Cousin against cousin. Uncle against nephew. Father against son.
It was just another weekend in the Fed for the Pray family, as Kenmore West faced off against Kenmore East on Saturday, January 16, 2016 before facing Grand Island on Sunday.
Kenmore West featured twin brothers Adam and Jacob Pray, both juniors, while Kenmore East featured coach Kyle Pray and his son Trevor, a senior. The Blue Devils and Bulldogs scrimmaged each other on Saturday night as part of the Ken-Ton Winter Fest before Adam and Jacob faced their father Don’s Grand Island Vikings on Sunday.
But the hockey life of the Pray family goes back long before Adam, Jacob, and Trevor were playing. Although the age gap between Don and Kyle prevented them from playing together aside from senior league, both have coached hockey for years, and those careers have often intersected, whether the brothers were working together or facing each other.
Kyle played in college at the University of Buffalo and had a few tryouts in Flint, Michigan before returning to school for his education degree. His coaching career began with UB before he and Don worked together to start up the Tonawanda Lightning travel hockey program.
“First it was a Select Program, and then we eventually turned it into the Lightning program, so we did a number of years with Lightning teams,” Kyle explained.
While Kyle enjoyed some success playing hockey, Don played baseball. He was an All-WNY selection in high school, but he played hockey as well in high school and, as he explained, “hockey’s my passion.”
Don’s hockey coaching career began when he was 16.
“I’ve been coaching now since I was 16 years old, so back to mid-1980’s,” Don explained. “Started off coaching in the Tonawanda Lightning and helped start that organization with my brother.”
In 2001, Kyle joined the Fed as he and Ken-Ton athletic director Brett Banker proposed that Kenmore East and Kenmore West join the Fed. Kyle coached Kenmore West from 2001 until 2007 and then since 2007, he’s coached at Kenmore East. He led West to a Fed championship in 2006 and East to state championships in 2012 and 2016.
Kyle has continued to coach travel hockey as well with the Wheatfield Blades, where Trevor plays in addition to Kenmore East.
Don coached at St. Joe’s for a while in the ’90’s before taking the job at Grand Island as the Vikings joined the Fed six years ago.
Don still coaches his sons’ Tonawanda Lightning team, and he also coached his daughter Lauren for the Buffalo Bisons girls’ team for three years.
“I coached the 16u team and the 19u team,” Don said. “That’s when Lauren was there, and then two years ago, we finished third in the country. We lost to the eventual winner Shattuck in the semifinals.”
Now, Don coaches in the Fed against his brother, nephew, and sons.
“It’s definitely interesting because it’s hard,” Don said. “I try to shut it off and not be the parent and watch them during the game. I have a job to do for Grand Island.”
Of course, there are times family comes first.
“Last year, Jacob unfortunately got hurt during the game when we were playing,” Don explained. “He broke his collarbone, so the parent took over obviously in that situation.”
On Saturday night, Don was more than ready to face his sons on Sunday.
“Once the game gets going, I’m the Grand Island coach, and we’re out there to win, whether I’m coaching against Kyle or coaching against these two,” he said. “That’s my job, and hopefully tomorrow Grand Island wins.”
Trevor spent last season with the Jr. Sabres, and it was the only season in which he didn’t have his dad behind the bench coaching him. While and Kyle and Trevor’s situation is different from Don, Adam, and Jacob’s, there are some similarities. Kyle knows he has a job to do as well and does his best to coach his son in the same manner he coaches the rest of the team.
“I try not to bring it home too much,” Kyle said. “I think sometimes it’s just natural that a dad will have more comments for his own son, but I try to do most of the things at the rink. We talk a little bit at home, but we also try to joke as well. It’s a lot of fun coaching him, and he’s handled it pretty well too throughout these years. It’s probably been about 10, 12 years that he’s had me as a coach. I think it was good last year when he was with the Jr. Sabres that someone else coached him for a year, just so he could hear another point of view and get opinions from other coaches besides me.”
A few weeks earlier, Trevor was under the weather, and it was his father and coach that he had to convince to let him play. Five Gatorades later, Trevor was good to go, or at least as good as he could be.
“I had that same flu the night before and I knew how I felt that day and I can’t imagine going out there and playing, so I gave him credit for trying,” Kyle said. “But I probably shouldn’t have sent him that day because he was pretty much useless. I felt bad for him because that knocked our whole family out.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Trevor’s older brother Corey never played hockey. Neither did Adam and Jacob’s older sister Sarah, although Lauren was a solid goaltender for the Kenmore/Grand Island girls’ Fed team.
“I just think it’s in our family that everybody plays hockey,” Trevor said. “It was introduced to all of us, and then some of us took it on and some of us didn’t. Lauren, Adam, and Jake took it on, and I took it on, but their sister Sarah and my brother didn’t, so the older ones didn’t take it but the younger ones did.”
“Hockey was always a major part of our life and major conversation piece at the dinner table,” said Adam.
“All the time, we were out of town going to tourneys and everything,” Jacob said. “As a family, it became a bonding thing, being out of town.”
Adam began playing hockey when he was 4, Jacob when he was 5.
“I was the first one to start playing when I was 4, and then we’ve been on Tonawanda travel throughout our whole career,” Adam explained. “I was the first one to start playing JV. He didn’t play the first year. It’s always been like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna play for Kenmore West someday.’ It’s always been talked about around the house.”
Both have been on the Kenmore West varsity team for two years, and they have a chemistry that comes with being brothers and playing together for so long.
“Since we’ve been on each other’s team for like 10 years, he just chips it up and I’m there, and we kinda have the connection,” Jacob explained. “We both know where to be on the ice.”
The East vs. West scrimmage was the first time Adam and Jacob had ever faced their cousin Trevor on the ice. The scrimmage format included a 2-on-2 portion, and Jacob and Adam were sent out together, of course, to face Trevor and his linemate AJ Marinelli.
“It was fun,” Jacob said. “We were laughing out there for the 2-on-2 and everything. It was cool.”
“It was fun just to finally face each other for once,” Trevor added.
As Jacob and Adam prepared to face their father on Sunday, they knew it’d feel strange.
“It’ll be different,” Adam said. “We’re used to having him behind the bench for travel.”
After Sunday’s game, in which Adam assisted the game-winning goal in a Kenmore West win, he confirmed that his expectations had been met. He had to remind himself that his father’s words during the game weren’t meant for him.
“It was weird,” Adam said. “I could hear him yelling to his team, especially on the power play, to pressure us.”
For Trevor, of course, his father’s words from the bench are, in fact, meant for him.
“It’s been fun,” Trevor said. “I always look at him to make comments after each shift and see what he’s thinking about, like how I’m playing and stuff. And he usually tells me between periods to pick it up if I’m not playing good. And then last year, I thought it was good to hear different voices, but I definitely missed playing for Kenmore East last year, so I’m happy to be back this year.”
THE PERFECT ENDING
Kenmore West faced Kenmore East once more in the Section VI small school quarterfinals, and Kenmore East came away with the victory.
Kyle led the Bulldogs to another state championship, and it was Trevor who scored both the game-tying and overtime game-winning goal to give Kenmore East and his father a second state championship.
After scoring the goal, Trevor immediately skated over to hug his father.
Trevor was named the New York State Division 2 player of the year, while Kyle was named the New York State Division 2 coach of the year. It was the perfect ending to Trevor’s high school hockey career and his father’s time as Trevor’s coach.
As Kyle said after the game, “If I was a writer and had to write it any better, I couldn’t have.”