At a Glimpse ... Sachem's Hockey History

Sachem hockey has existed since 1973 and in that time there hasn’t been extensive history recorded.

As part of Sachem Patch’s quest to learn and report on interesting elements of the Sachem community from time-to-time, here’s what we learned about Sachem hockey ...

Current club president Neal Greenburg said the program was started by Rich Lowis and coached for the first time in ’73 by Charlie Dewire, a former physical education teacher in the Sachem Central School District.

For a time, the team practiced at Gibbs Pond in the 1970s and it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Arrows garnered major attention.

They won three state titles (1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94) across four trips to the championship and all of those teams, ironically, were coached by Paul Longo, now the head football coach at William Floyd High School.

Notable players from the program

• Al Hoges: Played at the University of Michigan in the Fozen Four and was drafted by the New Jersey Devils
• Brian Defeo: Captained back-to-back state championship teams
• Donny Richardson: Played at the University of Maine in the Frozen Four
• Greg Mischler: Played for San Jose Sharks and at Northeastern University
• Sean O'Neill: Integral part of team's first state title victory in 1990-91
• Joe Gallo: Played three seasons, won back-to-back titles and later became a coach for the program
• Anthony Gallo: Played two seasons, led team in scoring in 1996-97 and had jersey number retired after his death
• Rob Weingartner: Played and coached in the Central Hockey League. His No. 15 is retired by the Wichita Thunder.
• Justin Trawick: His claim to fame is that he is Brittany Spears’ boyfriend and an agent in Los Angeles for the William Morris Agency

Retired numbers

• 9: Todd Keleman
• 13: Anthony Gallo
• 15: Jim Kelly
• 22: Mike Rizzo
• 12: Anthony Fronzoni
• 86: Tom Herzberg