CANTON — Vinnie DelVecchio knows how difficult it is to secure goaltenders for youth hockey teams.
“Most people don’t want to play goalie, it’s not a glorified position,” said DelVecchio, who as a coach of his daughter’s youth team has to rotate players alphabetically into the net each game.
“You look like a big pillow and people shoot pucks at you 80 miles per hour.”
But the former UMass-Boston goalie never imagined he’d be summoned to convert a high school defenseman into a netminder. That’s exactly what happened when DelVecchio’s brother, Rick DelVecchio, an assistant at Blue Hills Regional High School, asked him to work with junior Dom Scopa, who not only had never played goalie before this season but was cut from the team a few days before he was brought back to play in the net.
Scopa, who was used to having projectiles flying towards his facemask as a baseball catcher on the school’s junior varsity team, was just glad to be back on the team let alone become a functional goalie, which he became in leading Blue Hills to a tournament berth this season. The team (16-3) will play either Bourne or Attleboro Wednesday or Thursday night at Metropolis Rink in Canton.
After spending the entire offseason working out with a personal trainer in hopes of landing a spot on the Blue Hills varsity, Scopa was let go in the final round of cuts before being asked if he was willing to try his hand in net.
“I was upset,” the junior said. “I wanted to make the team a lot but what are you going to do? You don’t make it, you don’t make it. I was going to work harder and try to make it next year and then I had the option to play goalie and I took it.”
Blue Hills head coach Steve Woods only cut Scopa in the first place because the program was forced to cut its JV team after realizing there weren’t enough goalies for the younger team. He couldn’t afford to carry another defender on the varsity team who only has one more year of eligibility.
“To do the program justice, we had to be younger,” Woods said.
With 38 players trying out for one team, Woods was prepared to take 27 or 28 instead of his usual 22-member varsity squad.
“Of that 27 or 28, we figured there would be two or three goalies,” Woods said.
They figured wrong. Freshman transfer student, Pat Eklund, and sophomore Bill Byrd weren’t quite prepared for the starting job, Woods said. The coaches knew Scopa also played catcher so they dispatched their captain, Mike Riley, who was friendly with Scopa off the ice, to ask Scopa to try his hand in net. Scopa said yes, but there was a problem: had had no pads. They quickly borrowed equipment from last year’s goalie even though his is much smaller than Scopa’s 6-2, 240-pound frame.
“The equipment was a little short because of his size, but being a kid who wanted to play he made it work,” Woods said. “He figured at least for right now he’s part of the team. That was his main thing, being part of the team.”
Four days later, Scopa won his first varsity game against Bourne, 6-3, making more than 20 saves.
“At first I was nervous,” said Scopa, who boasts a 2.19 goals against average with 16 wins and two losses for Blue Hills.
“I didn’t want to be terrible. I knew I wasn’t going to be that great. I didn’t want to make it so the team would lose. I had to (start) one time or another so it was better sooner than never.”
Woods and his staff did their best to give Scopa pointers and keep an eye on him during practice, but Scopa didn’t really start to catch his stride until after DelVecchio came aboard. The new coach was immediately impressed by Scopa’s athleticism and size, saying he’s as big as an NHL goalie, but also said Scopa’s footwork needed work.
“One of the biggest aspects of playing goalie is angles and positioning,” DelVecchio said. “You can put anybody in there, but if their angles are off the whole net is open. Positioning and angles are a huge piece of it.
“For me I (tend goal) without thinking, but for someone who hasn’t done it they have to think about it every single time.”
At the same time, DelVecchio said it’s easier to coach Scopa because he’s a blank slate without bad habits.
Scopa said the biggest adjustments for him was skating with all the pads on and adjusting to goalie skates, which have a flatter blade so a goalie can skate with ease from one side of the crease to the other.
Scopa said playing catcher also helped with the transition because his legs are strong from squatting over the plate, he’s used to getting up and down off his knees and he’s handy with his glove. The biggest advantage is that he’s used to having projectiles flying at his face, which is exactly what keeps most youngsters from getting behind the plate or in net in the first place.
“Kids don’t want to see rubber pucks coming at their head,” Scopa said. “I play baseball so I’m used to baseballs coming at me.
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