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Sports

Larkin Leads Attleboro Team to the Ice

Peter Larkin, head coach of Attleboro's middle school hockey team, gears up for success.

Wanted: students who can skate, want to have fun and aren't afraid of the cold. Attleboro resident Peter Larkin is recruiting Attleboro students with an interest in hitting the ice to try out for the middle school hockey team.

The Attleboro Middle School Hockey Team is open to any student in grades 6 through 8, but not enough people know it exist, according to Larkin, who is also a member of the Friends of Attleboro High School Hockey. 

Larkin has set an ultimate goal and has a vision for the program. "I am aiming to get enough interest in the program where we can have one team at each grade," he said. "We are trying to create interest in the program and create some buzz, so the kids who want to participate know the program is available to them."

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Hitting the Ice

One of the reasons they are aiming to get more participants on the team is because the City of Attleboro does not have its own youth hockey association and many kids who play hockey in other nearby leagues aren't aware of the middle school program. "We don’t know the younger kids, who are playing hockey," Larkin added. "Which is definitely a disadvantage."

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The program serves a few purposes, with the main one focused on the kids enjoying playing the sport and interacting with each other. But it is also a way to get student-athletes interested in program.

In fact, a total of 13 freshman on the Attleboro High School  hockey team, were on last year's middle school team.

"Four of them played significant ice time on the varsity team," Larkin said. The competitive balance of the league is one of its biggest strengths, according to Larkin. "It is a very competitive league and there is a lot of contact."

Most of the kids who play on the team are playing on at least one other team. For this reason, the team does not practice. They have approximately two to three games each week during the season.

Advancing to the Top

The program is unique in that all 48 teams in the league advance to the playoffs. They break down the playoffs into different brackets. You are given a seed, based on your record. The last place team receives the number 48 seed and the best team gets the number one seed. It is split into 12 brackets of four, and one team emerges a winner from each bracket. The top four teams are in the first bracket, teams five through eight in the next bracket, all the way down to the teams ranked 45 through 48.

Attleboro's team has seen some recent success. "Last year we won our four-team bracket," Larkin said.  "The previous year, the eighth-grade team won their bracket."

Larkin laid out three specific short-term goals. After getting the word out about the program, Larkin wants to reach out to students in grades 3 through 5 so they will get excited about the future, offer more ice time to give the kids and roll out fund raising programs.

Fall Fundraisers 

As a member of the Friends of Attleboro Hockey, Larkin helps organize fundraisers throughout the year. On Saturday, Sept. 10, the Attleboro High School will host its 9th annual golf tournament at the Swansea Country Club. Tee time is at 1 p.m. And participants will pay $110 to play 18 holes. Dinner, a golf cart and a T-shirt from the event are included in the price.

A second fundraiser will be in the form of a trip to Foxwoods Casino. The trip is slated for Saturday, Oct. 15th with a tentative price of $40 per person. Ticket holders will take a bus to the Casino where they will have five to six hours to gamble, eat and shop. The buses will leave Attleboro High School at about 4:30 p.m. and leave the casino at midnight. 

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