By James Tarabocchia ’24 and AJ Carey ’24
WEST POINT – On Tuesday, November 28, members of the Don Bosco Prep Varsity Hockey team took a field trip to West Point Academy in West Point, New York.
We started the day with around a 2-2.5 hour tour of the military base, walking with a guide who pointed out and explained many points of interest. Our tour guide, retired Colonel John Nawoichyk, whose son went to Don Bosco, highlighted the significance of the West Point of the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War and described the battles fought there. Colonel Nawoichyk explained how these battles honed the leadership skills of the American soldiers, as opposed to the selfishness of the British soldiers, which caused them to lose major battles. He also cited the reasons why the French joined the war to help the Americans. As we continued our tour of the base, Colonel Nawoichyk spoe about Colonel John Sedgwick and Ulysses S. Grant. He focused especially on Grant’s perseverance and selflessness, recounting stories about Grant’s refusal to have slaves, and his unlikely journey from selling firewood to being the President of the United States. Colonel Nawoichyk expressed his belief that Grant’s attitude of putting other people before himself really exemplified his character as a true leader. Our tour continued with a look inside the cadets’ dining hall and learning a bit about the cadets’ schedule at West Point.
After that, we were bussed over to the cemetery which was about 5 minutes away from the main campus. We stopped at Major Thomas Kennedy’s grave site and talked about his story. We discussed how selfless a person he was and how he was always making your day better before his. Colonel Nawoichyk briefed us on the story of TK’s tragic death and how his ultimate sacrifice still affects every single one of us today. After taking a good look at the graves of numerous fallen soldiers and West Point alumni, we headed over to the West Point’s hockey arena, Tate Rink, where we toured the spacious locker room named for TK in 2018. While there, we also had pizza for lunch.
We finished our day by hiking up the Trail of the Fallen. At the bottom of the trail before we started, Colonel Nawoichyk asked each player to think of a word that defined the word “team” as he hiked along the trail. We began our climb, carrying 2 rocks and the American flag. It definitely wasn’t an easy hike, and it took us around 20-30 minutes to get to the top. At the top, we looked at all of the other rocks placed in memory of many fallen soldiers. We discussed the words that we thought of and the whole point and lesson of the day. As the Don Bosco Prep Hockey team always does, we considered how we live in TK’s memory and how we make TK proud. We strive to have a slight impact on each person’s life, just as TK, knowing that this is what would make Major Thomas Kennedy proud. We finished the hike by putting all of the words we thought of to define “team” on both of the rocks that we had brought up, along with the memory of TK, and placed them with the other rocks there. We took pictures and finished our day by hiking down a pretty steep trail using many ropes to get down.
Overall, the Don Bosco Prep Hockey team’s trip to West Point was very enjoyable, and, more importantly, it taught us many lasting lessons and bonded the team through one goal: making TK proud.
