HYANNIS – Years ago when he was about three feet tall and had a baseball cap glued to his head everywhere he went and a baseball mitt glued to his left hand, this now high school hockey senior captain would become an emotional mess if so much as a strike passed by his bat on the Little League field. He was so far beyond his peers in terms of sheer competitiveness, he simply did not know how to control that innate, gifted desire to compete. You’d be remiss to play him in as much as a game of Go-Fish today. In brief, there are few
Donnie Brodd – Barnstable High
Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands
Player of the Year
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
high school student-athletes who not only have the ability to match that rare sort of inherent drive, but also have the uncanny knack to do things that seem miraculous to the rest of us.
Barnstable High’s Donnie Brodd possesses all of those things and then some.
In a season that fell short of now retired head coach Scott Nickerson’s goal to be invited to the Super Eight, Brodd outperformed in virtually every moment he was on the ice this season, finishing with a phenomenal 30 points (18 goals and 12 assists). Was he the leading scorer on the Cape? No. Did almost every one of his goals change the tenor and momentum of every game he played in? Absolutely they did, and without question.
When Barnstable was down? Brodd scored. When Barnstable looked like it was all done? Brodd scored. When it seemed all hope was lost in a season that quite easily without him could have gone another way, did his effort matter considerably? You better believe it did.
None of these things detracts from the “team” effort that surrounded him and of that he was very much a part of. Certainly, his high-scoring teammates Mike McDonough and Matt Kaski, to name two, had every bit as much to do with putting numbers on the scoreboard that Brodd did.
The bottom line is that there was a specific reason why Nickerson selected one captain this season and one assistant captain (McDonough), and Brodd was that reason. Was he the next coming of Wayne Gretzky? No, we don’t mean to paint that picture, but what we do mean to say is that there was no doubt in any coach, opponent, game official, or hockey expert we spoke to about who this year’s All-Cape & Islands Player of the Year was and is: it was Donnie Brodd, #21, Barnstable High Red Raiders.
Capecod.com 2015 All-Cape & Islands Boys’ Hockey Coach of the Year
There are some very knowledgeable, successful, intelligent and rock-solid boys’ ice hockey coaches on Cape Cod. There is no question about that.
Certainly, a handful of names came up that made us think considerably before matching up all the facts with team performances and with career-long results. We also matched up how coaches, very importantly, talked about their players, talked about their teams, how they conveyed their passion for what they do and how that translated down to the young men in their tutelage.
Scott Nickerson – Barnstable High School
2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands
Coach of the Year
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
For every coach we considered for 2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Coach of the Year, there was one naysayer who said “oh, they don’t like playing for him.”
We thought that was most interesting. We debated the question “should players who are winning literally ‘love’ their coach?” Truth be told, men express their love or admiration in sometimes mysterious ways. We believe that it is next to impossible to perform in a team sport without – at a minimum – having deep respect for the leader who is guiding us. No battle was ever one with a coward or a wishy-washy, “buddy” at the helm. Good coaches are not players’ “pals” and certainly, no high school varsity coach should be even though in this day and age it seems all too commonplace. To be a young man’s locker room pal is to do him an extraordinary disservice.
Barnstable’s Scott Nickerson was not the Red Raiders’ “buddy.” He was their mentor. He was their leader. He was their taskmaster. He was, without question, entirely in each and every one of their corners and it was plain to see on the ice each game we witnessed. There are not too many people in the past 57 years of Barnstable High School hockey who bleed a deeper Red Raider Red than he does. No one, we will state, wants to see his “team” win more than he does. No one respects the “ideal” of the 142-year athletic history of Barnstable High more than he does. It’s just a simple fact, not a projection or a quixotic fantasy. It is what it is.
Nickerson confirmed last weekend he is stepping down after devoting 20 years (combined) to Red Raider ice hockey. He conceded he had grown tired and by his own admission, in late middle-age, it might just be a good time to “get a dog.”
No dog who ever wore the vaunted Red & White ever poured more of his pure soul into the young men whose eyes looked to him for affirmation and guidance than Nickerson did during his tenure. Seven league titles in nine seasons was remarkable in and of itself. He is a Red Raider Hall of Famer, but more importantly, in this context, he took a team of underachievers, battled through some pretty serious team issues in the early going, stuck to his guns and never gave up until it was finally over in the south sectionals. He believed, and he believed in his troops.
And if for no other reason than the Barnstable High boys’ ice hockey team went further in the postseason this winter than any other team on Cape Cod, Scott J. Nickerson is this year’s Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Boys’ Ice Hockey Coach of the Year.
First Team, Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands
Goalie, Jack Lacasse, Bourne High School – Junior
Forward, Donnie Brodd, Barnstable High School – Senior
Forward, Matt Kaski, Barnstable High School – Junior
Center, Arlin Moore, Falmouth High School – Senior
Defenseman, Mike McDonough, Barnstable High School – Senior
Defenseman, Tom Tobey, Falmouth High School – Junior
Second Team, Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands
Goalie, Dylan Campbell, Barnstable High School – Senior
Forward, Austin Braley, Bourne High School – Senior
Forward, Aidan Sullivan, Mashpee/Monomoy – Senior
Forward, Colin Fader, Mashpee/Monomoy – Senior
Center, Tom Slovak, Dennis-Yarmouth – Senior
Defenseman, Cam Tobey, Falmouth High School – Sophomore
Defenseman, Jacob Davis, Bourne – Senior
Defenseman, Nick Anketell, St. John Paul II – Senior
Defenseman, Brady Doherty, Sandwich – Junior
Forward, Patrick Coyne, Falmouth – Sophomore
Forward, Mitchell Eldridge, Bourne – Senior
Forward, Dawson Prophett, Bourne – Junior
Forward, Cole Therrien, Cape Cod Academy/Cape Tech – Senior
Forward, Danny Crossen, Cape Cod Academy/Cape Tech – Junior
Forward, Ryan Holdgate, Nantucket – Senior
Forward, Emerson Mahoney, Martha’s Vineyard – Junior
Forward, Brian Bradley, St. John Paul II – Junior
Forward, Tyler Nickerson, Nauset – Junior
The 2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands team was selected based upon feedback and recommendations from coaches, game officials and other nominations. Selections were also based upon news reports and in-person viewing by our staff. Questions or comments should be directed to Capecod.com Sports Editor Sean Walsh via email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm.
Stay tuned for tomorrow at Capecod.com Sports: the 2014-15 Capecod.com All-Cape & Islands Girls’ Ice Hockey team and player and coach of the year.
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