Mark Boyle

The North Pittsburgh Wildcats don’t mess around when it comes to hockey. This is the Squirt AA team that is currently ranked 14^thout of nearly 300 A and AA teams. As of December 21^st, the Wildcats have a record of 16-4-2.

The players can attribute a lot of their success to their head coach, Jeff Mitchell, who has been coaching the Wildcats for the past three years.

“This group of kids works extremely hard,” Coach Mitchell says. “We are progressing each week.”

Each week, the team gets together at Blade Runners in Warrendale to practice, which consists of improving certain skills before then moving on to races and stations that keep the players constantly moving. The end of practice is more strategic, dealing with the actual game.

“It’s high energy, high tempo,” Coach Mitchell says.

All of this competitiveness is important to the coach, but what he really likes is seeing his kids work harder and get better.

“The most rewarding thing is seeing them take what they learned in practice and apply it in a game and achieve success,” Coach Mitchell says. “We work hard to get the kids better.”

The players themselves enjoy the games, and they also have a lot of fun spending time with each other.

Matthew Hajdukiewicz, Jack Carnovale, Danny Mitchell and Noah Yerdon all agree that the best part about playing with the Wildcats is the teammates and coaches. These players like traveling to different tournaments and getting to hang out in the hotel.

“We play knee hockey, stay up late, and hang out in each others’ rooms,” Mitchell says.

Hajdukiewicz notes other hotel activities the Wildcats partake in, such as playing tag in the hallways and football out in the parking lot.

Carnovale describes playing mini sticks in the hospitality room.

“We have this big area set up with chairs for lines,” Carnovale says. “We even have refs if kids don’t feel like playing at the moment.”

These athletes have all been playing with the Wildcats for at least a year. Drew “The Demon” Dimond has been with North Allegheny for four years and got his start skating with the RMU Colonials in-house league.

“I love scoring goals, shooting pucks,” Dimond says.

Dimond also plays lacrosse and baseball.

“Lacrosse is similar, but baseball is totally different,” Dimond says. “With baseball, you don’t wear the same gear, and there’s a different feeling of hitting a ball than a puck.”

The other Wildcats also balance hockey with baseball, lacrosse, and soccer. Carnovale says lacrosse is “kind of like hockey in the air.”

Yerdon, who played for the Pittsburgh Aviators, was most interested in hockey “just for the fun of it” and also because he had the opportunity to check people.

Hajdukiewicz got into the sport after watching Sidney Crosby and seeing how much hockey has grown in Pittsburgh over the past few years. Mitchell, the Wildcats goaltender, began skating at 4 and has played for the Wildcats for about six years.

“It’s fun, you get a lot of action,” Mitchell says of goaltending. “After you make a save, don’t think about it. Just keep moving on.”

This baseball player likes the excitement that hockey brings.

“Hockey is a more exciting sport than baseball,” Mitchell says. “It doesn’t take as long.”

Carnovale was most intrigued by the aggressiveness involved with hockey.

“Seeing our team make good passes and shots and the goalie making great saves,” Carnovale says of what is most exciting about the sport.

While players like Hajdukiewicz got interested in hockey by watching players like Crosby, others such as Yerdon, Mitchell, Carnovale and Dimond, looked up to family members who played. In fact, Dimond’s father is a part of the Wildcats staff, and Dimond likes helping him with tournaments.

Several of the players look up to their coaches as role models. While Coach Mitchell teaches the players on a daily basis, there is also something he learns from them.

“Patience,” Coach Mitchell says. “They give me energy to keep up with them and also to simplify things.”

The kids are all different and learn differently, so Coach Mitchell says the best thing to do is be simple and clear.

The players keep this energy up, even with a loss.

“They get over it quicker than coaches and parents do,” Coach Mitchell says. “Some kids may get upset and put their head down, but as soon as they get to the locker room, they start talking about Xbox.”

The Wildcats don’t let a loss get to their heads, and they celebrate a win with music.

“Work hard, play smart, and have fun,” Coach Mitchell says. “I have been using that motto for the past three years, and it has been working pretty well,” he adds with a smile.