I initially wrote this piece for the Bridgeport Hockey Booster Club’s newsletter. I decided it would be fitting if I posted this on my blog for everyone to see.

Hockey is the sport that I love the most. It’s the fast-paced action, the hitting, the fighting, the scoring, the agility. All of those are reasons why I love this sport and played it for 15 years. But what exactly got me into this game? Did my dad play hockey? No, maybe on the pond in Fairfield sometimes, but not competitively. Was it another family member? Nope. It was from the countless memories made going to hockey games in my backyard in Bridgeport.

I was born in December of 2001, right in the middle of the Sound Tigers’ first season in the American Hockey League. My parents had been to a handful of games by that point, and it was a matter of time before they would take me to my first. The story goes that I went to my first game in late Jan. of 2002. And my parents would bring me to about a dozen games that season. I obviously don’t remember any of it; all I remember are pictures that my dad took with guys like Trent Hunter, Rick DiPietro, Jason Podollan, Juraj Kolnik, and my first favorite player, Eric Godard. More on him later. As well as a mini article, my dad wrote for the team website.

The first year would be the team’s best, a run to the Calder Cup finals, after the loss in Chicago, is when most of those photos were taken. Year two came, and my dad was approached to help start the Booster Club with the Krupels and the Stieglitz’s. That started the family-like atmosphere that is something I will never forget, building lifelong bonds that will last to the day that we die between our family and many people in the Booster Club. The Sound Tigers didn’t see the same success that year, losing to Binghamton (while the story goes that our club got escorted out of the arena in Bingo) 

Year 3 is when I started getting my first memories, right after my brother Jakob was born. I remember being amazed by seeing the roof of the Norfolk Scope during a trip there. And started the relationships with players and their families, guys like Alan Letang, Wade Dubielewicz to name a few. The trips were great too, going to Wilkes-Barre, Philly, Providence, Manchester with the club, and even in year two, my parents and I went out to Texas to see the Sound Tigers play Houston and San Antonio.

As the years came along, after the Islanders bought the team, I became more ingrained with the team and players. Eric Godard was my first favorite player, I think, because as a kid, I loved the fighting, but also he was the coolest guy. Eric was the first “favorite player” I mentioned on my hockey card when I started playing hockey in 2008. The same hockey season he became the first ever Sound Tiger to win the Stanley Cup and get his name on the cup, with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I will never forget watching him lift the cup on TV from Detroit that night.

As I got older, the more I’d feel comfortable talking to players, I was shy (shockingly for those who know me) with players, but I think sitting at tables with guys like Kip Brennan, Steve Oleksy, Trevor Gillies, Pascal Morency, Matt Carkner, Connor Jones (they seemingly always put the tough guys with us), it was easy to get along with all of those guys.

As I grew older, I started to play hockey, usually my weekend consisted of a game in the morning in Danbury or wherever, then head out to the arena at night and watch the Sound Tigers. I wanted to be those guys, especially those who reached the highest level from Bridgeport at that time, Kyle Okposo, Matt Martin, Trent Hunter, Bruno Gervais, Blake Comeau, all guys that I saw on TV, who years before played right in front of me at the arena. I wanted to be just like them. 

As the years went along, I started to find my true calling, and I really started it at Sound Tiger games. I remember when I was seven, annoying the heck out of Jakob when I would commentate the Sound Tigers games to myself or my dad, or whoever would listen. I found my calling. Then I’d start writing about the team for a publication/Instagram account named Drive4Five, giving unofficial coverage of the team that I thought was top-notch. That started once I got to high school, and there I started to commentate sports at Danbury High, not hockey yet, but it was a start.

At the same time, I was embarking on a High School hockey career, playing Saturday afternoon in Danbury, then heading to Bridgeport for the evening, and then spending my Sunday at the rink with my parents and two brothers, as Xander arrived during the 09-10 season. By my senior year, I was named captain of the team, and some of my influences were former Bridgeport captains Mark Wotton and Jeremy Colliton (who, at the time, was also the Head Coach for the Blackhawks). 

My broadcasting career continued, and by that point, I had to start looking at colleges. I had one school on my mind, and it all intertwined. I wanted to go to Hofstra University on Long Island, specifically to study in the School of Communications, and work at WRHU. WRHU has been the flagship radio home for the Islanders since 2009. That in itself was the biggest selling point. Work in Broadcasting for my favorite team, with my favorite players, most of which I saw start their professional journeys at home. It was the easiest decision of my life. 

