Patrick Can Not Recall Being In This Photo

Color: Royal Blue
Year Founded: 2002
2010 Regular Season Finish: 10-4-0-2 (1st, Donohue Division; 3rd overall)
2010 Playoff Result: Lost to Happy Little Elves in quarterfinals
Conference: Schumacher
Division: Donohue
2010 Leading Scorer: Justin Ross, 12 goals
Team Song: Outkast – So Fresh and So Clean
Key Additions: Scott Lee (Mathematics), Matt Kazior, Nick Scott
Key Losses: None

Last season marked a major transition point for the Fresh Kills franchise. During the offseason, half of the team seceded to form the Tompkins Square Riots, leaving new captain Dave Sokolyansky with some large gaps to fill on the roster, most notably in goal.  However, this daunting task may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  For years, with veterans such as Kevin “The Planet” Foster, “Hollywood” Jeff Lesser, and the Sokolyanskys leading the team, Fresh Kills had developed a reputation for being a haven for BTSH’s aging stars.  Captain Sokolyansky decimated this notion with his crop of young offseason acquisitions.

To fill in between the pipes, Sokolyansky added fellow New Jersey native Patrick Barch, who made an immediate impact with four shutouts during the 2010 season, including one in the playoffs.  Sokolyansky also added Barch’s roommate Nick Hobbs, who brought college level hockey experience and youthful gusto to the team.  Justin “The Boss” Ross was also new to the team and surprised BTSH with 12 goals to lead Fresh Kills and finish 10th in the league.  Sokolyansky notes, “We’re looking forward to the follow-up seasons from Pat Barch, Justin Ross and Nick Hobbs, who were all excellent in their first seasons, and who could easily do even better still.”  Not yet finished, the sage captain also added 20-year old Scott Lee from the Mathematics, making the team even younger.

Despite the success of Sokolyanksy’s male rookies, he also points out how important the women of Fresh Kills are, especially Serene Tan.  He remarks, “She isn’t flashy, but I think that people will slowly learn who she is this year and recognize her as one of the top few females.  Along with Alice [Bertoni] and Natasha [Sweeten], Steph [Opitz], and Sarah [Garonzik], I think our females are one of our biggest assets.”

Fresh Kills is coming off a very successful 2010 campaign already, which included the Donohue Division championship.  Although the team suffered a disappointing overtime loss to the Happy Little Elves in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, Sokolyansky is excited for Fresh Kills’ promotion to a new division (and conference) and is looking to have an even better year in 2011 now that his rookies have a year of experience under their belts.  He concludes, “We’re obviously very happy with our season last year, as we had a team that was half rookies and still finished in second place in the entire league in the regular season. The last-minute playoff loss to the Elves was obviously a bummer after our good regular season, but we’ll hopefully do better this year.”

Entity They Resemble, According to Rich Glanzer: Matt Saracen (QB from Friday Night Lights [TV show]). Saracen is good not great, but he has the heart of a champion. After top QB Jason Street became paralyzed, he led the Dillon Panthers to the state championship. Fresh Kills are former champions, and though they aren’t an elite team, they always seem to make a run, much like Matt. They are a longshot but have the talent to win it all.
Fast Fact: Eugene Rha never travels anywhere without his personal stylist.

ROSTER
Patrick Barch
Alice Bertoni
Kevin “The Planet” Foster
Sarah Garonzik
Nick Hobbs
Ariel Imas
Matt Kazior
Scott Lee
Patrick Moore
Steph Opitz
Andrea Paparella
Eugene Rha
Brice Rosenbloom
Justin “The Boss” Ross
Nick Scott
Dave Sokolyansky (C)
Mike Sokolyansky
Natasha Sweeten
Serene Tan