Looking Back at 40+ Years of Fermi Hockey

With the closure of Fermi High School imminent following this school year, a number of school “lasts” are being recognized before its consolidation with Enfield High School.

One such occurrence will be Saturday, Feb. 20, when the final ice hockey Senior Day takes place at 4:30 p.m. at the Enfield Twin Rinks.

The hockey program has been a co-op with Enfield since 2011, adding East Granby and Stafford a year later, but following this season, the Fermi name will officially be retired.

In recognition of more than four decades of Fermi hockey, an alumni game has been scheduled following the Senior Day contest against Hall-Southington.

Three teams of Falcon alumni will skate in a friendly round-robin exhibition, wearing the Fermi jersey one final time. Players range from the inaugural team of 1973-74 to a 2014 graduate.

Original head coach Ed Mantenuto, who now lives in Holliston, Mass., will be behind the bench for one of the alumni teams. Rich Miltz, who coached the 1982-83 team to the Division II state championship, will also be there, as will Bob Polmatier, who helmed the 1989-90 Division II championship squad. They will be joined by the three longest-tenured assistant coaches in program history: Ron Greene, Steve Beaudoin and Rich Zaczynski.

In anticipation of the gathering, we present this overview of some of the highlights from 43 years of Fermi hockey.

Success right from the start

Fermi High School was just two years old when the ice hockey program was created. Athletic Director Carl Angelica hired Mantenuto, a fiery 26-year-old teacher at Kosciuszko Junior High School, as the first coach.

At the time, the Enfield Hockey Association was in its infancy, so many of the players had little to no experience in organized hockey. However, Mantenuto instilled his unique brand of dedication and work ethic in them, leading to a quick cohesion that, despite considerable hardships and setbacks, set the standard for the program.

The Enfield Twin Rinks had not yet been constructed, so home games were held mainly at the Hartford Arena in South Windsor. An early photo shows the team wearing football jerseys during a game, as uniforms had not yet arrived.

The 1974 Fermi yearbook notes, “A “home” rink which was actually miles from home and a painful scarcity of practice dates were prime factors in limiting the success of the team. And yet, if anything, the story of this team is a success story. Despite the poor conditions, the team compiled a fine 11-9 record against some of the state’s finest hockey teams, only to be “rewarded” by another setback. Technicalities in their schedule denied the team a berth in post-season tournament play; a berth which no team could have deserved more.”

Among the first-season highlights was a 13-0 thrashing of Enfield in the first-ever meeting between the crosstown rivals.

“It was the rapport established by youthful coach Ed Mantenuto with the diverse personalities of his team which enabled him to demand and get the best his players had to offer,” the yearbook said. “Falcon hockey contests were typified by vicious checking and all-out hustle; a style of which Rick Trudeau was the epitome.”

In 1974-75, the momentum continued to build, as the team went undefeated in the Central Connecticut Interscholastic League, capturing the first league title for any Fermi sport. In the Division I state tournament, the Falcons defeated both Wethersfield and Watertown to advance to the quarterfinals, where they dropped a 6-5 battle to perennial powerhouse Amity.

Breaking through the “southern hockey” dominance

A watershed year for the program was 1977-78, which saw the Falcons end the regular season with a 16-3-1 record, good for a number two ranking in the Division I tournament. In the states, the team made history by knocking off two dominant downstate programs: a 5-1 win over Amity in the opening round, and a 3-2 victory over Hamden before 1,300 fans at the Glastonbury Arena in the quarterfinals.

Fermi fell behind 2-0 in the first period against Hamden, but a three-goal outburst in a 1:38 span of the second period lifted the Falcons past the Green Dragons, who have won 17 state hockey championships, more than any school in Connecticut history.

“To be an athlete, you have to reach down inside and challenge yourself. The kids did that tonight, and they won the battle,” Mantenuto said following that game. In a recent interview, he said that win was the highlight of his Fermi tenure.

In the semifinals, Fermi fell to eventual state champion Cheshire; following that season, the Falcons flew to Holland to compete in an international tournament.

Shortly thereafter, Mantenuto stepped down as coach; his replacement, Eric Lepp, benefitted from the import of a pair of European exchange students, Rik Rits and Markku Makisalo, who led the Falcons to a second undefeated CCIL title and a 17-3 overall record, good for third in Division I.

“Entering the postseason without our two Finnish students who went home after the regular season, we were a team having to regroup in a hurry,” goaltender Thom Henry said. “Losing to a hand-selected Fairfield Prep team in the first round - sometimes it’s not about the prize, it’s about the journey.”

Lepp departed following that season, and the program entered its first dry spell, with three consecutive losing seasons. Two coaching changes later, Rich Miltz assumed control behind the bench.

The first state championship

In Miltz’s second year, 1982-83, the Falcons were bobbing along at a win-one, lose-one pace, when the team’s only experienced goaltender left the program near the midpoint of the season.

Enter unheralded backup netminder Bill Marino, who had not even played youth hockey growing up in town. Suddenly, Fermi caught fire, winning five of its last six games to end the regular season with a respectable 12-7-1 record, and the number six seed in the Division II tournament.

Three solid forward lines, which averaged 5.5 goals per game during the season, turned it up a notch come tournament time. The Falcons drubbed Trumbull in the opening round, 11-4, then traveled to Stamford and whipped third-seeded Westhill by a 7-2 count to advance to the semifinals.

In the Final Four game at Wesleyan University, Fermi eliminated another higher seed, knocking out No. 2 North Haven, 7-4 to earn the team’s first berth in a state championship game. Their opponent? Top-seeded South Windsor, which had defeated the Falcons twice during the regular season.

