmouth versus RMR, all of the players on the squads wore Newport Whalers home (white) and away (blue) jerseys.

 

The game is played as a standard high school hockey game, complete with league referees.  A couple of exemptions to the regular rules were established to enhance the fun aspects of the game.  No checking is allowed, and the coaches are not limited by the number of players on the bench.  The first is in place to minimize the risk of player injury in an event that has no bearing on the regular season completion, and the second so that all the players on the teams can dress for the game - and everybody gets to play.  Coach Kriner and the head coach of RMR, Johnny Sheil, coach together and switch between the teams’ benches  during intermissions.  The assistant coaches from each squad manage the team the head coaches are not covering.  No statistics are kept for the game although the score is kept on the rink scoreboard during the game. 

 

This year’s game ended in a 7-7 tie between the Blue and White teams.  The score is a testament to the balance achieved in dividing the talent between both teams evenly.

 

But hockey is just the means to the end of raising funds for RISSA and Robin’s Nest.  Last year, on relatively short notice, the teams gathered donations from 23 sponsors to be raffled off during the event.  Between the gate receipts, snack shack sales, and the raffles $3500 dollars was raised to donate to Robin’s Nest.  The success of last year’s event was so encouraging that it was decided to make it an annual effort.

 

This season, with more time to plan, the event was greatly expanded.  The game with the RMR and Portsmouth players remained the same.  To that, the event added mini-games between the periods for current Mite and Squirt players from the Newport Whalers.  Ten years from now those skaters will be the members of Portsmouth’s and RMR’s teams, just as the current team members were ten years ago.

 

A Chuck-a Puck event was added where participants purchased toy pucks and threw them onto the ice during the intermissions.  The two closest pucks to the center ice faceoff dot won nice prizes. 

 

A chance to be Coach for a Period was raffled off where the winner got to take their place on the player bench next to head coaches Sheil and Kriner.

 

And of course, there were many very nice items raffled off.  Forty-seven donations were collected this year, over double what was available for the first event one year ago.

 

The Abbey was packed to capacity with fans, and the overall event was a tremendous success.  The finl total raised from this yeas event, all to directly benefit Robin's Nest and RISSA was $6060.

 

Credit for organizing this year’s benefit goes to Portsmouth senior Max Dooley.  Max, one of the alternate captains on the hockey team, took on the responsibility of organizing every aspect of the event as part of his senior capstone project, which is a graduation requirement.  The opportunity to run the event was a good match for Max who has long had a particular interest in helping individuals with special needs.  The issue is close to his heart because he has younger brother who may one day benefit from a program such as the one operated by RISSA.

 

A special thanks goes out to all those who contributed in so many ways to making this special event so successful. A separate article will list the raffle prizes and winners.

 

2020 Robins Nest Charity Exhibition Hockey Game Team Rosters

 

              BLUE TEAM                                                              WHITE TEAM

PLAYER	POS	GRADE	TEAM		PLAYER	POS	GRADE	TEAM
LIAM EDWARD	D	11	RMR		NATE BELLAGAMBA	F	12	RMR
NIK PEDERSEN	F	12	PHS		GUS NIGHTINGALE	D/F	12	PHS
DANNY SULLIVAN	D	12	RMR		NATE BUCHANAN	F	12	RMR
MAX DOOLEY	F	12	PHS		CONNOR LITTLE	F	12	PHS
MAC DUNN	F/D	10	PHS		HUNTER TAVARES	F	11	PHS
KENNY FIRLINGS	F	10	RMR		AIDAN KEY	F	10	RMR
CALEB LEYS	F	11	RMR		JAMES LEBREUX	F	9	PHS
LIAM GRIFFITHS	F/D	12	PHS		ALEX RIPA	F	12	RMR
JOHNNY LOPES	F	9	RMR		LUKE STAPLES	F	12	RMR
AIDAN TONER	F	9	PHS		TREVOR MOY	F	11	RMR
LUCAS NOREAU	F	12	PHS		ANDREW ALVANAS	F	9	PHS
PARKER WEST	F	10	PHS		RYAN PINE	F	10	RMR
PATRICK BENNETT	F	9	RMR		JASON DARMINIO	F	9	PHS
SEAN McGANNON	F	10	PHS		NICK BEHAN	F	10	RMR
KEATON O'SHEA	F	9	RMR		TIM LOPES	F	10	PHS
CHRIS CHAGNON	F	10	PHS		BRADY McCORMACK	D	9	RMR
LUC GUERIN	F	10	RMR		BEN LEIBERMENSCH	F	10	RMR
COLIN STRUCKMAN	F	11	PHS		JACK KANE	D	12	RMR
WILL SEITZ	F	10	RMR		NOAH MENDENHALL	D	12	PHS
STOD RICE	F	9	PHS		BEN DICKENSON	D	11	RMR
BEN McGOWAN	D	11	PHS		NOAH SCALLIN	D	9	PHS
JACK LEYS	D	12	RMR		MATT LOPES	D	12	PHS
WILL HAYES	D	12	PHS		NOAH LEYS	D	9	RMR
KATE STAHL	D	10	RMR		LIAM MARVELLE	D	11	RMR
LOGAN WEST	D	9	PHS		QUINN HATZIS	D	9	PHS
DAN KING	F	10	RMR		SAM STAMOULIS	G	11	PHS
JAY BUTLER	G	10	RMR		PAT STAHL	G	9	RMR
STEVE DUTRA	G	9	PHS		JAMES CAWLEY	G	10	RMR