It Felt Like We Were in High School Again

Apr 16, 2025

By Michael Fornabaio (@fornabaioctp)

Almost 40 minutes into his pro debut on Sunday, Ross Mitton scored his first pro goal, turned around, pumped his fists and glided backward to the boards with open arms to await his Bridgeport Islanders teammates to celebrate.

And the first person he saw skating toward him, the first of his brand-new teammates, was a man he’s known for years growing up on Long Island.

“Honestly, it really made me feel proud,” Bridgeport defenseman Marshall Warren said. “One of your best buddies, being able to see him do something that’s super-cool, scoring his first pro goal: It almost brought tears to my eyes. It was really special, because I know how hard he works. I know how much he wanted to sign a pro deal.”

Mitton, from Copiague, and Warren, of Laurel Hollow, go back a long way. Back through playing against each other as teenagers, playing together as younger teenagers, going to high school together for a couple of years, trying out for the same teams.

“It has made the transition a lot easier having him here, you know, to teach me the ways,” said Mitton, whose final college season ended last month with Maine in the NCAA tournament. “Pro hockey is just way different than college. You’ve got guys of all ages, and just the way things are, it’s a lot different. I was happy to have him here to show me the ropes.”

Warren remembers meeting Mitton when he was about 9 — he’ll turn 24 this Sunday, Apr. 20; Mitton is about nine and a half months older – at Iceland, a rink in New Hyde Park.

“It’s kind of funny because he had like a huge white cage or something,” Warren said. “We just started talking, and funny enough, we became pretty close.”

Mitton was big for their age, Warren remembered, and didn’t realize his strength, getting in trouble for wrecking some smaller players. Warren tried out for the Long Island Royals with Mitton, but Warren didn’t make the team. Mitton showed Warren around Portledge School, and they were together there for a couple of years, going to math classes and playing hockey games together. They also played for the New Jersey Avalanche together.

“We’d see each other every day, but then our moms would come pick us up. They would switch off each day, take us to Jersey together,” Mitton said. “So we spent almost every day together outside of school, too.”

Warren went on to the United States National Team Development…