The National Capital Hockey Tournament has seen ups and downs, but continues to skate forward
John Cotten sat down with B.J. Koubaroulis in the PrepZone studio to discuss the rich history of the Purple Puck hockey tournament, hosted annually by Gonzaga. (Video by Nick Plum for Synthesis/Koubaroulis LLC / The Washington Post)
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October 15, 2015, 7:20 p.m. — Purple Puck Tournament Director John Cotten has been a part of the organization for the past eight years, but he has seen the peaks and valleys of the competition dating back to the early days through watching his son play.
Formally titled the National Capital Hockey Tournament and hosted by Gonzaga College High School, it is now entering its 23rd year of existence. The event has two divisions, Prep and Varsity, with Prep consisting of the more elite programs. It provides Gonzaga with a chance to compete against other renowned schools outside of the Washington, D.C. region.
The 2015 version will feature eight Prep squads. The teams include locals Gonzaga, DeMatha and Bishop O’Connell, along with St. Joseph’s Prep (PA), Hun School (NJ), Academy New Church (PA), Calvert Hall (MD) and Malvern Prep (PA). The Hun School will be defending their 2014 championship after they knocked off the Purple Eagles in the title game.
The annual holiday-time event (@NCHT_DCHockey) will run from December 26-31 at Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Southeast Washington, D.C, the home of Gonzaga hockey.
Cotten witnessed the tournament go from a glorified entity to somewhat of an afterthought prior to him taking over the reigns, but under his leadership it has returned to prominence.
Cotten’s son, Marquise, grew up playing for the Fort Dupont Cannons from 1999-2008 at Fort Dupont Ice Arena. Thus, the Cotten family has been surrounded by the Purple Eagles hockey program dating back to the late 1990s, when they first viewed the tournament as spectators.
“The Purple Puck is the oldest continuous tournament on the East coast and around that time it used be a large tournament with actually three divisions,” Cotten said.
The three original divisions of the tournament were the American (Varsity I), the National (Varsity II), and the Capital (JV), with teams traveling long distances to participate.
With the Cotten family background, it was only inevitable that Marquise would go on to join the Purple Eagles hockey program himself in 2007.
The next year, Cotten decided to officially get involved with the Purple Puck as the Assistant Director. He served in this role for two years under Sam Gerdano before taking over as the Tournament Director in 2010.
When Cotten began working for the event as an assitant, it had reached an all-time low. Gonzaga has three ice hockey teams, Varsity I, Varsity II and Junior Varsity. At that time, only the Varsity II team participated and the level of competition was low and primarily local.
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Remembering the great early days of the tournament, Cotten hoped for something better. In 2009, Gerdano and Cotten began to get the program back on the right track.
“The tournament kind of fell off in the mid-2000s, from about 2003 to 2008, and then it was revived by a group of people, that included myself,” Cotten said.
In the rebuilding effort, the staff began placing ads at American Hockey Tournaments and doing a better job of promoting. Then, the phone calls began pouring in, starting with a team from Manitoba, Canada, followed by a prep academy in Chicago and another in Philadelphia.
“We weren’t expecting that type of reaction,” Cotten said, “and from that point the tournament had grown back into what it was.”
After the success of the 2009 event, Cotten took the reigns as the Tournament Director. In his first year in charge, Loyola Academy from St. Louis returned to the tournament, along with local power Georgetown Prep.
Keeping the momentum going in 2011, the reigning New York, Ohio and West Virginia state champions all made the trip to Washington, D.C. That same year, DeMatha, another local powerhouse, made their return to Fort Dupont.
“It’s one of the strongest tournaments around during the holidays again,” Cotten said.
Current Gonzaga head coach, Bill Slater, comes from a family that bleeds purple as he has had two sons go through the program. Slater understands the importance of the Purple Puck tournament, as it provides the team with five competitive games and a chance to get the season going in the right direction. However, he admits there is added pressure as the host squad.
“The worst thing that could happen is we don’t make it to the playoff round or we don’t make it to the finals,” Slater said.
According to Slater, the tournament may not even be around today without Cotten’s significant contributions.
“I can not tell you how much he has meant to Gonzaga and to the Purple Puck,” Slater said. “The tournament has become what it is today because of John’s passion and his wanting to give back to the local community in D.C. and to Gonzaga, and because he loves hockey. He’s unbelievable, we won’t let him leave.”
As Director, it is Cotten’s responsibility to procure the teams, make the contracts with those teams and with hotels, set the game schedules, and to make sure each game has a trainer for safety. He also gets the event certified by USA Hockey and by the National Federation of Hockey.
Cotten now uses social media to his advantage as well. While Gonzaga was competing in the semi-final game in 2013, he was sending out updates on the Purple Eagles’ Facebook page. Somehow, these posts drew the attention of someone from Auburn Drive High School in Nova Scotia, Canada, and they responded with their interest in the tournament via the social media site, and participated in the event in 2014.
“We added another great team just from a Facebook post,” Cotten said.
Of all the teams Cotten has seen come through Fort Dupont, the Hun School ranks near the top of the list for him. Their appearance in 2015 will be their third consecutive, already with a championship and a runner-up finish under their belts.
“I just like the spirit they bring the tournament,” Cotten said. “After the game you’ll walk by the locker room and the music will be playing loud, so I renamed their locker room ‘Club Hun.’ Every time you go in there they are just having a blast.”
For Cotten, seeing the out of town teams get a chance to experience the Nation’s Capital is as special, if not more special, than watching them in action on the ice.
For example, in 2009, the team out of Manitoba, Canada was in town and Eric Fehr, a native of Manitoba, invited all of the teams to the Capitals game. The players were each given jerseys and the teams were welcomed on the big screen in the Verizon Center.
“We give the teams a chance to go around and see the city and I ask them to take pictures of the things they visit,” Cotten said. “So seeing them on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or in other tourist spots, those are great memories for me.”
According to Cotten, the Purple Puck is defined by its family atmosphere in which the teams gather in the hotel hospitality room to interact, they have a dinner at the hotel, they travel the city together, and even do a gift exchange.
Despite the ebbs and flows, the tournament is as strong as ever and continues to bring young hockey players together.
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