Lansing-based Central Outlaws 12U wins states

On April 25, the Central Outlaws 12U youth hockey team, based out of The Rink in Lansing, won the first state championship in the program’s six-year history. The Outlaws won the Tier III state title and were able to send the 14U and 16U teams to the state tournament at Niagara University, with both reaching the semifinals in their respective tournaments.

This comes a year after the state championships were canceled due to COVID-19, ending the run of multiple Outlaws teams that were set to make the trip to the state tournament. Having that much success at multiple levels proves that the system in place is working, explained 14U coach Jay Sciarabba.

“The coaches that we have and the managers we have and the ice time that we have, we have a different model on the development side of it,” Sciarabba said. “We started that five, six years ago with how we’re on the ice sometimes four, five, six times a week. We’re on the ice a lot.”

Considering the second-youngest team in the program won the state championship this year and finished 26-3, the future is very bright for the Outlaws. Increased recognition will help make that future come even quicker.

“It’s huge,” Sciarabba said. “Anytime you win a state championship, that gives recognition to a program, especially after five years, it gets people to say, ‘Oh, what are they doing right? Why are they successful?’ Especially with the two other teams going at the same time and getting to the semifinals. That just brings attention to the program of what we’re doing. You look at other central New York teams, I don’t think that many made it that far this year.”

One of the keys to success for the Outlaws is holding mixed practices. The younger players have the opportunity to practice with older players, accelerating their development as they grow.

“The nice thing about our program is we allow those kids access to practice with one another, even at different ages,” Sciarabba said. “If that 12U kid wants to stay for the 14U practice, they can. So, they’re playing against older kids and practicing with older kids and pushing themselves, where a lot of associations don’t do that. We’ve seen that success because the kids are developing at a better rate.”

That development continued through COVID, as there was a very minimal dip in participation throughout the pandemic.

“We kept it going,” Sciarabba said. “We just kept the whole development model going and kept the kids engaged. You have eight months of practices before we really hit games. We had no idea if we were really even going to be able to do games. But to keep the kids that interested and that motivated to keep playing without a prize at the end, every practice was 110% from these kids. It was amazing to see because we thought we’d see a drop-off in November, December.”

Instead, the players stayed the course and continued to improve their game in preparation for the return of competition, and that paid off with a state championship. The program’s full commitment to hockey has led to an expanded player base from all around central New York and beyond.

“Our association is made up of not just kids from Tompkins County,” Sciarabba said. “I’ve got kids as far away as Thousand Islands to play for me. We’ve got Binghamton, Elmira, Cortland, Watertown, Syracuse, so we’re a regional association. I think of that two-hour trip down for practice two or three times a week when you’re not knowing if you’re playing in games, that shows the dedication, the commitment.”

Sciarabba is an Ithaca Little Red hockey alum and continued his career on SUNY Brockport’s team after high school. His son, who has been a member of the Central Outlaws since Sciarabba and 12U coach Russ Johnson founded the program, will be following his footsteps by moving on to a prep school team next year. As a developmental program, Sciarabba views the growth of his son as a success story.

“That’s one of the things we want for our association,” he said. “We want these kids, when they get to that time to go play a higher-level-type hockey. People say, ‘Why do you want your kids to leave?’ Well, it looks great for associations. If that kid got asked to go play at a higher level, then we did our job as coaches.”

Sciarabba founded the Central Outlaws with Johnson after seeing hockey participation drop within Tompkins County. After six years of success and a state championship this year, hockey culture is on the rise again in the area.