Nearly a Decade After Death, Connecticut Hockey Icon Jason Pagni’s Legacy Stronger Than Ever
by Cameron Levasseur/CHN Reporter
(photo: Cameron Levasseur)
“You’ve got to dig in!” C.J. Marottolo barks at his players as he paces up and down the bench at Avon Old Farms on Dec. 1. There’s 3.8 seconds on the clock. His Sacred Heart Pioneers lead American International, 5-4, one defensive zone faceoff between them and victory.
The players know their roles: win the draw, then — “just eat it, kill it,” Marottolo says.
First line centerman John Jaworski slides up to the dot to face AIC’s Dustin Manz. Manz wins the faceoff, but Jaworski wins the battle, forcing the puck into the corner for the rest of his team to pile on and “kill it.”
The buzzer sounds, Sacred Heart holds on, extending its win streak to five games and its lead atop the Atlantic Hockey standings to five points. Marottolo takes a moment to look around John T. Gardner Rink — an hour from the Pioneers’ home facilities in Fairfield — and reflect on why he’s there.
He can still picture himself in the stands, watching prep school games alongside Jason Pagni, an Avon alumnus, lifelong friend and pillar of the Connecticut hockey community who died in 2014.
“Tonight’s win’s a little extra special,” he said. “When you have a game like this, where the game is about his memory, I think about him a lot.”
The game is the ninth Sacred Heart has played in Pagni’s honor, an idea originally introduced by Marottolo to raise money for the education of Pagni’s two daughters. It now serves as the primary fundraiser for the Connecticut Hockey Foundation, which aims to give back to youth hockey in the state in Pagni’s memory.
“We wanted to (remember) Jason in a way that we thought would last for a long time because his impact on hockey at the youth, prep and community level will never be replaced,” said Eric Opin, the foundation’s director and Pagni’s lawyer for a decade.
Pagni, or “Pags” as he’s lovingly referred to, lived for hockey. He was the life of the party, always wearing a smile and carrying stories that could “break down a room with laughter.”
On Friday, the 650 people packed into the arena on Avon’s campus were smiling in his memory.
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