Kobylarzes supply three players – and a coach – to HBHS hockey team

Friday, February 5, 2010

By TOM KING

Staff Writer

Hollis/Brookline High School hockey coach Tim Clark got the call early one night during the recent midterm exam week.

It was one of his freshman defensemen, Karlie Kobylarz, calling to say she couldn’t make practice because she had to study.

And that would be the same for her brothers, Jake and Zac. Dad’s orders – and Tom Kobylarz happens to be one of the Cavaliers’ assistant coaches.

But Clark prefers to have his players make the call. And for some reason, the task fell to Karlie.

“We didn’t have (Clark’s number) on the normal phone,” said Jake, a sophomore, referring to their land line. “And she was the only one who had her cell phone, so she got elected to do it.”

“Dad wanted us each to call on one phone, say, ‘I’m not coming,’ and give it to the next person,” Karlie said. “But then they started complaining about that. Zac said he called last time, so I just said I’d call.”

Such is life in the Kobylarz household, where Cavaliers hockey dominates from the end of November through – they hope – the beginning of March, when the state tournament takes place. Three players, one coach, all from the same family on the same team.

“That’s actually outstanding. It’s great,” Tom Kobylarz said. “It’s really fantastic to be able to go ahead and do that. It’s a challenge to do it, but it’s an enjoyable experience. It’s great family time.”

Zac and Jake played last year for the Cavs. But the key was their sister coming on board, especially since this is the only year it’s possible for all three to be together, because Zac will graduate this spring.

None is a star player, but they all fill key roles on the Cavs – Jake as a forward and the other two on the blue line.

Karlie had played a little youth hockey with Jake, and really wanted the one and only chance to play with Zac, as well. Her father didn’t want her playing this year, but she convinced him.

Yet, she still doesn’t know how she did it. She isn’t the only girl on the team.

“I originally didn’t think I’d be letting her play,” Tom Kobylarz said. “But she goes at it. The first couple of practices, there were butterflies.”

But during a preseason jamboree, Tom Kobylarz, the coach, saw what he needed to see to convince Kobylarz, the dad. And now Cavaliers hockey is indeed an entire family affair.

“We went back and forth on it,” said the players’ mom, Korina Kobylarz. “But this was the only chance we’d have to have all three kids playing together on one team. And she really wanted to because it’s something special; she’ll never have the opportunity to do it again.”

Or the convenience.

“I’m so used to having different kids on different teams, and we have to drive here and there to this game,” Korina Kobylarz said. “It’s really nice seeing them all on one team. It’s nice to hear them announced.”

Then the questions begin.

“Most people just ask me if we all play,” Jake said. “They don’t know for sure.”

Tom Kobylarz, who will retire this spring as an Air Force lieutenant colonel after 29 years, went to the Air Force Academy on a football scholarship as a defensive back. But after injuries ended his football career, he became involved in club hockey, and his sons and daughter have always played.

He’d like the opportunity to just sit in the stands sometime and watch his kids play, because when he’s helping Clark, it’s all business.

“When I go behind the bench, I’m at work,” he said.

Clark said he asked Kobylarz to help out “because he’s got three kids in the program. Sometimes the parents have to step up because we don’t have a lot of money” to pay assistant coaches. “He knows the game; he’s played the game.”

Of the three players, Clark says Jake may be the best skater. He says Zac has a lot of knowledge of the game and Karlie has the courage – sometimes too much.

“She’s not afraid,” Clark said. “She’ll step right in. I have to tell her, ‘Karlie, don’t go after the puck with your head down.’ ”

“It’s hard,” Karlie said. “The boys are so much stronger and bigger than me, it’s scary. But they talk to me and they help me. But if it doesn’t have anything to do with hockey, they walk away. They’re there for me, though.”

“It’s kind of cool, kind of comfortable,” Zac said. “I’d say it’s nice having all three of us on the same team.”

But Zac had some reservations at first, not wanting to show any favoritism toward his younger brother and sister compared to the rest of his teammates.

“It’s not something I was exactly looking forward to at times,” he said. “Not because I didn’t want to be on the same team as them, but I want to think of everyone as my teammate. … I was kind of nervous as to how well she would do, but she’s done fine.”

What’s it like around the house – heck, on the car ride home – after a game? Or even a loss?

“Quiet,” Karlie said. “That is definitely the best explanation for it. My dad starts talking, ‘I know you guys don’t want to hear this, but this is what we need to do, this is what you did get done.’ He gives us a little pep talk at the end and we all blow off our own steam, doing different things.”

Karlie hits the phone, her brothers play video games.

And Tom Kobylarz says he lets the ride home be a quiet one, and maybe he’ll talk to them long after the game.

“I can’t say anything they haven’t heard me say 100 times before,” he says.

Zac, meanwhile, takes the losses in stride.

“When we lose, I can blame it on them, without any repercussions,” Zac, who sometimes drives everyone to practice, says with a laugh. “And when we win, it’s good to celebrate with everyone.”

Win or lose, Jake finds it strange to have two teammates living under the same roof.

“It’s kind of weird,” he said. “I hear a lot of people talking about it when I get home. Everyone in the house has their little opinions on what happened. I’m not used to that. …

“When we win, it’s better than normal, because I hear them excited about it. When we lose, I hear them complaining about it, and that’s even worse.”

The special season will come to an end at some point. Then the Kobylarz family will be down to a brother-sister tandem on the Cavs for two years. And then just Karlie, and then …

“It’s going to be strange when we have no kids in hockey,” Korina Kobylarz said. “It’ll be withdrawals. I mean, what are we going to do on the weekends?

“I’ll never get the chance to see this again – the three of them skate on the ice together.”