1971-1972 Hockey Club David Kilgour – Advisor, Sue Duffy – Equipment Manager Team: Gary Allegretta, Rob Belin, Bob Byers, Scott Canter, Bill Carroll, Bob Ciccio, Ben Cochran, Tom Evans, Jeff Evans, Mike Faught, Dick French, Jeff Harrington, Gordon Holms, Cliff Hopkins, Julien Jarreau, Dave Keefe, Don Morrison, Peter Mundy, Peter Murphy, Brad Pratt, H. Roran, Scott Wallace, Skip Wallace – Captain, Dave Ziem.
Ice Hockey was a club sport in its first year at Wilton High School. In the spring of 1971, Marce Lavin, whose son was currently playing lacrosse on the JV team, coached by David Kilgour (Science teacher at Wilton High School,) told Coach Kilgour that he and his good friend, George Wallace, were interested in starting Ice Hockey at Wilton High School. George Wallace had played hockey at Yale University and both of his sons liked to play. Although Mr. Lavin’s sons did not play hockey, he had played as a kid and really loved the sport and was a referee around the state. He had heard that Mr. Kilgour was a very good coach and inquired if he’d be interested in coaching a high school hockey team. Mr. Lavin promised to pay for the equipment, ice time, etc. Coach Kilgour agreed. In the Fall of 1971 a WHC Hockey Club team was formed of boys who had been playing in a summer league at The Harvey School in Katonah, NY, and some of their friends who were interested in hockey and liked to play on the many frozen ponds in and around Wilton. Skip Wallace, who became the team’s Captain, his friends Don Morrison and Julien Jarreau, and Skip’s brother Scott, did most of the recruiting. A lot of the boys had little hockey experience, as there was no youth hockey program in the area - they just loved to play the game. The Wilton team’s home rink was in Ridgefield, a rink built and run by Mr. Ray Bassett – consisting of an open-air rink with boards and a warming hut. They also practiced at Merwin Meadows but there were no boards there so it made practices difficult. Mr. Lavin and Mr. Wallace arranged for ice time, equipment, uniforms, referees, busses, and set up a game schedule. The Wilton club team had games with 4-5 teams in the area that first year, which included teams from Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich and New Canaan. Skip Wallace and many of the founding members of this first team graduated this year, but their passion for the sport, enthusiasm and commitment laid the foundation for Varsity Ice Hockey in Wilton. Marce Lavin and George Wallace would continue to fund and promote Wilton Hockey for the many years to come. David Kilgour would coach Wilton Varsity Ice Hockey for the next 19 years.
