April 7, 2017
ICE HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Jack McKeever
The final game of Jack McKeever’s high school hockey career marked the conclusion of a long and often arduous journey.
For the record, McKeever and the William Tennent Panthers fell to Downingtown East in the Flyers Cup Class 2A finals. McKeever scored five goals and added two assists in four tournament games to finish the season with 25 goals and 25 assists for 50 points in 21 games. Golden Team Ice Hockey – Second Team and Honorable MentionA look at the ice hockey second team and honorable mention selections. McKeever’s efforts earned him the Courier Times Golden Teams Ice Hockey Player of the Year award. Jack McKeever- William Tennent Ice Hockey, Courier Times Golden Team, McKeever’s most significant contributions to his team had relatively little to do with numbers on a score sheet. He and his fellow seniors were responsible for altering the culture of the entire program. “Since freshman year, Tennent didn’t have a good reputation,” McKeever said. “We were normally known as the goon school with no talent; we would just go around hitting people and not really playing the game of hockey. “From freshman year on, (coach Nick D’Aurizio) has been saying my senior class was going to turn the program around, and I think we came through with that.” The transformation wasn’t instantaneous. There were moments over the past four years when the Panthers let their emotions get in the way of their hockey skills, but they pressed on while keeping the end goal in sight. McKeever credits D’Aurizio, along with his teammates, for pointing the program in a different direction. “Nick was a big part of how this program was able to change,” he said, “along with all the seniors, Chris (Kreider), Shawn (Ovington), Blake (Bagdon), and everything that happened … to get us where we are today.” Jack McKeever- Wm Tennent Ice Hockey, Courier Times Golden Team. Tennent’s reconstruction efforts paid off this season. The Panthers dropped two of their first three games, then went some 70 days before tasting defeat again. “About a quarter of the way into the season, everyone really stepped it up,” McKeever said, “from every freshman to every upperclassman.” The Panthers went on to win the Suburban High School Hockey League National Division title and earn the No. 4 seed in the Flyers Cup tournament. They finished the season with a mark of 18-5-1. “We knew from the beginning that we had the talent to do it,” McKeever said, “and we had the skill and we had the heart.” McKeever and the other 10 seniors on the Tennent roster are moving on, but they have left a legacy behind — one that has less to do with win-loss records than playing the game the right way. “We were able to turn it around,” McKeever said. “I feel like this was a year I’ll never forget, for sure.”
All-Area Team (Bucks County)
FIRST TEAM
None available
SECOND TEAM
None available
By Rick Woelfel
The Bucks County Courier Times
