Hockey coach Josh Dannecker called him a consummate leader. Baseball coach Chuck Senn said he’s a role model for the underclassmen.
But Zach Mecca emphasizes that he couldn’t accomplish anything without his teammates around him. As a captain of both the Orchard Park hockey and baseball teams this year, he led the hockey team to its first ever Section VI Championship, state regional championship, and state semifinal appearance. The baseball team finished 8-4 in league play for first place in ECIC Division I and advanced as far as Class AA Semifinals before its season — and Mecca’s high school sports career — came to an end.
Baseball began about two years before hockey for Mecca, and it’s baseball that will consume most of his future in sports. He plans to attend Rochester Institute of Technology in the fall and continue his baseball career there.
But his senior year of hockey is one he won’t soon forget. Early on, Mecca and his teammates were as unsure as just about anyone what the 2018-19 season would hold.
“I didn’t really know what to expect when we went into the season,” Mecca admitted. “I really had no idea. Didn’t really know a lot of the younger guys coming in.”
The season started off strong with a couple league wins and a 1-0-1 finish in a tournament in Pelham, New York. Then they hit a wall. For the rest of December, the Quakers couldn’t find a win. They lost six straight.
But with 2019 came new life. The Quakers defeated Frontier on January 11, 3-2, and Mecca scored all three OP goals, including the game winner with less than a minute remaining in regulation. He was all smiles that night, and he and his teammates never looked back. Mecca’s chemistry with linemates Kyle Flynn and Jack Kinsman was almost unmatched, and the rest of the team followed.
“We just bonded,” Mecca said. “We all played for each other, we all worked for each other, we all loved each other, and it was definitely the best team to experience what we did with.”
Mecca’s leadership was an integral part of the team’s success, and months later, Dannecker still hasn’t run out of good things to say about his captain.
“We didn’t have a ton of seniors, so to have a guy like that who’s kind of the consummate leader, that made a huge difference for us,” Dannecker said. “Even coming into the year and early on in the season, to have a guy that had the confidence and had been there for as long as he had, I thought he brought a ton to the team. It’s gonna be a big loss when he moves on for sure.”
Mecca was on the varsity roster all four years at OP, so his experience, along with being one of just a few seniors on this year’s team, helped him slide easily into a leadership role.
“I knew what Fonz and Dannecker expected,” Mecca explained. “So it was easy to try to help out the younger guys and tell them what’s expected here, just try to teach them how to represent Orchard Park and how to play Orchard Park hockey well.”
Mecca’s offensive production was another aspect of his leadership, as he finished the season with 15 goals and 17 assists for a total of 32 points. It was a significant jump from last year.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened this year — last year I had like five points,” Mecca said with a grin. “I just think being a senior, it was probably my last year of hockey, so I just wanted to leave it all on the table. With the help of Kinsman and Flynn, we did a lot of damage this year, and I couldn’t do it without them and every other player on the team.”
Mecca’s performance earned him not just First Team All-Fed honors, but he was also named to the All-State Division 1 First Team and the Bowman Cup all-star team.
“Honestly, I just couldn’t do it without the coaches that we had and the players that we had,” Mecca said again. “I definitely feel that some players on the team didn’t get recognized as much as they should have. What I did personally couldn’t have been done without every kid in the locker room.”
It was a close knit locker room, one that fought hard for each other and for every win. Mecca’s favorite regular season game was a 2-1 win against McQuaid in which the Knights peppered OP sophomore goalie Toby Bell with 52 shots. He stopped 51 of them, Flynn and Owen Hughes scored, and the Quakers spoiled McQuaid’s senior night with a 2-1 win.
“That was probably the most fun game to win in the regular season,” Mecca said. “And then we just picked it up and obviously playoffs was super memorable, knowing not a lot of people get a chance to play in a state semifinal game or even make it to states, especially since it was the first in our school history. It was unbelievable.”
