It’s been nearly 20 years since Brian Day took over the head coaching job at Noble and Greenough School, the Dedham, Mass., prep program commonly referred to as Nobles. Safe to say, quite a bit has taken place in the two decades since he arrived.
Since Day was hired in 2001, Nobles has won five regular-season championships in the Independent School League’s Keller Division, made near-annual showings in the New England playoffs, failing to qualify only twice in the past 11 years, and had several players go on to excel at the Division 1 level and beyond.
According to Day, the Bulldogs’ success on the ice has a lot to do with what takes place off of it. Just as it is for him as an economics teacher in the classroom, it comes down to teaching more than just the X’s and O’s.
“The biggest thing for us is that it's not just about hockey,” said Day, who played at Hamilton College in the early 1980s. “This is about using hockey to teach life lessons. Obviously, we want to have a lot of fun, we want to have a lot of success and we want these kids to develop as players, but it's about more than just hockey.”
On the ice, Nobles relies on a defensively sound game plan to create space and allow its forwards to unleash as much offensive creativity as possible, Day said.
“We want to play with the puck, we want all five of our guys involved in the play,” he said. “We want our D-men pushing the puck up the ice and jumping up into the play and being a secondary or tertiary option as the puck enters the zone. We want to use a lot of misdirection, but at the same time we also want to instill a sense of competitiveness — that you've got to win pucks to be creative like we want to be.”
It’s all a part of the process he’s relied on for years as a head coach, showing his kids the way, then letting them take that knowledge to figure it out on their own.
“There's nothing more enjoyable than seeing the kids work hard,” he said. “Maybe it’s a little thing that we've worked on in practice, something that turns into a big play at a big moment, in terms of being creative. We just want to kind of have a system of interchangeable parts where you don't really have this responsibility, other than your responsibility is you are out there to support your teammates.”
Some of Nobles’ most notable hockey alumni include current NHLers Kevin Hayes (Philadelphia Flyers, Boston College), Miles Wood (New Jersey Devils, BC) and Colin White (Ottawa Senators, BC), as well as several former and current Division 1 players, such as Luke Stevens (AHL, Scranton Penguins, Yale), Ryan Stevens (Yale) and Patrick Moynihan (Providence College, New Jersey 2019 sixth-round draft pick).
A look back, 2019-20: Building a brotherhood
The 2019-20 season was one defined by resiliency for the Bulldogs. So much so, that on two separate occasions they erased two-goal deficits with the extra skater.
In the end, though, after amassing an 18-5-3 record during the regular season, with three of those five losses coming against a trio of eventual Elite 8 contenders, that team-wide resiliency wasn’t enough to finish the job, as Nobles fell to Avon Old Farms as the No. 7 seed in the quarterfinal stage of the Stuart/Corkery tournament.
“It was heartbreaking,” senior defenseman James O’Connor said. “The atmosphere at Avon was like nothing I've ever experienced in my life. Elite 8 hockey is just so much different than any other hockey. We came out hard, so we were feeling really good about ourselves, and then they got a couple of good breaks. It was just really tough being down three at the end, and then going into the locker room, having a two-hour bus ride home, knowing you’ll never play another game with those kids.”
Although their quest for a title ultimately fell short, it was a team unlike any other, Day said, one that shared a bond that extended far beyond the 200-foot ice surface.
“Just a terrific group,” Day said. “By the end of the season, I don't think the kids could have given us any more or given any more to their teammates than they did. I don't think we've ever, or I've ever, had that experience in all my time coaching.”
The brotherhood that carried the Bulldogs to their sixth Elite 8 appearance of the decade was brought on by a large cast of seniors, including team captains Casey Severo (Harvard commit) and Pierce Kenney, as well as Jack Cronin (Princeton commit) and Colby Bailey, who took on leadership roles.
“It was crazy,” O’Connor said. “So many good leaders. Up and down the lineup we just had a bunch of seniors who had so much experience and a lot of tips they could give everyone else. Those 10 guys were so good — a lot of kids who I don't think got enough recognition in this league — but they all played such a big part.”
For O’Connor, one of four seniors who will be leading the group at Nobles this season, the annual overflow of leaders is a credit to Day’s approach as a coach.
“I don't think any other school compares to Nobles,” O’Connor said. “I came here in middle school and I wasn't a recruit or anything. Nobody really thought I was going to make the team, but Coach Day gave me a chance and it's really paid off. It's not like other schools where you have 30 kids coming in every year and you have to compete for spots. It’s like, if you're playing well, you’ll play. And I think that’s why we have one of the closest teams. Every year, it feels like our last game of the season is the worst day of the year. It's always so sad, everyone's so close.”
A look ahead, 2020-21: Rolling into a new year
This fall, like every fall, the Bulldogs are faced with the annual challenge of maneuvering substantial turnover as they get set for the 2020-21 campaign. With only four seniors returning, however, it’s a tad more pressing than usual.
“We've obviously got some real good guys returning, but we've turned over a fair amount,” Day said, “and how do we continue to build upon that? It's going to take effort, and it doesn't happen overnight. So, that’s what I’m looking forward to this year, how the guys who are stepping up, how do they pass that on to the new guys who will be sitting in our locker room, and how quickly can we get there, because the quicker we can get there, the better chances that we'll have to be successful.”
Although there’s only four of them, it all starts with the seniors in the fall.
Up front, returning veterans David Jacobs and Chris Pickreign will be the ones tasked with the heavy lifting off the bat. On the back end, O’Connor and Zach Popiel will be the players looked at to hold down the defensive side of things.
As for the juniors, of which there are 11, Day noted the importance of guys such as Aiden Lyons, Drew Haxton, Will Friedman and Roman Tacelli as players who will look to aid this year’s seniors as they attempt to fill the shoes of their predecessors.
“These are guys who have been around for a couple of years. They understand the culture,” Day said. “They're going to be asked to help the older guys teach the new guys what it is to be in this program, so that we can be as successful as we can be."
In net, junior goaltender Ben Clarke has a chance to solidify the starting role after making only three appearances last year behind go-to netminder Marc Smith.
“It happens every year,” Day said. “Guys graduate and new guys come in and it’s like, ‘OK, a lot of ice time available, you’ve been working hard all year, pick up the spots, make your impact felt like other guys have. This is your time now.’ That's just the nature of what we do. It’s turnover, new guys having new opportunities, and I'm excited to see these guys can step in and assume those responsibilities.”
After falling in the first round of the Elite 8 and losing so many of the players that got it there in the first place, Nobles is eager to get back under new leadership.
O’Connor, entering his final prep go-around, is equally eager to lead that charge.
“When I was in eighth grade the team didn't have a great year,” O’Connor said. “Ninth grade we were the last seed in the Large School, 10th grade we were the three seed in the Large School and this past year we were in the Elite 8, so every year we've been building up. This year, I feel like everyone is coming back even hungrier to get past the first round, because once we got there everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is where we belong, this is where we should have been the whole time.’ ”
Liam Flaherty can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @_LiamFlaherty.
