Hockey in summer | 1983

BY GARY BLOCKUS
Call Sports Writer

The boys of winter have had it. That’s right, those daring young men who commandeer a puck down frozen ice the way Walter Payton swivels his hips to baffle would-be tacklers are sick of seeing swimmers trying to grab the glory in the winter. C’mon, swimming in the winter. Well, hockey is fighting back, and the second annual Keystone State Athletic Games scheduled to be played this weekend are responsible. Hockey will be played, and Region II, Northeastern Pennsylvania, will be represented by several area youth.
Slated for action for the 16-and-under Midget team are Linc Treadwell, his brother Jeff, Tom Domin and Doug Paxson.
Scheduled to play for the Region II Junior team are standouts Grant Doescher and Darrin DeEsch, both of Emmaus. Doescher has already had some top-notch experience, taking part in a Canadian Junior B league last winter.
Hockey in the summer is not as strange is it sounds. Linc Treadwell, who moved to Bethlehem from Massachusetts several years ago, will attest to that. Line was in Maine this summer for a hockey camp. The 16-year old also has other sports interests, like repeating as the starting quarterback for the Saucon Valley football team in this, his senior year.
Hockey has been a very big part of his life already. “I’ve been playing since I was 4 or 5,” he said. “I’m hoping there will be some scouts around. I’d like to go to college for hockey and football too.”
Linc is very excited about beginning play at Penn State University tomorrow morning. “We’re going to go out and try to win,” the center said.
The 6-foot, 175-pounder has been playing in the Lehigh Valley Comets organization, as have all the local members of the Region II hockey teams. He’s also done quite well according to the scoring results turned

in by the Comets each winter.
“He’s very good,” noted Dave Cole, who is coaching the Region II Midgets. “I expect good things out of him. But I expect good things out of all our local boys.”
Linc’s 15-year-old brother Jeff has also done quite well, as have Domin and Paxson.
Domin’s family moved to the Wescosville area about 10 years ago from Hazleton. “Tom used to play baseball,” his mother, Theresa, related. “He had allergies. When he would play baseball, he would come home with his eyes all red and swollen. With hockey, he’s had no problem.”
Tom is a defenseman and has been playing the game since he was 6. “These kids are all so interested in hockey,” Mrs. Domin added. “They go to summer camps. They fit the summer hockey in around summer jobs and vacations, which is a very demanding schedule. They should all get charter Canadian citizenship.”
Tom will be a junior at Emmaus in the fall. “I’m not worried about scouts,” he said. “I like to take every game seriously.” He is also excited by the prospect of representing the area. Plus, visiting Penn State has an added incentive for this young man. “I’d like to continue hockey in college, maybe Penn State,” he said.
Paxson, a wing, will be a junior at Southern Lehigh.
The boys of winter are retaliating with some talented weapons this summer, much as their swimming counterparts do by breaking records in the winter. While neither sport has actually declared war on the other, it’s very impressive to see that an athlete can perform his given function even in what seems to be the wrong season.
Swimming and hockey… they may be considered minor sports to some, but they mean more than baseball or basketball to those who participate. After all, when was the last time Pete Rose freestyled it to first, or Moses Malone skated past three defenders and fired a slapshot?