By Jeff Appelblatt
Freehold Township High School coach Mike Celano is eager for the ice hockey season to begin. With a senior-heavy lineup, he expects big things.
“It should be a good year for us,” the coach said. “With [10] seniors back, I could say it’ll be a very good year.”
One of those seniors, Julian Kislin, has already decided he’ll continue on the ice after high school. One of last year’s leading goal scorers with 21, Kislin committed to Northeastern University.
“Last year, he gave a verbal agreement,” Celano said. “Now he’s officially [an NCAA Division I] commit, and he’s on the draft board.”
Alongside Kislin on the ice will be fellow seniors Alessandro Mancuso, Brandon Arolick, Brendan Liebross, Matt Colvin, Matt Golba, Max Halvorsen, Tyler McNamara and Victor Della Bella.
Last season, Halvorsen matched Kislin’s 21 goals and led the team with 21 assists.
Another important senior the Patriots will have back this year is goaltender Nick Raiola. Last season, he stopped 623 of 724 shots attempts from getting into the net behind him.
Overall last year, Celano’s team finished fourth in the Shore Conference A North Division with its 10-12-1 record, sitting behind Middletown High School North (19-3-1), Howell High School (15-8-1) and Manalapan High School (10-9-3).
But as he prepares for his ninth year coaching at Freehold Township, he’s confident his team will be able to compete with them all.
“We’ll have a lot of depth,” Celano said about the team. “I’m pretty excited.”
The depth the coach mentioned isn’t only the seniors.
“We have a bunch of sophomores,” he said. “And we always get a couple of freshmen.”
In fact, the eight freshmen who saw the ice for Freehold Township last year, who are now sophomores, combined for nine goals and 18 assists. Niko Neron led the way with three goals and seven assists, while Evan McNamara had two and three, respectively.
The ninth upcoming sophomore who will get some time on the ice will be Michael Ottone. Raiola spent the majority of time in the net last year, but he got some rest every now and then. Ottone was the one who got in goal. He prevented nine of the 11 shots fired his away from getting into the net.
Two current freshmen Celano expects to see contribute on the ice this year are Jacob Liebross and Tom Gobitosa.
“They should each get time on the ice,” the coach said. “When a kid comes in as a freshman, we quickly know if he has talent.”
Celano knows about seeing new talent come on board. Before coaching the Patriots the last nine years, he was the coach at Seton Hall University, which was the school he played.
And by the time Freehold Township completes a few scrimmages before the end of November, Celano hopes to see how well the newest members of the team mesh with the rest of the club, en route to good season.
