Weston alum Alex Marlow reconnects with former coach ahead of Garden trip they were denied
WELLESLEY - Alex Marlow's high school hockey career ended on an overtime goal just short of reaching TD Garden.
Savio Prep - which closed later that year - eliminated Weston with an overtime goal in the 2007 Division 3 North sectional final.
"We got right there. It was a bad bounce. That's what hockey is," former Weston coach Linc Cornell said. "It's awesome that Alex is there now, just awesome."
Marlow took over the Dover-Sherborn/Weston co-op program in 2020 after spending three years as an assistant. The Raiders reached the Sweet 16 each of the past two seasons before breaking through to their first state final. The No. 5 seed in Division 4 will face No. 6 Hanover at 11 a.m. at TD Garden.
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"It's a dream come true. Every little hockey player's dream is to go to the Garden," Marlow said.
Cornell, other coaches and alumni have reached out to Marlow in the days since D-S/Weston's dramatic shootout win over top-seeded Winthrop in the Final Four. Former teammates are flying in for the game from California and Georgia.
"It's cool that a lot of kids may have left the program and it was just D-S or just Weston, but to see their interest and seeing that their program has done this, come together as one, has been really cool," Marlow said.
Foundation of a program in Weston
This version of D-S/Weston began with Cornell in the early 2000s. Weston revived a dead varsity team in 2002-03 around the time the Rivers School built a rink, and the town of Weston secured ice time through them. Weston's teams skated in Natick before that, where Cornell coached youth hockey. He led a Pee Wee A team to the state championship, and Weston officials asked him to lead their program.
It started in 2002-03 as a freshman program. Marlow was one of those freshmen. He captained the team all four years and into its transition to a varsity program his junior year.
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"I was able to have the system, and we took off," Cornell said.
Much of that system had little to do with skating or puck handling. Cornell often brought the players onto the bench to observe practice so they could see the ice through a coach's eyes.
"Part of my theory was if we get the system right, you guys should be making the decisions on the ice," he said. "You don't need me on the bench. You should be able to figure this all out. That was a foundation."
Marlow built on that foundation when he took over the program, which emerged as a co-op in 2018.
"I took a lot from him and his coaching because with him, it wasn't just X's and O's. It's building a team, building a program," Marlow said. "He had to build this culture. When I took over, we needed to harness that culture. It wasn't just who's the best skill and all that. We needed kids that were friends, that got along. It's more than the hockey. I learned a lot of that from him."
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Cornell will be at the Garden on Sunday watching his player make the trip he never got as a coach.
"It's just like passing the baton," Cornell said. "It's so nice. It makes you smile."
Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Alex Marlow reconnects with Weston hockey history ahead of state final
