“When we finally won the national title, the long drive to Pittsburgh was more than worth it, knowing it all ended with us lifting the championship together,” said senior Cole Massey of the high-school’s ball hockey team.
The Williamstown High School Ball Hockey team are back-to-back National Champions.
Coming off a national high win in 2024 in the National Scholastic Ball Hockey League, High School Division, the team traveled to Pittsburgh in November 2025 and dominated once again.
Williamstown defeated Penn Hills (Pennsylvania) in the final – 4-0 – to cap off a dominant season of 16 wins and 0 losses. They did not allow a goal in the playoff game.
Ball hockey – ice hockey played on a Dek surface – has been played around towns for decades, said Ricky Amandeo, coach and league representative for the Williamstown High School Ball Hockey Team.
While the focus used to be on recreational leagues, in 2019 the sport took a leap into the high school atmosphere. Scott Tarzy, a former coach and general manager of the Team USA ball hockey club, kickstarted the High School Ball Hockey League. The outreach spread across high schools all around South Jersey including Williamstown.
Amandeo was there from the start.
“I’ve been on the bench and working on behind the scenes logistics since the league started in 2019,” he said. “This win is simply a reflection of the culture that the kids have worked so hard to build and maintain.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the way this team competed, supported each other, and represented our program at the highest level.”
Along with Amandeo, the 2025 team was led by Head coach Jason Fretz, Assistant coach Tom Basilio and Team Representative Jenna Basilio.
The team has 17 players including seniors Jackson Ferranto (goalie), Eric Stief (forward), RJ Wolf (forward), Dylan Simonson (forward), Cole Massey (defender), Matt Comito (defender), Dom Borelli (goalie).
Along with the national championships, the team won state champions in 2023.
The seniors recently reflected on their time on the Ball Hockey team and state and national championship titles.
“We had an amazing season and this was such a great team to be a part of,” Comito said. “It was a great opportunity to be able to go to Pittsburgh and go undefeated not only there, but the entire season.”
“Incredibly meaningful and memorable” is how Ferranto explained winning both state and national championship titles during his time on the Ball Hockey team.
“The team in the last few years has been more than exceptional,” he said, “which motivated me even further to end my career on a high note. Playing goalie makes it feel as though the team is your own, and I am grateful to have played with a group of guys that are as fun to be around as they are talented in my final year.”
Eric Stief said his role on the team was “a little more under the radar than most.”
“My role was to form a mismatch against their second line or third line guys to create an advantage for us when we were out there and it sure worked,” Stief said of the national championship game. “Coach always put me out at the right times and I was able to sneak by and create a lot of scoring chances.
“Our success was really dedicated to having three strong lines that we could rely on at all times to keep us in games.”
Winning against the hometown team made the win that much more amazing, Stief added.
“We were playing the team from right around the corner of the rinks and I don’t think many people wanted us to win because of all the success we had,” he said. “It was really nice to go outside of New Jersey and beat teams from other parts of the U.S to secure the national title.
“It was also really amazing to end my senior year 16 to 0 beating every team by a decent margin that was in our path,” Stief reflected, adding his two years on the team “with two career national titles while also only losing one game.”
The team’s biggest success was believing in each other, Stief went on.
“During the national championship run we had some games where we experienced hardships, but we persevered past them as a team and always kept pushing each other to do better,” he said of the remarkable achievement.
For Dylan Simonson, the national championship win was “the cherry on top” of an already great season.
“Going into the national championship weekend, the team was undefeated and dominant unlike any other team I have ever been a part of,” he said. “It really was the perfect team and everybody played an important role in every game. So when we went to Pittsburgh and won the national championship while staying undefeated, it truly was something special, and left a feeling that cannot be put into words.
“Most of us on the team have been playing together since we were all really young so it is kind of the perfect ending for us seniors. So I think I can speak for myself and for pretty much anybody else when I say that it was truly a pleasure to be a part of this team.”
Cole Massey gave it everything and “left it all out there” for his teammates.
“From the very start of the season, every practice, setback, and small win built toward one goal, and watching it all come together at the end made the journey unforgettable,” he said. “I played for half of my high school career, and both times were great because it was relatively the same team, which made the chemistry feel natural from day one.
“When we finally won the national title, the long drive to Pittsburgh was more than worth it, knowing it all ended with us lifting the championship together.”
Playing with all his friends made the experience much more amazing, RJ Wolf said.
“Being able to be a part of such a great team was something you don’t get to experience every day,” he said. “Winning the title was amazing, to be a part of the team that set a record for winning both titles at the same time is amazing.
“Also being able to be a linemate to a fellow senior that I’ve known for forever was amazing because even if I messed up it wasn’t any hard feelings about it but instead … jokes.”
