Hart named as head coach for combined Waterville-Winslow hockey team

By Larry Grard
Feature Writer

WATERVILLE — In about two months, an athletic event that few in central Maine would have envisioned will take place. The Kennebec RiverHawks, a high school hockey team comprised of players from Waterville and Winslow, will begin their inaugural season on Saturday, Dec. 9, at John Bapst, with a 5:10 p.m. faceoff.
But while the idea of Waterville and Winslow skating together is a first, the man coaching the RiverHawks is from a family steeped in Waterville hockey tradition. Jonny Hart, an assistant Waterville football coach who teaches at Waterville Junior High, comes back home from a coaching hitch in Gardiner to take over this new venture.

Hart, a 2006 Waterville Senior High School graduate who played varsity hockey for four years, said he expects a roster numbering in the high-to-mid 30s – hopefully enough to have a junior varsity squad. He thinks people in both communities will like what they see.

“When you think about bringing that rivalry and combining it, it’s pretty exciting,” Hart said.
The first practice will be held Monday, Nov. 20, and Kennebec plays its first home game on Wednesday, Dec. 13, against Old Town/Orono, at 7:30 p.m.

Though Waterville won the last two state Class B championships, numbers for hockey were way down at both schools. In addition, Winslow lost the availability of its home ice at Sukee Arena.

Kennebec will play its home games at Colby College, the traditional home of Waterville hockey.

The AOS 92 school board named Hart coach of the new hockey team on Sept. 6. Some fans will have to adapt to this new concept.

“Anytime you bring change into something,” he said, “people have to adapt. The towns used to be youth hockey rivals, but now there’s a combined youth hockey team. A lot of these kids know each other. It’s a little bit easier than if you had done this when I was in high school. It’s one team now.”

Many of Hart’s relatives donned the purple and white for Waterville. Brothers Chris and Chad and cousins Jerry, Tony, Josh and Nate are among them, Nate winning the Travis Roy Award as the state’s best player in 2003.

Waterville, one of the “original four” high school hockey teams in the state, had a glorious run in Class A, capturing 20 state crowns, the last one in 2009. Waterville won the first two state titles in 1927 and 1928, and took five consecutive championshops from 1969 to ’73. Spat Roy and Norm Gagne are household names in the annals of Waterville coach history.

In Winslow, hockey was a sport played only across the river until 1977, when the Class B league formed. The Black Raiders, under legendary football coach Harold “Tank” Violette, quickly made their presence known. They won three straight titles from 1978 to ’81, another three in a row from ’97 to ’98, and the final of their 11 championships in 2008.