The way Islanders works with the Radio Station is that each year, 2-3 students would be selected to be the Lead Producer, running the broadcast, and working directly with Chris King and Greg Picker (whose father, Michael, a few years before was the President of the Sound Tigers), and also Alan Fuehring. I did some behind-the-scenes work for my first couple of years, engineering games, while I also worked with the other teams and such at Hofstra. 

My junior year, I wanted to get my voice heard, so I did, I did the intermission report during a West Coast game against the Sharks. Then, that summer, I applied to be the producer. Something I had dreamed of. I got the gig. During the 2023-24 season, I voiced over 75 features, did about 60 intermission updates, went on-site to work games ten times, seven of which at UBS Arena, two at Madison Square Garden, one in New Jersey. 

Being On-Site was nerve-racking, especially with the pressure of who was running the team at the time. But I got comfortable as time went along. The first time I worked at MSG, Kinger showed me and my partner how to get places. And I hear, “Is this guy causing trouble? He looks like trouble!” I looked over and knew exactly who it was, former Sound Tigers Equipment Manager Leni DiConstanzo, who I had gotten to know briefly at Booster Club Dinners, a great guy, and it was great to reconnect with him at that moment. It was also really cool to reconnect with Kimber Auerbach, who is the head of Communications for the Islanders, who got his start here in Bridgeport. It was also pretty damn cool seeing him on the ice, hugging Brock Nelson at the Olympics as the two of them earned a gold medal for Team USA earlier this year.

That day, after sharing an office with Kenny Albert, I went to grab sound in the dressing room for the first time. Seeing a bunch of guys who, years before, played right in front of me, or hung out with at Booster events, it was surreal. The really amazing part wasn’t until the game in New Jersey. The Isles clinched a playoff spot, so we had to get as much sound as possible. The first guy I went to was Matt Martin. It was crazy, not just as an Isles fan, but as a Sound Tigers fan. I really couldn’t talk, so I went there and held my mic there. A guy, whom I met fifteen years before when he was a teenager, I remember him being so cool when he was here, he even shaved his head for St. Baldrick’s, and he had long hair before that. Next up, I went over to Kyle MacLean. I didn’t see him play much in Bridgeport as I was in college, but I knew the impact he had here, and his story was pretty cool. Then to Brock Nelson, and finally Anders Lee, who if you remember from when he was here, loved it here, and like Casey Cizikas, was someone who got along with everyone in the community. Even up on Press Row throughout the year, I saw guys I watched in Bridgeport. More so guys who had just retired and became scouts, like Matt Lorito, Stephen Gionta, and Connor Jones, who I shared a brief hello to during the night I saw him. 

My love for hockey and media started by going to Sound Tigers games, and I got to cover some of my childhood heroes in college. 

Since College, I’ve now started to call hockey. I am currently the voice of the North American Hockey League’s Danbury Hat Tricks, a job that I absolutely love, and believe it or not, we have a kid on our team who grew up going to games in Bridgeport just like me. It’s funny, just the other night I was talking about the Sound Tigers in Danbury with former Broadcaster Phil Giubileo, and former Sound Tigers captain Ed Campbell, talking about memories and what could be next in Bridgeport.

You mention the broadcasters, I’ve been fortunate to get to know and listen to old Sound Tigers broadcasters like Phil, Paul Ryan, Alan Fuehring, and more recently Jason Shaya and I’ve taken something from each of them. And writing wise, a lot from Mike Fornabaio, which I think it was a cool moment when we shared a media scrum my senior year of high school.

It’s sad to lose something you love; it’s sad knowing that it’s probably never going to be the same again. But as I’ve said before, the countless memories, too long for me to post here, will never be forgotten, the relationships formed, friendships that have turned into family, and much more. I grew up in Section 107, with my family, our extended 107 family, and our extended family throughout the arena, and those who moved away as well. I write this before Sunday [final regular season game], and before the playoffs, hoping our team gets in so we get some extra games. The last couple years have been different; I haven’t been to every game, but this is something I absolutely love, it was something that I bonded with my father over. It was a family affair early on, with my parents, my brother, my grandfather, and his twin brother being some of the arena’s first employees as Ushers, and later on, my littlest brother, and even my grandmother. 

I will miss this team, I will miss seeing some of the faces around the arena, fans or arena staff, I will miss spending time with my family at the arena. Hopefully something comes in to replace this, but we will see. Let’s Go Tigers, forever.