Hall of Fame - 2008 Induction
1957 - 58 Walpole Hockey Squad
New England Champions
Bay State League Champions
Allan, William Manty, Wayne
Bechunas, Peter McBride, William (C)
Eklund, Kenneth Nixon, James
Famiglietti, Ron Ober, Ron
Kelley, Ralph Rooney, John (C)
Kivi, Wayne Tarbell, Joseph
Lestan, Ron Verderber, Ted
Walsh, Thomas
Coaches
Leonard Ceglarski
J. Chauncey Smith
 Picture
Eight members of the 1958 New England champion Walpole High hockey team appeared at the Iorio Arena on Tuesday night, Dec. 23 to receive medals and be honored as this year‚ inductees into the Walpole High Hockey Hall of Fame. From left are Ron Ober (holding the championship game-winning puck that his line put in the net), Bill McBride, Head Coach Len Ceglarski, John Rooney (holding the goalie stick signed by the team after the championship game
50 years ago, Joe Tarbell, Jim Nixon, Ted Verderber and Ron Lestan (Keith Lewis photo).
Walpole hockey veterans recall a minor miracle
50 years ago a small-town team won a New England championship
By Monique Walker Globe Staff / March 23, 2008
On that night in 1958, the kids from Walpole, dressed in their hockey gear, knelt down, bowed their heads, and said a prayer. They were surrounded by a huge crowd packed into the Providence Arena that had just watched this unlikely group of players claim the school's first New England high school hockey championship. Seeing a team say a prayer after a game was something few had seen before that time, according to John Rooney, a co-captain on the squad. But the players felt that it was something that they needed to do. A hush fell over the crowd and a spotlight was pointed on the players. Then the celebration resumed. Maybe the team needed a little divine intervention. They were from a small town, they had lost in the state championship game, and they didn't have one player who could take over a game by himself. And yet somehow they had rallied to defeat Burrillville, R.I., 3-2 in sudden-death overtime for the title.
Walpole became the first and the last Bay State League team to win the New England championship that ran through the 1960s. For perspective, imagine the current Super 8 tournament, but at a multistate level, with state champions and runners-up earning a berth in the New England tournament.
"That was probably the greatest achievement we could have ever done," said Ron Lestan, who skated the right wing that memorable season. "We had no idea we could ever do it. . . . We were good, but we weren't that good. . . . We certainly were the underdogs of the whole tournament. There's no question about that."
Fifty years later, players and coaches still savor their magical moment. Some players graduated and went on to play for some of the area's most respected college programs. Assistant coach Chauncey Smith became a school administrator, serving as a principal and later superintendent in Walpole. The following season coach Len Ceglarski moved on to the college ranks, starting a legendary career in which he retired as the winningest coach in NCAA history, with 673 wins in stints at Clarkson and Boston College.No matter what has happened since, they always remember. They are fathers, grandfathers, retirees, and coaches now.
Ted Verderber, 65, was one of two sophomores on the senior-stacked team. "I feel extremely privileged," Verderber said. "It was a unique opportunity and I was only a sophomore, and I don't think I realized what was transpiring. . . . The whole town bent over backwards to let us know what they thought, and you don't forget things like that."
In 1956, Ceglarski, a member of the 1952 silver-medal winning US Olympic hockey team, had left a position at Norwood High and began coaching at Walpole, his alma mater, where he had skated for the 1943 state champs. Smith, a schoolmate at Walpole and BC, came along as his assistant. During the first season, Rooney recalls Ceglarski handing out detailed plays and schemes unlike anything he and his teammates had ever seen.
"I didn't know what he was talking about," Rooney said. Rooney joked that in previous seasons, as long as Walpole had control of the puck, no plays were necessary.
Ceglarski brought experience and proved he would not be an ordinary coach. He wanted players home by 9 p.m. and wasn't afraid to call to check on them. The team practiced on area ponds, often shoveling snow before practices. They had to learn to handle the puck because there was nothing to stop it if you carelessly smacked the puck across the ice. Every now and then players were treated to indoor ice in Worcester, at Boston Arena, or in Providence.
Walpole wasn't very successful in Ceglarski's first season, but it was a prepared team in 1957-1958. Walpole captured the Bay State League title and won its first three games of the state tournament before losing to Cambridge Latin, 2-1, in the state final. As a state finalist, Walpole earned a bid to the New England tournament. It knocked off Hamden, Conn., 4-1, and Wilbur Cross, Conn., 5-2, to advance to the final on March 22, 1958.
A snowstorm did not stop fans from driving to Providence Arena. People were turned away and the game was delayed 30 minutes as some attempted to watch the game from the rafters, according to Rooney. Smith said he had friends settle in a nearby cemetery to listen to the game on the radio.Newspaper accounts estimate that a crowd of more than 5,874 packed into the arena.
"At the time, it was a very big achievement," said Lestan, now president of Walpole Cooperative Bank. "We were a very small town and we were competing against towns that had two to three times the population."In the final, Rooney scored with 31 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 2-2. Ron Ober scored 2:10 into overtime for the winner.
Ceglarski always appreciated the fine art of stick handling and said his team received the ultimate compliment after the game."People came up to me and said they had never seen kids play so unselfish," he said. "They passed the puck well."
Ron Famiglietti, a forward on the team, said the season was so special that when he sees the movie "Miracle" - which chronicles the 1980 Olympic gold-medal winning US hockey team - it prompts him to remember his senior season.
"We played better than we were," said Famiglietti, who at 67 still plays on a senior league team. "I think about the feelings these guys had that were trying to make the team [in "Miracle"]. That's how we felt all the time because the coaches made you feel like you had to make the team that night to play. A lot of times, you just didn't feel like the skates were even touching the ice you were so excited about the game and what was happening."
Players from that squad went on to skate for Clarkson, Bowdoin, Brown, and West Point, many returning to Walpole to raise families. And many felt Ceglarski was headed for a great coaching career.
"There is no question that Lenny really knew the finer points of the game and how to teach it," said Smith, who, having never played hockey himself, had to learn from his coach. Said Famiglietti: "To me it means that if you have a coach that can play off of each person's strengths you can do just about anything. We had guys that were terrible skaters and he had them playing above their ability. I wasn't a great skater and I played above my ability for sure."
Recently, a few players gathered at Iorio Arena in Walpole for a reunion photo. Ceglarski and Smith joined the group. Ceglarski, now 81, lives in Duxbury with his wife. They have six sons and 16 grandchildren. This weekend, Ceglarski's son Tim, guided Elmira College to the Division 3 national semifinals in Lake Placid, N.Y. His father spends his days keeping up with his family and takes in high school hockey and junior games around the area.Yet, in all that he has accomplished in his career, the 1957-58 team holds a special place with him.
"That year at Walpole was as much fun as I have ever had in the all the years I coached," Ceglarski said.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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