Jarrod Hill is a hockey coach. And a damn good one.
Like all good coaches, he plays things close to the vest. Phrases like “stick with the game plan”, “work hard and execute”, “buy into the system”. These are all true beliefs of any successful program.
But that relates to X’s and O’s stuff. Technical, neat, clean, explainable.
What Hill – the son of former Philadelphia Flyer and current organization scout Al Hill – and his Hershey Trojans are doing is not so easily explained. There has to be more beneath the surface. It doesn’t really address the heartbeat of the program.
Why? Simply because they keep doing it. Hershey’s original champs, the 1997 squad and Hill’s peers, are now in their 30s. Hill is behind the bench. The younger portion of the current squad was born around ’97. And yet the results remain the same. Year after year.
Since the Millennium, there have been three seasons Hershey has not won the Bears Cup: 2001 and 2007 (Lower Dauphin) and 2011 (Central York).
That’s it. Hershey has the rest, after winning their fifth in six years and 13th overall Friday night with a 2-0 victory over Dallastown in the CPIHL Tier I championship game at Hersheypark Arena.
Turns out, of course, there is more to such staggeringly consistent success. It’s also about legacy and obligation. It’s about those who have gone before passing down those ideals to those playing now.
The “Hershey Way” is so solidly entrenched now, a generation in, that it appears to the outside eye as impenetrable. As long as it remains so, expect to see future Trojans raising the Bears Cup at center ice.
With another title finally in hand late Friday night, Hill let down the guard a bit for a glimpse from within the bowels of the Old Barn.
“Well, if you would see some of signs hanging in the locker room you’d understand,” Hill said. “I had former players who have contacted me all week and relayed words of encouragement. And that’s what we’re really trying to do here.
“We’re proud of our history and we’re proud of all our players who have come before and we’re trying to win it for everyone who’s come through.”
The legacy extends to behind the bench. Current assistant coach Max Gruin played for Hill, and won Cups, during the latter’s first tour of duty. That type of continuity is a vital ingredient in extended success. It cannot be underestimated.
“I played for the program and Max played for me,” Hill said. “So we know what it’s like, and we kind of lend a hand a little bit about what it’s like to put the Trojan uniform on.”
So too, in a different way, does the rest of the league.
TWITTER: @Jeff_Dewees