The End of an Era: WMRP Hockey's Last Co-Op Season

By: Taylor Mcgeachy, Jess Driscoll, and Mary Leconche 

This year, the WMRP hockey team received tough news, the team is splitting into pieces. This team is a co-op between the towns of Wethersfield, Middletown, Rocky Hill and Plainville. This year, our “one for all” team is being torn apart. Curious about how this will affect the player,s we asked them what they will be lacking from the co-op split. 

Spencer Bartone, who has been involved with the team for years says, “Our team won't only be losing great hockey players, but we will be losing a part of our family. It's like losing my brothers that I've played with since I joined the team. I wake up seeing these guys first thing in the morning and it's gonna be tough to not have them on the ice or in the locker room any more.”

For much of the team, it isn't only about losing players from three other towns, but losing a chunk of their family and strong players for 3-4 years. Many sports teams have the same teammates throughout their high school years and they get into a routine of playing together. Will the last year of the WMPR team playing together push them to win the championship?

Many of the teams players agree that the future split will have a positive impact and make them eager to work together to win the title of their last ever championship together. Trevor Piecewicz, captain of the team, says, “We are still one team, one family. We only have one thing on mind this year and that’s winning a state championship. When it comes to the team splitting up, we’ll think about that when the time comes.” 

Both junior Spencer Bartone and caption Trevor Piecewicz have their focus on getting to Yale and winning the state championship. With their last yearwith the three other towns, the drive to win is more intense than ever. We got the chance to interview our Athletics Director Micheal Maltese asking how it came about to end the co-op program.

“The CIAC, the governing board of high school athletics in CT, has strict regulations in place for co-op teams in all sports.  There are cut-off numbers set that determines whether or not a co-op can continue. Our roster is expected to grow this year (in which the CIAC gave us a 1-year co-op extension) which we anticipate will put us over the threshold as we look into the future.  The BOE, along with central office administration and WHS administration, felt that announcing the end to our co-op at this point in time will give our three partner schools over 14 months to look for another co-op situation.”

Asking how he personally felt he responded by saying “I represent WHS, which is a CIAC member school.  As we must comply with their regulations and by-laws I understand that they have rules in place which govern co-op teams.”

With nothing much anyone can do with the co-op, the WMRP will be something that not only Wethersfield with remember, but all the competing teams will remember as well when they hopefully see them at Yale this postseason.

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