In a full circle moment, Nathan Jarvis read to students in the same second grade classroom in Southampton Road that he was taught in by the same teacher, Mary Loughrey.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
WESTFIELD — Westfield High School hockey coach Dominic Puntillo, who teaches at Westfield Intermediate School, wanted his players from Westfield High and Westfield Technical Academy to be involved in their community.
Looking for ways they might get involved, junior Christian Andwood approached the coach with the idea of having players connect with younger students through reading. Eighteen players from WHS and WTA signed up to do just that.
Puntillo involved Westfield Public Schools Curriculum Director Susan Dargie, who supplied new books for them to read, and a plan was formed. On Jan. 9, a no-practice day for the team, the players, sporting their jerseys, visited four elementary schools in the district to read to the students as the last activity of their Friday.
“The visits from our WHS hockey athletes to our elementary schools were a tremendous success! I met students as they arrived at Paper Mill, and everyone was excited,” said Dargie, who said in many cases, the high school students chose to read at their former elementary schools.
“Teachers that were not part of the readalouds stopped down at the office to say hello to former students. Paper Mill Principal Mike Atkins let some of the players know that their former teachers asked that they stop down when they were done reading,” Dargie added.
Dargie said students in Kathleen Knapik’s class had some surprises for Joe Maffia during his visit to Paper Mill. Her students wore Bombers red and black, and they made signs of support for his number 15. Before Joe left, Knapik asked him to sign a hockey stick displayed in the room that was originally signed by Westfield native Kacey Bellamy.
“The kids were amazing, and one student, Chris Shea, brought his own favorite book, ‘If You Give a Moose a Muffin’ [by Laura Joff Numeroff].” He started with his younger brother’s classroom, and by the time he was done, he had read to at least three classrooms,” Dargie said. Also reading at Paper Mill were Owen Moore and Brody Hollister.
Christian Andwood, whose idea it was to read to the younger students, read to students in Claire Adams’ class at Munger Hill on a visit to the school with his teammates Tyler Goodreau, Owen Colbath and Will Shea.
Nathan Jarvis, Treygan Lamanski, Chase Liptak and Brady Corliss signed up to read at Southampton Road Elementary. In a full circle moment, Nathan read to students in the same second grade classroom that he was taught in by the same teacher, Mary Loughrey.
Cody Bard, Aidan Casey, Ayden Ciavola, Josh Elmer, Andrew Galczynski and Colton Moraweic read to students at Westfield River Elementary. Cody, a senior at WHS and the team’s captain, said he went to school at Munger Hill, but wanted to read at Westfield River, where his mother, Wendy Bard, is a first grade teacher. He said he was also excited to see the new school for the first time.
In the classroom, Wendy Bard told her students that the captain of the team is chosen by teammates. Cody explained that this is a very big responsibility and involves helping the coach. A photo of the team’s 2025 Western Mass. championship win was displayed during his visit.
Before reading the book, “Your Fantastic Elastic Brain” by Joann Deak, to the students, Cody answered a long list of questions the students had prepared in advance, such as who was his favorite player — the Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy — and how long he’s played hockey for. His answer of 14 to 15 years was hard for the 6 and 7-year-olds to grasp. Wendy said all the students in her class had been looking forward to the visit.
Puntillo, a math and science teacher at WIS, pointed to the district’s “portrait of a graduate” program, which determined that Westfield students should be leaving high school with the ability to be resilient, collaborate, think critically, communicate respectfully and demonstrate integrity. “These are all characteristics that we want to foster in our hockey program as well,” Puntillo said.
“I appreciate our players taking time out of their busy schedules, and I hope we inspired a few future Bombers. Westfield is a proud hockey city, and doing things like that hopefully leads to success on the ice and in the classroom years down the road,” Puntillo added.
