1977 Athlete of the week, Bill McLarnon

When it comes to rustling out pucks in the corner, Bill McLarnon, The Inquirer’s Athlete of the Week, is a journeyman at his trade. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the Suburban Hockey League who can outmuscle him there,” says his coach, Rich Boerner. The muscular, 6-foot, 3-inch, 215-pound right wing for William Tennent is a rock on the ice. Except that he skates well and scores goals. Add to his intimidating size the fact that the senior was the second best scorer at Tennent, and you can see McLarnon knows something more about hockey besides hitting and checking.McLarnon was a one-man show during the Suburban Hockey League playoffs recently, scoring 14 goals and handing out six assists. In the final against Bishop McDevitt, he enjoyed back-to-back four-goal games in leading William Tennent to the Suburban Championship.”He wanted to win that series very much, says Boerner. “He was outstanding. I think the fact that we had been there before and failed played a part.” An interesting part. The Panthers joined the Suburban Hockey League three years ago. They made the playoffs each time only to end the season on a dismal note. McLarnon, who had been playing on the Tennent squad since he was a freshman, wanted

to win one championship before graduating. “I was very happy with it,” says Bill. “It was worth the wait. It meant a lot to me. Especially when you consider I had friends out there. Like Tom McCloskey, who was playing for McDevitt.” William Tennent got off to a bad start this year. By the first week of January, they were in last place in the Suburban Hockey League. McLarnon didn’t play on the squad until that time because he was playing defensive tackle on the football field. walk-on this year,” he admits. “Bill came to us and skating-wise, he was slow,” says Borner. “It took a while. But as soon as he teamed up with Ken Troiano,

the team picked up.” William Tennent did more than that. It won 23 of the next 25 games. McLarnon’s statistics at season end read 13 goals, 17 assists. “We play well on the ice,” says the wing because we needed some power McLarnon of his left-wing buddy Troiano. “We’d have the center feeding us, and we started scoring. That led to some victories. It was a nice change. At the beginning of the season, the team was letting up near the end of the game. The other team would tie us with only a few seconds left in the game. “It taught us a valuable lesson.” Boerner got the added hustle, and the Panthers got a lift. The front lines were clicking. “Last year, I played defense,” says McLarnon. “Then I was switched to and size on offense.” Boerner didn’t regret the switch. “He really has no weakness. And he is one of the few players I’ve seen who still uses a good, hard slapshot.” McLarnon plans to take his slap shot with him to Elmira College’s (N.Y.) NCAA Division II team, coached by Barry Smith, the former hockey mentor at Germantown Academy.
Besides hockey, McLarnon will concentrate on criminology as his major. As for football? “Nah, I’m not interested.”