The Quakers defeated Lockport/Niagara Falls, 13-3, in quarterfinals, squeaked out an exhilarating 5-4 win against Williamsville North in semifinals, and defeated Niagara-Wheatfield, 4-0, for the first Section VI Championship in school history. The Quakers’ defense allowed just 18 shots, and junior goaltender Ryan Albert stopped all of them. Mecca scored a power play goal and was named game MVP by Section VI.
He scored again less than a week later in the regional championship game against Ithaca, and Kinsman won it in overtime for the Quakers to send them back to Buffalo happy and with hockey left to be played.
Though they knew their time as a team was limited to two more games at most, there was a lighthearted atmosphere surrounding the Quakers the weekend of the state championship. They practiced Friday morning at Harborcenter, enjoyed a dinner that evening at the Statler, and spent time back at the rink playing soccer and moving their equipment into locker room 4 for the following day’s state semifinal game.
Mecca took his place at center the following afternoon, flanked by Kinsman and Flynn. They fought through a scoreless first period, with Albert stopping all 13 of Syracuse’s shots. But the Syracuse team proved to be too much for the Quakers, and despite Albert’s strong performance in net and a goal scored by Kinsman, the Quakers’ storybook season came to an end with a 5-1 loss.
Emotions ran high after the game, but now, months later, Mecca is able to look back and be thankful for the teammates who surrounded him for his last season of hockey. He expressed his thankfulness then through tears; now he says it once again with more composure and the realization that it was just about the best way to end his hockey career.
“It was definitely the most fun team I’ve ever played on, the best group of kids I’ve ever played with,” Mecca said. “It was sad to end hockey, but at the same time, it was nice to end on a high note. Honestly, it was easier to end hockey that way with such a great run and a good team.”
The Quakers’ baseball team was already preparing for its season, and Mecca had some catching up to do. But he worked hard and finished the season with a .404 batting average, 20 RBI’s and 18 runs scored in 21 games (according to maxpreps.com). Mecca was an All-WNY Honorable Mention for baseball, the only OP player selected. He was also one of several OP players selected for the senior all-star game.
His senior year was Mecca’s third on the varsity baseball roster, but he grew up playing baseball with most of the other 11 seniors on the 2019 roster. The familiarity helped with team chemistry and performance, and while the 2019 season didn’t live up to their hopes and expectations, the Quakers showed improvement over their .500 record in 2018 with a 14-8 overall record and 8-4 league record.
“We definitely stepped it up this year compared to last year,” Mecca said. “It’s just been a great experience to play at OP, and it’s a great baseball program.”
Mecca was able to start several games behind the plate his junior year. The contributions he was able to make then, along with the team’s spring training trips to warmer weather the past few years, are a couple of his favorite memories of OP baseball.
“Last year, it was nice that I was able to catch a lot and start a lot,” Mecca said. “The baseball program is awesome at OP. There’s a lot of good opportunities, especially with the spring training trip. I was able to go on that since I was a sophomore, and that’s one of the highlights of the year.”
Mecca plays travel baseball for Full Circuit, and his coaches there influenced his decision and opportunity to continue his career at RIT. Coach Brian Brazee played at RIT himself, and he contacted the RIT coach on Mecca’s behalf. Once Mecca visited the school, he fell in love right away, making his choice an easy one.
“My travel coaches at Full Circuit were definitely the guys who put in a good word for me and really helped me to get there,” Mecca said. “I just fell in love with the school ever since I stepped on campus, and to be able to play baseball and pursue academics there is just awesome.”
The end of his high school baseball career was another sad goodbye for Mecca, but with plenty of baseball to keep him occupied over the summer and thoughts of his future at RIT, he’s already looking ahead.
“Obviously it’s gonna be sad to leave OP Baseball and sad to stop wearing the maroon and white,” Mecca said. “But I’m excited for the future at RIT.”
Feature photo courtesy of Andrew Miller.