Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will join more than 500 youth hockey players for the St. Patrick’s Day-themed tournament.

By Matt Perkins, West Roxbury Patch

The shootout is set to ramp up on the corner of Temple and Sherbrook streets around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 15, with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh on hand for the puck drop. Alongside him will be State Rep. Ed Coppinger (D-Boston) and West Roxbury District Councilor Matt O’Malley.

“We’re really just a couple of dad who started it seven years ago and it’s turned into something bigger,” said Mark Sanders, who co-founded the event with Parkway Youth Hockey President Michael O’Brien. “When we started out, there were 50 kids. Now, there are 550 kids.”

With so many youths taking part, Sanders said that the tournament is now at maximum capacity. He added that he’s keeping a close eye on the weather forecast in hopes that the event will go on as planned. Should a weather-delay occur, it would most likely push the event back to Sunday.

“We’re just hoping mother nature will comply with our demands,” Sanders said.

The event will feature music, Irish step dancing and food, as well as appearances by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department Honor Guard and the Boston Fire Deparmtent, which will raise the American Flag. Mascots from the Boston Bruins and Northeastern University will also be on hand, Sanders said. The event is sponsored by Mt. Washington Bank, The Corrib Pub and Restaurant and a host of local unions, he added.

Winners of the tournament will have their names inscribed in a Beanpot-style trophy that makes the rounds at various venues in West Roxbury. Currently, the trophy can be viewed at Mt. Washington Bank on Centre Street, Sanders said.

By James MacDonald, USA Hockey Magazine

Temple Street in West Roxbury, Mass., is abuzz with activity as street hockey games are taking place for as far as the eye can see during the Shamrock Shootout.
It’s a brisk Saturday morning in mid-March as the Kiss-Me-I’m-Irish holiday celebration starts early as parents, grandparents and neighbors, decked out in their cable knit sweaters and tweed caps, gather along Temple Street in West Roxbury, Mass., not far from downtown Boston.

Green is the color of the day, as youngsters wearing Celtics jerseys and Ireland soccer jerseys mill about the crowd, swatting at green, white and orange balloons that hang from light posts above. Irish flags proudly fly on neighborhood porches.

The Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” blares from speakers in front of Mike O’Brien’s house, which serves as the epicenter of the action.

“Look at this, look at this,” says O’Brien, motioning beyond his front yard. “Look at the smiles on their faces. It’s amazing.”

Spanning the length of nearly 50 houses, street hockey rinks, each with shamrocks painted at center “ice,” buzz with the choir of kids simply playing and having fun. Picture a parade, only without the inconvenience of it going anywhere.

If it weren’t so authentic, this grassroots sliver of Americana – wrapped in green, white and orange – might have been considered too good to be true.

The Shamrock Shootout has once again taken over as the emotional heart of West Roxbury, an already tight-knit section of a city that loves its Irish heritage and its hockey.

What started out with 100 kids just six years ago has swelled to a record number of participants this year, 550 kids, playing on 20 rinks.

The event sign-up, which is held at a nearby pub and restaurant to accommodate the overflow crowds, features lines around the block as 520 spots are filled in 15 minutes.

“There are many things that happen here throughout the year to bring the community together. This one, in particular, is very popular. To Pull it off takes a village.”­
— Alan Weatherbee, hockey dad and coach of the irish rovers

“It’s probably the biggest day in West Roxbury,” says Anne-Marie Russell, who had all four of her children, twin 12-year-olds, a 9-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, playing. “It’s exciting. This is when you find out how many kids live in West Roxbury because you see them all here.”

The kids, from kindergarten to seventh grade, wear their free Shamrock Shootout game T-shirts. They play with free street hockey sticks that were custom cut that morning in a nearby backyard. They eat free pizza at lunch and make up the rosters of more than 30 teams with themed names: The Irish Steppers, The Green Alligators, The Clovers, The Fiddlers, The Limericks. Some of them have green hair.

They play six 25-minute games from morning until afternoon – and maybe a championship game in one of four age divisions, but this was less about the scores than about being the toast of their town.

“It’s a very kid-focused community,” says Alan Weatherbee, who was coaching his young son’s team, The Irish Rovers. “Overall, I think there are many things that happen throughout the year to bring the community together. This one, in particular, is very popular. To pull it off takes a village.”

The Shamrock Shootout is O’Brien’s brainchild, his answer to the question, “How can we get the kids out of the house?” He managed to take it a step further by getting an entire town out of the house.

“This is a total community event,” says O’Brien, who has four kids and grew up as the youngest of nine in the same house on Temple Street. “We have over 100 volunteers. We have a lot of great, great local sponsors. It’s a lot of networking, a lot of hustle. You wear out your shoes, but it’s fun. A lot of people want to get involved. It’s a special community.”

Residents laud O’Brien’s work. And no wonder. By every measure, this is a grassroots success story. It’s a hockey story, too, as many of the participants are part of the more than 700-member Parkway Youth Hockey Association. Many, it should be noted, were not.

“All our kids hang out together, they play together,” says Paul Conneely, a vice president in the Parkway association who was in the midst of coaching The Limericks at the time.

“They’re at the hockey rink together, they’re at the baseball field together. Hockey’s very big in this community. … CHANGE UP, LIMERICKS, CHANGE UP!”

The action starts early in the morning and goes all day as the entire community of West Roxbury, Mass., seems to come out to celebrate its Irish and hockey heritage.

