These are profiles of players and coaches that have graduated from our program:

Kevin Labanc

Kevin Labanc (Rangers 2004-2009) committed to the University of Notre Dame for fall of 2014. And just when he thought things couldnt be better,  he was offered and accepted a place with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The program consists of a U17 and a U18 program, which is combined into one team, which, in addition to its commitment to international and collegiate competition, plays a full-season 60 game schedule in the USHL. Kevin will be competing against the best in the world! Kevin will be heading to Ann Arbor Michigan on September 1^st to join the US NTDP

Zach Aston Reese

Zach Aston Reese will be showing off his talents in the USHL during the upcoming year with Zach starting his 2^nd season with the USHL Lincoln Stars and moving toward his college commitment with NCAA D1 Brown University. 

Lauren Vella

Lauren Vella played with the Rangers through the Bantam level, and will be playing Division 1 hockey at Brown University starting in the fall of 2011. 



Nick Benedetto

After playing for the Bayonne Ranger organization, Nick Benedetto has gone on to play hockey at Wagner College.  In the 2006-2007, the 5’10”, 180 pound played proved that he was every ounce a clutch player, as demonstrated with his six game winning goals.  He was named the Wagner Hockey Rookie of the Year in a dynamic season in which Wagner went 33-3-2 and took the MACHA Championship, and remain ranked as one of the top ten club teams in the country for the 2007-2008 season.

Ross Boehm

Ross Boehm played youth hockey for Roxbury and then played travel hockey for the Bayonne Rangers. Once entering high school Ross played for Roxbury High School. During his senior year Ross was named team captain. Now he is playing for the Rider University team, where he is a sophomore.  Ross’s dad, Harvey Boehm, was the championship coach of Bayonne High School for many years, and is a frequent instructor at the Bayonne Board of Education’s skating programs.

Kevin Capodice:

The vaunted sports programs at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey have benefited from having talent migrate in from Bayonne, and so it was this past season in hockey where BYHA alum Kevin Capodice starred as a defenseman for Prep.  During the campaign he garnered honors such as Star Ledger All North Jersey, First Team; New Jersey Devils State Tournament All Tournament Team; All NJ Prep Senior All-Star.  Kevin now plays at Virginia Tech.

In addition to these honors, he was named a St. Peter’s Prep Scholar Athlete at graduation, and his My Space page says that he also enjoys lacrosse, playing poker and watching movies.

Ryan Drudy

The Hofstra University hockey team’s website opens with the statement “Eliminated in the 1st round of the 2006-2007 MCHC Playoffs the pride look to bounce back next year. With a good core of returners that includeTyler Kevorkian, Ryan Drudy, Matt Saidman and starting goaltender George Lorenz the Pride hope next season will be their season.”  This is a statement that makes the BYHA proud because of those players, Ryan Drudy, is a Ranger alum who actually listed his BYHA team, rather than any high school or other team, on the Hofstra website last year as the team from which he graduated to play at Hofstra.  Last year, Ryan played in 24 games for the Pride, scoring 14 goals and tallying 13 assists, improving on his solid coring of 12 goals and 12 assists in the previous year and his four goals and six assists as a freshman.

Tom D’Alessio

Much of what goes into making a great hockey player and a great hockey organization is effort, and success takes extra effort.  This week’s featured alum knows that full well because after his career with the Bayonne Rangers, Tom D’Alessio made a name for himself by garnering the 2005-2006 Extra Effort Award from the St. Peter’s Prep Hockey team. Tom now plays at Scranton University.

Bryan Elfant

After a career that included playing with the Bayonne Rangers, Bryan Elfant moved on the Applecore Junior team.  In the 2005-2006 season, Bryan had 37 points in 41 games, including 5 game winning goals. 

Tom Fogu

Tom Fogu rose through the ranks as a hockey player and then coach in Bayonne, and ultimately served as the BYHA’s hockey director before professional commitments  as an educator led to his “retirement” from the BYHA.  Tom coached for over a decade, both in Bayonne, around the country and overseas.  He has taught at hockey schools in Canada, Australia, and throughout the United States. Tom’s coaching experience included Western New England College, University of Maine, New Jersey Youth Devils, was partnered with Give ‘em Nothing School for Goaltenders, and owned Great Saves Goaltending.  Tom  was the first “hockey coach” that several of the current Peewees had when they started playing hockey as Turtles.

Daniel Gale

Daniel Gale is a strapping 6’3”, 200 lb forward for C.W. Post College Pioneer’s hockey team, and he got his start with the Bayonne Rangers.  In seventeen games in the 2006-2007 season, Dan netted eleven goals and had seven assists, including four power play goals.The C.W. Post Ice Hockey Club is a division II member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association.  Each season, the ACHA sponsors national championship tournaments in each of its divisions, and past tournament locations have included such diverse sites as Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta.   
 

