Hill School Skaters benefit PAL Dek Hockey League

Submitted Photos

Pottstown Police officer Zachary Robinson and Samantha Kurtas drop the ceremonial puck at the Hill School boy's ice hockey game versus Albany Academy on Friday, Jan. 25. Kurtas is a two-season veteran of the intramural sport, which holds its games outside West Pottsgrove Elementary School for ages 4 through 18.

The Hill School's Boys Hockey Team once again held a benefit for the Pottstown Police Athletic League Dek Hockey program.

This was the third annual PAL Night hosted by Hill Hockey Helps, a student-athlete-led campaign to financially benefit the dek hockey program in the area, which introduces players to the sport on dry land.

Hill School skater Owen McLaughlin.

"The connection began when Vincent Petrone, a sixth Former (senior) at Hill School and right wing on the ice hockey team, founded his Hill Hockey Helps group in 2016. Since that time, Petrone and his group have offered dek hockey (a form of their sport played on a tennis court-type surface) clinics to local children involved in the PAL program," according to a 2018 article in The Mercury.

This charitable campaign was coordinated entirely by the Hill ice hockey teams, spearheaded in large part by boy's senior Henry Gartner, and with great assistance from head coach Chris Bala.

Signups for the Pottstown Area PAL Spring dek hockey season are currently open online at pottstownpal.org and on teamSnap. 

The Hill went on to win the Jan. 25 game by a score of 6 to 3.