Jeff Palczewski captained an Orchard Park hockey team that finished the regular season 9-5-1-1 and went as far as the semifinals before losing to Niagara Wheatfield. Palczewski scored 8 goals in 16 regular season games and 3 goals in the playoffs as part of a Quakers team with almost unmatched comeraderie.
But Palczewski’s hockey career ended with the Quakers’ season.
With spring came baseball, and that’s been Palczewski’s focus for most of his life. His baseball career began with tee ball at age 3, and he didn’t start playing hockey until he was 9 or 10.
After high school, Palczewski is committed to play Division I baseball at the University at Buffalo. But both sports have given Palczewski plenty of memories to last him for years to come, and he shared some of those memories with Icing The Fed after an Orchard Park baseball game early in the season, as well as his reasons for going to UB next year.
Why did you start playing baseball? Why did you start playing hockey?
Baseball, I always played because my dad put me in a league and my dad always played baseball. He was good at it, and I wanted to be just like him, so I started playing baseball.
And hockey, I watched it one day and I was like, ‘That’s a pretty cool game,’ and I wanted to play, and I started playing that. All the neighborhood kids played, so I started playing with them and decided to play in a league.
Is there any way that playing hockey helps you with playing baseball?
Oh yeah, keeping in shape for sure. Conditioning. Hockey gets me in condition for baseball. Keeps my legs strong and just more conditioned.
What are some of your memories of playing hockey growing up?
A lot of them. Mostly when we go on tournaments and you’re just at the hotel with your team and you’re just messing around and playing. We were on a successful team when I was in bantam and we always won, won a lot of tournaments, and it was just awesome being able to hold up that trophy every tournament when we won.
Was baseball always number one for you?
Oh yeah. I always knew I was better at baseball, so I always put more effort into it. Baseball came before hockey. I just liked baseball a lot better, thought I was better at it.
And you’re playing at UB next year? What went into your decision to go there?
Coach scouted me, and when I went down there for my official visit, I really liked it there. I looked around and they had everything that I wanted. Everything that they have there, I was looking for.
Do you want to talk a little bit about playing hockey for Orchard Park?
That four years was awesome. Coming up from freshman year, just meeting everybody from all four years and learning the system all four years and learning how everything works — even just high school, learning how high school works. It was just awesome being able to do that for the four years instead of just two or one even. Just messing around with the guys and everything, it’s awesome.
It was a good season this year. The team was really good. We had a lot of good players, from goalie to offense, defense, everything. We just wish we could have gotten a little bit further this year.
You guys were super close this year as a team too, right?
Yeah we were. A lot of those kids play together on other teams, like for West Seneca and Regals and everything like that. They play together, and everyone knows each other, so on the ice and off the ice, we’re always with each other hanging out.
Is there one moment or game from your high school career that you’ll never forget?
There was that one Timon game. We played them twice that year. We played them in a brawl — or a brawl happened. And then we played ’em when we were tied, and that was the next time — we beat ’em. We beat them in overtime, I think, and it was just an awesome feeling. It was in front of the home crowd and everything. The fans were just crazy. They were yelling at everybody. There was just, everything was going on up there. There was just an amazing atmosphere, one of the best games I’ve ever played in.
Is there a moment from baseball in your high school career that you’ll never forget?
Last year when we went to states. That was a great year. It’s awesome just being able to just keep rolling, just going through all the playoff games and getting that far, especially with the team we had last year. We had a lot of good guys, and just being able to get that far in any high school sport is just an amazing experience.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about your time playing both sports at Orchard Park?
I just had an amazing time playing here, especially playing for the four years in both sports. I just had an amazing time, and with all the kids I met and throughout both teams, it just made me a lot better kid throughout all of high school.