 Joe Kazimar

A 6’1”, 195 pound defenseman, Joe Kazimar draws on his Bayonne Ranger experience as a second year player at William Paterson College. Last year he played in thirty-two games, and played rugged defense while chipping in two goals and seven assists. This year, after 17 games, he has one goal and three assists.
William Paterson University (WPU) Pioneers  continue to established new school records by maintaining  the #2 ACHA Region position and continuing a 19-1-1 run by beating the #2 ranked team in the northeast CCSU, Montclair State and UConn before the second ranking period ended. The Pioneers had 3 first place votes to 12 first place votes to #1 Florida Gulf Coast

Nick Lawson

Nick Lawson played for the Bayonne Rangers growing up, and it was the start of a special hockey career that has now entered the coaching phase. 

After his Ranger playing days, Nick played for Bayonne High School, where he was a prime part of a New Jersey State Public School Championship in his sophomore year and helped his team return to that game as a junior.  As a senior he was one of the team’s captains.  In college he played at Montclair State University, and helped them win a Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association Championship one year.  Now he is an assistant coach at Bayonne High School.

Justin Lucas

Justin Lucas is a BYHA alum now playing at Scranton University. The 6’1” freshman has seen plenty of playing time already for the Royals, and brings to bear not only his Bayonne Ranger experience but his experience at Hudson Catholic High School as well. So far this season, his top game was a 4-3 win over Delaware in which Justin made an incredible 56 saves in helping his team win a game in which they were outshot 59-22.

Tom McQuillan

Tom McQuillan started out playing hockey as a member of the Bayonne Rangers.  And he went from there to play hockey for Saint Peter’s Prep, from which he graduated in 2002.  And hockey continues for Tom.  He is the Junior Varsity hockey coach at St. Peters, and has helped develop the program there into a winning one.

 Kevin Sadowksi

After a successful career in youth hockey, including time spent with the Bayonne Rangers, Kevin Sadowksi has moved on to the college ranks. As the sophomore centerman for the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas College, Kevin helps his team play through the schedule in the tough Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference, which includes his team (pictured below) as well as Albany, Union, Columbia, NJIT in the Northern Division and Yale, Fordham , Hofstra, Fairfield and others in the Southern Division. 
 

Nick Singer

At 5’7”, 145 pounds, Nick Singer may not be the stereotypical hockey player.  But you don’t measure heart with a yard stick, and Nick surged through his hockey life making believers out of doubters who though that he couldn't measure up.  After a successful career in youth hockey that included playing with the Bayonne Rangers, Nick moved on to play for the Siena College Saints. 

Leo Smith

In the infancy of the BYHA, before there were any banners hanging in the Korpi Ice Rink, there were a small band of players that were maybe better described as pioneers than as Rangers.  One of those hardy lads in those halcyon days known as the 1980s was Leo Smith III.  Leo went on to become a good Ranger player who made the organization proud by leading Bayonne High School to a state public school hockey championship as a high-scoring sophomore.  Though his present heroics are now more real-life-based as an EMT, the BYHA sees more hockey achievements in his future as he has come back to the organization as an assistant coach for the Peewees.

Andrew Suhovic

Another Ranger alum who has made good after playing for the BYHA is Andrew Suhovic.  After his Ranger playing days, he starred at Bayonne High School, where he garnered second team All Public and All North teams recognition at state level as a senior.  After graduating in 2005, he moved on to play for the William Paterson College Pioneers, where his displayed his prowess as a defenseman.  Now he is one of the young hockey officials making a name for himself for the way that he controls the game.

 Joe Kazimar

A 6’1”, 195 pound  defenseman, Joe Kazimar  draws on his Bayonne Ranger experience as a second year player at William Paterson College.  Last year he played in thirty-two games, and played rugged defense while chipping in two goals and seven assists.  This year, after 17 games, he has one goal and three assists. 

William Paterson University (WPU) Pioneers  continue to established new school records by maintaining  the #2 ACHA Region position and continuing a 19-1-1 run by beating the #2 ranked team in the northeast CCSU, Montclair State and UConn before the second ranking period ended. The Pioneers had 3 first place votes to 12 first place votes to #1 Florida Gulf Coast

Matt Gillen

Matt Gillen has returned to New Jersey this year. Not only is a frequently seen presence at the summer power skates and practices of the Bayonne Rangers, but he is also beginning his collegiate career this year at William Paterson University. As noted at the school’s hockey website, “Matt has been playing hockey for 17 years.  He has been involved in travel hockey for 14 years, 5 years with the Bayonne Rangers ...and 3 years of Jr. Hockey with Jr. Wolfpack, Rockets, and the Jr.Bobcats. He played 3 years at Bayonne High where he totaled 180  points as follows:  Freshman 24, Sophomore 63, Junior 93. While playing high school,he was awarded freshman year with honorable mention for State, 2nd team Central red,  Soph. year with 1st team Central red, 3rd team All-Conference, and Jr. year he made All-North Jersey 1st team, All-Conference 1st team , and All-Public (all -state) 1st team, and won a cup championship.” To see Matt’s Jr. Hockey career stats, go to http://www.atlantichockey.org/player_information.php?playerid=102978