Siblings play together on hockey team

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent 

WORCESTER – Rebecca Kondylis said her son, Evan, and her daughter, Mia, have a typical brother-sister relationship. 

“They’re truly siblings,” Mrs. Kondylis said. “They love-hate each other all day long. They get each other going, laughing, get the dog going, and an hour later they’re arguing over who knows what.” 

That probably sounds familiar to most parents, but there is something far more unusual about these students at St. Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School: They’re twins and they play together on their high school hockey team. 

St. Paul’s coach Jay Monfreda doesn’t know of any other twin brother and sister who have played on the same high school hockey team. 

“I can’t imagine it had happened before,” he said. “I think it’s great. I mean, is it ideal? No, because Mia would be better off playing high school girls’ hockey, but seeing there are no other options for her, it is pretty cool they get to have this experience together.” 

The juniors from Berlin play defense, sometimes together, for the first-year St. Paul Diocesan Junior-Senior High School boys’ team. Evan serves as team captain. 

Mr. Monfreda coached Mia for two years on the St. Peter-Marian High School girls’ hockey team before St. Peter-Marian merged last year with Holy Name High School to form St. Paul. The school does not have a girls’ hockey team. Evan played junior varsity hockey for St. John’s High School before transferring to St. Paul this school year. 

After Mia couldn’t work out playing for a co-op girls’ team with another high school, she decided to try out for the St. Paul boys’ team shortly before the season began.  

This is the first time the twins have played on the same hockey team. 

“It’s pretty interesting,” Evan said. 

“It’s weird,” Mia said. “I’ve grown up watching him play and now I’m playing with him. It’s really fast, but I feel like we work well together when we’re D partners.” 

Mia and Evan turned 17 on Jan. 15, the day St. Paul lost to Northbridge, 4-2, after taking a 2-0 lead. Mia is four hours older and teases Evan about being her baby brother. 

“Oh, of course I do, all the time,” she said. 

Mia is the only girl on the team. 

“It was scary at first playing with all boys,” she said. “I thought I would get targeted every game and I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but my teammates don’t seem to mind that I’m a girl and they use me in their plays and I think I can keep up with them.” 

The 5-foot-11 Evan is five inches taller than his sister. He’s a physical player, but she relies more upon her hockey skills. When an opponent checks Mia hard, Evan takes notice. 

“If I’m near it at the time, I just push him a little bit and talk to him,” Evan said. “If I’m not on the ice, I’ll just remember his number and when he gets the puck, I’ll try to hit him the next time.” 

Their parents, Rebecca and George Kondylis, enjoy watching them play. 

“As any parent, you’re proud,” Mrs. Kondylis said, “that they’ve gotten this far and they get to play high school sports and the fact that they get to play together.” 

Mia has impressed Evan, the team’s captain, with her play. 

“She’s doing really good this year,” he said. “She makes really good passes and she always finds the open player every play.” 

Mia has found the pace of playing hockey with boys to be much faster than playing with girls. 

“Having it faster actually made me a better player,” she said, “being able to keep my head up and making faster decisions.” 

As a defenseman, Evan doesn’t score often, but he did score the first goal in St. Paul hockey history in a season-opening, 6-1 loss to Assabet Valley Tech on Dec. 11. Mia has yet to score, but she’s had a few assists. 

St. Paul posted the first victory in school history over St. Joseph Prep of Boston, 11-1, on Dec. 30. 

Mia is the only member of the team who had played high school varsity hockey prior to this season. Evan played junior varsity for St. John’s last winter. Defenseman Zach Wascavage is St. Paul’s only other junior. The young Knights have no seniors, only one sophomore, five freshmen, three eighth-graders and one seventh-grader. 

The Knights also have only 13 skaters, compared to 20 or more for many teams. So, it should come as no surprise that the Knights are only 1-10 overall and 0-8 in the Russell Conference after falling to Northbridge, 5-2, Monday, in a game in which they led, 2-0. 

“If you look on paper, the season is going very bad,” Evan said, “but if you were to watch the games, they’re really close games up until the third period when we get really tired because we don’t have that many players. But I think a young team of mostly freshmen is playing against a bunch of older kids and staying with them for most of the game. So I think we’re going pretty good.” 

Mr. Monfreda expects the Knights to improve over the next few years as they add experience and depth. 

“It’s been great. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it,” he said. “I’m competitive as the next guy and I hate losing, but for us just to put a team on the ice again is a success for us. Because now kids who are thinking about coming to St. Paul see that we have a program, see that we’re battling teams to the end and being competitive, and that fuels the fire to come to our school.”  

High schools aren’t allowed to recruit so Mr. Monfreda publicizes his program by tweeting and wearing a St. Paul sweatshirt and cap whenever he visits a hockey rink. 

Having coached girls’ hockey at his alma mater of St. Peter-Marian and Algonquin Regional, Mr. Monfreda relied on his assistant coaches, Nick Kreuz and Jason Burdett, to provide a knowledge of the talent in local boys’ hockey players. The assistants had coached the Railers Junior Hockey, and their sons, freshman right wing Colin Kreuz, and eighth-grade center Chase Burdett, accompanied them to St. Paul. They are St. Paul’s top two scorers. 

Because of the pandemic, during games the St. Paul hockey players wear masks even though sophomore goaltender Chris Palermo already has a goalie mask and the rest of the team wears face shields. The masks keep them safe, but make it tougher to breathe. 

“It’s very challenging,” Mr. Monfreda said, “especially with the amount of ice time our guys are getting. It just goes to show you how good of shape they’re in that they can wear both and perform.” 

Mr. Monfreda also started the St. Peter-Marian girls’ hockey program in the 2017-18 season. All three of his SPM teams made the playoffs, even though there were only nine players the first year. Players from Tahanto Regional in Boylston and the Advanced Math & Science Academy in Marlborough helped expand the roster the next two years. 

On Feb. 4, St. Paul will play St. Bernard’s High School of Fitchburg at 3 p.m. at the DCU Center before a Worcester Railers game. Mia will get to see another girl on the ice for the first time this season because Mackenzie Donoghue plays in goal for the Bernardians.