Atlantic Youth Hockey League

Palecco to Yale

Release Date : 3/10/2014

EAST MEADOW, NY – The Atlantic Metropolitan Junior Hockey League and the Long Island Gulls are pleased to announce that forward Dante Palecco (’98 birth year/Whippany, NJ) has committed to Yale University for the 2016-2017 season. Yale, last season’s Division I champion, is the oldest collegiate ice hockey team in the United States and plays in the ECAC. Palecco joins recent Long Island Gulls youth alumni forwards Ryan Hitchcock (’96 birth year/Manhasset, NY) and Nolan Aibel (’97 birth year/Brookville, NY) in committing to the Ivy League school.

Palecco has a storied youth career in the Atlantic Youth Hockey League, spending time with the North Jersey Avalanche last season and with the New Jersey Colonials in prior years, where he won a national championship. A multi-year AYHL All-Star, Palecco has long been lauded for his natural scoring ability, netting fifty goals in the ’11-’12 season and having thirty-four regular season goals this year in leading the Gulls to the AYHL U16-National Championship.

“I loved Yale’s atmosphere,” Palecco said in an interview with the Gulls media. “The experience I had there was amazing! I just felt like I could benefit as a player and as a student there.”

“I couldn’t be happier for Dante, and his family,” said longtime coach and mentor George Bosak. “He has worked so hard for this moment and has put in countless hours of effort to get here. Dante’s a great kid and Yale will great a fantastic, high-scoring forward in 2016.

“You spend so much time with a player that when they receive a commitment or reach a milestone, it impacts you personally,” Bosak added. “And when it’s a kid like Dante, that you’ve spent years with, you definitely feel like you’ve played a role in that.”

The AMHL congratulates Dante and the entire Palecco family on this accomplishment.