....Recently however, two Maryland nine-year olds earned a spot to play in The Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament in Edmonton, Alberta Canada this summer.  This Super Novice Tournament is the highest level of competition for hockey players turning 10 this year.  There are 7 Canadian teams and 7 US teams that competed for 9 days in July.
 
               Quinn McKenzie (North Potomac) and Charlie Trethewey (Ellicott City) both earned an import spot on Team Pennsylvania’s Brick team.  Each of the 14 teams has a designated territory and can only take a limited amount of players from outside their charter.  Most teams are given only two outside spots to use. Due to these rules, it is difficult for out of charter players to make any Brick team since they are at the mercy of what the team needs to round out their roster.   In fact, from all available information we could find, McKenzie and Trethewey are the first players both from Maryland and who play for Maryland hockey clubs to ever compete in this tournament in it’s 28 year history.  There have been Virginia residents who have played for Maryland programs and a Maryland resident who played for a Pennsylvania club but, no pure Maryland players.
 
               There are a few things that make McKenzie and Trethewey’s spots on Team PA (partially sponsored by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadephia Flyers) interesting.  First, their Dads grew up in each of these cities.  Ray McKenzie in Philadelphia and Bob Trethewey in Pittsburgh.  They each are known by all as huge Flyers and Penguins fans respectively, and their boys have followed in their footsteps.  Even with most other friends and teammates being Caps fans, these two have stayed loyal.   The boys are both thrilled to have an emblem of their team on their shoulders for the Brick.   Secondly, these boys have mostly played against each other as they have grown up.  McKenzie has come up in the Montgomery Blue Devils system while Trethewey has played for the Tri City Eagles.  Finally, McKenzie is a super fast 52 inch forward who, when not scoring, is always creating on the ice and helping to make plays happen.  Trethewey is a strong skating, 62 inch offensive defensemen with a rocket point shot.  He was also very excited to occasionally throw a slap shot at the net under Canadian rules   Right there is about where the differences end. 
 
               For starters, they both love the game and are very hard workers.  Both were on the ice with a hockey stick at age 2.  Each has also put in many extra training sessions over the years,  many times long before their classmates are up for school.  Despite this early morning dedication, both are also excellent students.  They are only entering 4th grade though because neither have the coveted early hockey birthdays.  Both played the tournament in July as 9 year olds.   Although in the past they have played regular season hockey separately, they have also had time to become friends and bond as teammates.  They played for the same Maryland Hockey tournament team, a 2007 Hockey Essentials Elite team out of New Jersey and also a 2006 Bethesda Lacrosse team.  They have both grown up with their own Dads on the bench as coaches and Charlie has also played under Coach McKenzie.  They also greatly benefited from playing Squirt Major hockey in their Minor year.  The PA Brick team began their journey together since in the fall, Trethewey will join McKenzie under the Blue Devils banner and head coach, Rob Keegan for their Squirt Major year.  Last year his Squirt Major team finished 4th nationally.  The one final sweet similarity is they both only have sisters and one of Trethewey’s sisters is named Quinn!  All sisters (Elle, Alex & Quinn) and the rest of the McKenzie and Trethewey crew cheered on these Maryland boys, as well as the entire PA Brick Team during their Brick season.    
 
The team got off to a great start to their season and took home the 2007s banner at the Hockey Hall of Fame Tournament in Toronto besting Toronto Pro Hockey.   During the Brick Tournament, the team only won one exhibition game against Manitoba and one tournament game against Chicago.  The Canadian teams were  very deep in talent!  Trethewey and McKenzie both had a huge impact on the team’s successes and they both got tapped in critical overtime situations.  Among other goals, McKenzie had the assist on the game winning goal of a very exciting 2 v 2 full ice overtime!   Regardless of the teams record, the experience will be something these boys will carry with them for years to come and they were excellent examples of the kind of players Maryland is turning out.  They met some amazing new friends on Team Pennsylvania and they found as individual players, they could match up well against the best players from Canada.   This winter season will be one to follow since McKenzie and Trethewey will join the other very talented players making up Rob Keegan’s team and make a run for the national rankings.