West Roxbury, home to the prep school Catholic Memorial, which has produced a handful of hockey notables, including Chris “Knuckles” Nilan, recently retired Boston University head coach Jack Parker and Harvard hockey coach Ted Donato, has more than its share of interest in hockey.

“People get involved,” says Conneely, one of the many police officers who call West Roxbury home. “It’s contagious. It’d be nice to see it going into other neighborhoods. I’d like to see it keep going. … LIMERICKS, CHANGE UP!”

Earlier in the day, a fireman, wearing a good deal of his gear, warms up a team by playing goal. Later in the day, a police captain kneels down to pet a small dog – a small dog wearing a Celtics scarf. And by the end of the day, more than six hours after it started, after Congressman Stephen F. Lynch makes an appearance, after 200 pizzas and countless help-yourself desserts have been consumed, after an Irish step-dancing show from a team of West Roxbury girls, the rink in front of O’Brien’s house hosted the four championship games.

There were wins and losses, of course, but they weren’t at all the point. As it turned out, the MVP of the Shootout, for the sixth consecutive year, was West Roxbury.

“This is their favorite holiday,” Golden says. “They say that they live for this.”

2013 SHAMROCK SHOOTOUT

From The Original Six

Saturday afternoon in Boston, Tommy Stapleton fed teammate Conor Lydon a perfect cross-rink to send him him in alone on goaltender Colin Stowe. Lydon feigned going to his backhand and then tried going top corner, but a fallen Stowe somehow managed to get his waffle glove on the shot as it was seemingly already past him. The rebound sat perilously on the goal crease until defenseman Henry Burns swatted it safely from harm’s way. “Way to go Henry,” yelled teammate Jack Kososki after an almost sure goal was avoided.

However, the setting for this action was not the TD Garden downtown but rather 10 miles southwest away on Temple Street in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. In addition, the teams in question were not the Bruins and Capitals, with each player wearing a helmet on the ice but rather the O’Brien Club and the Dubliners with players more likely to have green hair coloring atop their heads as they played street hockey in the one and only Shamrock Shootout.

The preeminent street hockey event in New England – perhaps the country – started in 2008 after three neighbors – Dave Tracey, Marc Sanders and Mike O’Brien – reminisced about their youth and endless hours playing street hockey year round with their neighborhood buddies. They lamented, however, that seeing children playing street hockey was a rarity, perhaps due to the rise and popularity of the Patriots and Red Sox in the early 21st century.

Not wanting their own children to miss out on the game of their own youth, they decided to jump-start the sport by bringing it back to the children of the community in the form of the Shamrock Shootout.

Straight as the sideline of a football field and almost without slope, Temple Street is the ideal street hockey “rink.” The first year of the shootout, 2008, had a nominal turnout but fun was had by all – young and old – and the groundwork for an annual event was firmly in-place and the 2009 Shootout had over 200 participants and the organizers could sense that the buzz created by the tournament would only increase the numbers in following years as politicians made it a mandatory pit stop to greet voters and local media outlets were taking notice and sending reporters, photographers and television cameras.

The numbers grew each subsequent year with the 2012 Shootout topping out at 500 players. Organizing the 2013 Shootout would prove to be a Herculean task, but the organizers weren’t worried because they knew they could utilize their aces in the hole to take care of every last detail, a fearless group that has performed the same unheralded duties every year without ever going off track. This irreplaceable trio is, of course, their wives, Mesdemoiselles Tracey, Sanders and O’Brien.

The organizational committee, along with scores of volunteers seemingly pulled off the impossible for the 2013 Shamrock Shootout. A whopping 580 players spread over 18 rinks. Each player was issued a tee shirt, a cut to order new stick, fed pizza, snacks and supplied plenty of water and juice boxes. The 1500+ family members and friends of players were also treated to food and drink, as well as Irish entertainment from the Fenian Sons and an Irish step dancing group. Disc jockey Sean McCarthy and emcee Tom Derosa ensured that there was no silent moment and kept the masses informed of pertinent information to keep the event running smoothly. The best part of all to the 2000 or so people in attendance, all of the above was provided free of charge thanks to the generosity of dozens of sponsors.

“It is a very well organized event that is equally exciting for both parents and children; it makes me proud to be from West Roxbury,” said Mary Glynn, whose daughter Bridget was a first time participant. Local business owner Rich Kfoury agreed. “It was my first time helping out and I’m looking forward to next year. As a parent, I think the event is something that the people who run it, the people of Temple Street, the neighborhood and the community as a whole should be very proud of. Every year it gets bigger and better, with the music and the Irish step dancing and families look forward to it more and more.”

Past Shamrock Shootouts concluded with an adults’ game but this year marked the start of a new event called the Legends Shootout, a penalty shot competition where entrants donated $10 to participate and the last shooter not to miss would walk away with a pair of Bruins tickets. Volunteer goaltender Alissa Berthiaume made short work of eliminating 40 of 41 Legends within three rounds and Jack Boyle was the last person standing and holding a pair of Bruins tickets for displaying his shooting skills. Best of all, 100% of the money raised was added to the Shootout’s charitable arm which raises money for an annual worthy recipient. “It’s about giving back to the community,” said co-founder Mike O’Brien. “It’s the way we were raised and we want to pass that along to future generations. That’s what the Shamrock Shootout is all about.”