600 Wins

Brick Township High School has the market cornered when it comes to legendary coaches who show no signs of letting up and keep adding to their impressive list of accomplishments and milestones. At the Ocean Ice Palace Monday the Green Dragons beat Jackson Memorial to give Coach Bob Auriemma his 600th career victory, the most in state history. That same honor belongs to Brick football coach Warren Wolf, who ironically was the
head coach when the hockey program began on the club level in the early
60’s. Auriemma, who started as an assistant to Wolf took over as head coach when hockey became a varsity sport in 1965 and in 42 years he’s piled up a record of 600 wins, 303 losses and 76 ties. His Green Dragon teams won six overall state championships and another five Public School titles when the tournament split in two divisions in 1995.

However numbers and championships alone don’t define Brick hockey, which came on the scene many years before other high schools started playing the game around the shore. Auriemma’s program truly defines the word “family” and you only have to look at yesterday’s win in which his grandson Matt Dornacker scored a pair of goals. Both Green Dragon assistant coaches Glenn Barnfield & Mike Guarino played for him as did current Brick Mayor Steve Acropolis. The most celebrated high school player in shore and state history is Jim Dowd, who helped the team reach great heights in the mid 80’s. They are all part of an extended Brick hockey family in which the 71-year old Auriemma is clearly the patriarch. A soft-spoken man off the ice, he never talks about himself and like his friend Coach Wolf, gives credit to the players for a victory and will take the burden for a loss.

Monday’s victory, which saw Andrew Ball score a three-goal “hat trick”, raises the current team’s record to 8-4-1. 600 wins and counting for a true legend and a real gentleman.