February 28, 1980
“Everything moved a little slower,” is how Chris Cifone remembers it.
There he was, one of the top ice hockey goalies in the area, starting the 1979-80 season for the Haverford High jayvee. What if word got around? What would the college scouts think? Chris Cifone didn’t really care. If he had to play a few games of jayvee hockey, it wasn’t because he was in the doghouse. It’s just that, well… he was there. Forget the regular jayvee goalie. A slapshot had ricocheted off his face in a preseason game. Forget the No. 2 jayvee goalie. He’d come down with a disease featuring bones that grew too fast for his body. So for three weeks, Cifone worked both the varsity and jay- vee games. And if he gave less of himself to his jayvee chores, it didn’t show.
“I wasn’t bored or anything,” said the self-assured junior, who boasts a 1.52 goals-against average. “I never have trouble psyching myself up. I treated them just like any other game. I wanted to win.” Take this inner fire, turn it up to playoff temperature, and look out. Cifone posted back-to-back shutouts against Monsignor Bonner last week, sending Haverford into the Intercounty League semi-finals and winning The Inquirer’s Suburban Athlete of the Week award.
“Everybody thinks you have to be crazy to be a goalie,” said Cifone. “You don’t have to crazy, just a little unusual. I guess I’m a little unusual.”
The original
