Written By: Dylan Howdyshell, Reporter
Mr. Dalton Ford, the Instructional Technology Coach and IT support
official for Waynesboro High, also happens to be the coach for UVA’s women’s ice hockey team. The team, who were the champions in the Delaware Valley Hockey League for the 2008-2009 year, has won yet another championship. From February 19-21, the team battled their way to the top of the league ladder, and pulled out their second championship win in a row.
Ford, who grew up in Philadelphia, has been playing hockey since he was six.
“I didn’t really get into organized hockey until high school,” said Ford. “Since then, I’ve played in the adult league in Charlottesville, which is where I initially found out about the opening in the assistant coaching position.”
Ford started out as an assistant coach, and eventually took over as the head coach for the team, a position he has held for five years.
While he has been coaching, the team has won three championships—one in 2006, and two back-to-back victories in 2009 and 2010.
“We’ve had three championship wins in the past five years,” said Ford. “No other team has that many except for the University of Pennsylvania, but they don’t have two repeat wins.”
Ford recalled an old sports adage, “You’re not the true champion until you defend the title,” and added: “You know, if you win once, people can say it’s just a fluke, or say you just got lucky. To win championships back-to-back sends a signal that the team is doing something right, and working hard.”
During the regular season, the team ranked fourth, with five wins and seven losses. Going into the finals, Ford felt that this gave his team an advantage.
“It’s a mental game—if I were the first seed team, I’d watch out for the second or third ranked team, not the fourth. Because of our ranking, I think we slipped under the radar.”
Earlier in the season, though, distractions left the team unfocused. The team had suffered a few losses, school work was becoming an added challenge, and the chances of being successful in the playoffs seemed slim.
But the team scored an impressive win, a 9-2 victory against the University of Maryland, which Ford considers one of their best games, and which sparked a new confidence in the team. From that point on, they were bent on another championship.
In the playoffs, the fourth seed plays against the fifth seed. In this case the team in fifth happened to be West Chester University. This team had only 30 goals scored against them all season, but the UVA team put in eleven goals. That won them the wild-card seed, and a chance to play the team in first place: the University of Delaware, a team whose goalie is commonly referred to as “the octopus.”
“Our plan was to be aggressive,” said Ford. “We wanted to win our battles in the corners.”
The first goal for UVA was a 60-foot shot that bounced off another player before making it into the goal. The Delaware team had only let in 16 goals all season, but UVA beat them in the end, 4-1.
After beating terrible odds, the UVA team needed to beat only one more team to win the playoffs, the California University of Pennsylvania.
The California team was known for being fast. The aggressive tactics of the UVA team were wearing them down by the second quarter, and the score was 2 and 2. By the third quarter, the UVA team was down two players; they lost one player to the penalty box, and then the California team put their goalie out on the ice.
With the goalie out of the goal, the UVA team scored once more, and with 30 seconds left, they only needed to hold off the California onslaught. The UVA team did hold out, and came out on top.
“We didn’t have a perfect season,” said Ford, “but playoffs are an entirely different animal. We peaked at the right time, and everything came together.”
Who would think that Mr. Ford, the mild mannered technology guru, who spends his time fortifying the electronic infrastructure of WHS, would be a three time championship-winning ice hockey coach?
Ford didn’t seem surprised when I told him that, prior to this story, I had no knowledge of his second gig as a coach.
“Yeah,” he said, “when they hear about it, most people say, ‘UVA has a women’s ice hockey team?’ And I’ll think, ‘Yeah, we’ve won three championships!’”
“But it’s not about me,” said Ford. “I’m just happy for the girls who work so hard to keep the team going strong. I’m really proud of the team.”
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Nice article, Mr. Howdyshell! Thanks for your interest in our team and the positive publicity. Keep up the good work!
MD Ford