The now-defunct New Haven Coliseum was buzzing with 4,331 fans on March 12, 1983 for the first-ever all-northern Connecticut final. Fermi, which had averaged eight goals per game in the first three playoff contests, matched that number, including two each from tri-captains Chris Smith and Scott Kertanis, in an 8-5 upset of the Bobcats.

“Coach Miltz had a lot of conditioning drills that none of us really liked, but in the long run they paid off,” Marino said at a celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of the championship in 2008. “We won a lot of games that year in the third period and overtime because we were better conditioned than other teams.”

On what was arguably the greatest sports day in the history of the town, the magic continued that same afternoon as Enfield capped a perfect season with a thrilling 5-4 double overtime victory over defending champion Notre Dame-West Haven for the Division I title.

It was the first time in state history that two schools from the same town won both the Division I and II tournaments in the same year, and remained unmatched for 30 years until Fairfield Prep and the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe co-op turned the trick in 2013. For a year anyway, Enfield had earned the title “Hockey Capital of Connecticut.”

Down years, then a resurgence

After a first-round exit in the Division I tournament in 1984, the Falcons suffered through some tough years, failing to break the .500 mark for four straight seasons. However, an influx of young talent and the arrival of new head coach Bob Polmatier in 1988 seemed to inject some new energy into the program.

In his debut year at the helm, Polmatier guided Fermi to a 16-4 record, earning the top seed in Division II. In the quarterfinals, the Falcons walloped Amity, 15-7, then defeated Stamford Catholic, 7-5 in the semifinals to earn a trip to the Hartford Civic Center for a championship game matchup with Notre Dame-Fairfield.

The Lancers proved to be too much that day, winning the title by a 7-3 margin, but more was to be heard from Fermi. The Falcons came right back to post a 17-3 mark and garnered the number one seed again in 1989-90, then blew through Cheshire and Norwalk by 6-1 and 7-1 scores, respectively, to make their way back to Hartford.

This time, on March 13, 1990, Fermi’s obstacle was Stamford Catholic, but the determined Falcons were not to be denied again. Despite giving up six goals, Fermi scored seven to take home the school’s second state championship.

“We were blowing them out like 5-0 and we thought it was going to be a cakewalk, but it ended up being hair-raising until the end,” forward Scott White recalled. “We had played them the previous year (in the semifinals) in what was the most memorable game I ever played in. We were losing 4-1 and wound up winning, 7-5.”

Consistency, but no playoff luck

For the next nine seasons, Polmatier led the Falcons to state tournament play, averaging nearly 12 wins per year, but with the exception of an 8-2 win over Milford in 1997, the team dropped its first-round matchup each time. Fermi ran into some tough draws during that span; on three occasions, the Falcons were eliminated by the eventual state champion. Some memorable close calls were a 5-4 loss in four overtimes to Rockville in 1995, and a 6-5 defeat to Joel Barlow in triple overtime three years later.

Former NHL player Rob Flockhart took the reins in 2000, and in his second year, the Falcons equaled the school’s best-ever regular season record at 17-3, giving them the top seed in Division II. They steamrolled over North Branford and Glastonbury in the first two rounds, but fell to Milford, 3-2 in the semifinals.

New man in charge, to stay

Flockhart departed following that season, and assistant coach Frank Genovese stepped into the head coaching role, where he remains today. He is the longest-tenured head coach in Fermi hockey history, nearing the end of his 14th season, and he holds the school record with 159 regular season wins through Feb. 13. The Falcons have made the postseason 11 times in his 13 full campaigns.

The 2004-05 team posted the best regular season record in school history at 19-1, becoming the only Fermi team ever to be seeded No. 1 in Division I. After pasting Immaculate, 9-3 in the opening round, however, the Falcons were upended in the quarterfinals by Notre Dame-West Haven, 5-4.

After three successive first-round eliminations, Fermi put it all together again in 2008-09. A 14-5-1 record gave them the fifth seed in Division I, and they topped Glastonbury for the CCC North title. After beating Conard in the opening round of state play, the Falcons exacted some revenge by finally defeating Notre Dame-West Haven, 6-4 to earn a trip to the Final Four at Yale University.

Alas, a third state title was not in the cards, as the Falcons encountered top-seeded Hamden, led by the state’s top goaltender, Anthony Avitable. Despite taking an early 1-0 lead, Fermi could not match the Green Dragons’ strength and depth, bowing by a 4-2 count.

“Playing at Yale was definitely a huge highlight,” Genovese said. “A bounce here or a bounce there could have changed the result. We had a breakaway that wound up having the puck slide off our guy’s stick. It was a great game, and we definitely had a lot of opportunities.”

Era of the co-op teams

In 2011, Fermi missed the postseason for just the second time in 11 years, partly due to a dwindling number of players – a common happening throughout Connecticut high school hockey. The numbers dropped so dramatically that the program became a co-op with Enfield High School for the 2011-12 season. The following year, East Granby and Stafford were added to create a four-school ensemble.

After three more sub-.500 seasons and first-round eliminations in state tournament competition, the team was switched into the CCC South Division for the 2014-15 campaign. That move seemed to invigorate the program, as the Falcons went 13-7 in the regular season, then toppled eventual Division III state champion E.O. Smith-Tolland, 4-1 in the CCC South tournament final at Trinity College.

While the hockey team will continue following this season, it will be without the Fermi name attached. However, there is no denying the legacy of the many great players and coaches who made the school among the top hockey programs in northern Connecticut for more than 40 years.

For more information about the alumni game festivities, call 860-394-5091 or email jensentim65@gmail.com.