April 2011… Nick was dressed up and ready to go. The party busses were booked, the girls dresses ready and Nick’s freshly purchased black tuxedo was ready for duty. He looked great in it. It would do him perfect for the six Senior and Junior proms he would attend. Nick was handsome and popular at Ghost and many sister schools. The proms were scheduled conveniently so there would be no problems with any overlap. A little grueling though the schedule. Joe was entering Archbishop Wood in the fall as a sophomore. Hopefully it would be a good experience. He would play hockey there also and as usual become controversial with his skill level and the issues that usually follow. That became more evident when his U16AA Midget coach Jodi Crane told us about the Philadelphia Revolution Jr B and C open skate in a few nights. “You should take Joey”. Why not? Junior teams started at age 18 to 20 years old. Joe was 14 at the time. Joe was up for it, of course, and hit the ice with about 50 to 60 skaters that were 17 to 20 years in age and some pretty big boys, comparatively. I tried not to watch as there was a lot going on and I knew that he could handle himself. About 20 minutes into the skate I had the Jr B and Jr C coach searching for me. Are you Mr. Keenan? Is that your son Joe out there? How old is he? 14….I said. They asked me where he played, positions, etc. They wanted to sign him to a contract for the season, that night. First player of the season. If he wanted to. 14 years old. He would turn 15 at the start of the season. He wasn’t intimidated by the size, he had the speed and skill to compete. After the skate, for the first time before a tryout, Joey was signing an Empire Junior League hockey contract for the Philadelphia Revolution. Before tryouts! Confidence? You bet! The team needed to get special permission for him to play, through USA Hockey, at 15 years of age.
Both boys finished out their school years. Nick would soon become a Senior at Holy Ghost and Joe a Sophmore at Archbishop Wood. Nicky went to work down on Long Beach Island for the summer and Joe and I traversed the arenas of Boston, Buffalo, Michigan and Jersey while Joe played for tournament teams. His first Junior game in Boston that summer, against the South Shore Kings, he scored the first goal of the game and had his first Junior celly. He then went and scored the second goal! He decided his celly would be to high five the players on the other teams bench as he skated by. Not good. His coach had to sat him the rest of the game. First, to teach him a lesson, and second, if he put him out on the ice it would be an immediate fight with a big 20 year old dude. So he sat….Until the last shift of the game. The coach told him to go. Joe went over the boards like a rocket and immediately crushed a South Shore player, picked up the puck, took off and fired off a shot. Immediately, he was hit by a big defenseman who tossed his gloves and lined Joe up. He couldn’t run or back down now. Time to take a beating. As the punches flew, Joe was holding his own, no blood and an ovation after the melee. Two goals, and his first fight. Not a bad first game as a Junior hockey player.
So the summer of “11” I had two Juniors technically And a sophomore. Nick had decided to use his fancy Prep School education and major in Dentistry. He settled on a great University in Upstate Pennsylvania called Wilkes University. Wilkes was a partner school with Temple Dental School. The two schools Dental school collaboration was one of the originals in the state and offered three intense years at Wilkes then direct admission to the Temple Dental School. A fabulous program that shortened your undergrad studies by one year.
On November 4th, 2011, Nick and I drove north to Wilkes Barre for a big acceptance meeting with the Dean of the Advanced Dental Program at Wilkes. A tough older woman, she was very impressed with Nick and the meeting went well. I was so proud of him. Nick was in! We said our goodbyes, walked the campus again, then got into the car to began the drive home. Just then, my cell phone rang. It was my security company for the store. ” This is L&R Security calling…password please? What? I gave her the password…”You have a holdup alarm indicated. The police have been notified and are enroute to the location”. I tried calling the store. No answer. I called again. No answer. This was bad. Real bad. I called again and Nadine, my manager, finally picked up the phone. I could not understand her. She was hysterical. “We were robbed!”. I was 3 hours away. I would make it there in less than two. This was not good.
Next Up: The Robbery