MHS grad inducted to College Hockey Hall of Fame

By ZENDA FARREL | Milton Independent Sports Writer

Travis Bezio, a 1990 MHS graduate and 3-year varsity hockey player under head coach Dave Gilbert was recently inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame Class of 2007 in recognition of his exemplary ice hockey career.

Bezio was one of seven former University of Southern Maine student-athletes to be recognized at the 22nd Annual Hall of Fame Banquet held on Saturday, September 29th at the Kenneth Brooks Student Center on the Gorham campus.

After graduating from MHS, Bezio played junior hockey in Sweden for one year and for the Swedish Elite League before joining the varsity team at the University of Southern Maine. A Class of ‘96 men's ice hockey standout, Bezio has been described as a gifted playmaker and adept goal scoring threat. He was ranked highly in the USM career record books for men’s ice hockey, finishing his varsity 4-year, 100 game career with 108 points (40 goals and 68 assists), a record that stood unbroken until 2007. His accomplishments include a single season record of 9 goals and 25 assists.

Bezio was instrumental in leading the Huskies to one of their finest seasons ever, guiding them to an 18-9-1 record and securing a berth in the ’92/’93 ECAC Finals. The 18 win season remains the highest winning total for the USM Huskies. In addition to his varsity records in career assists and single-season assists, a four-goal performance by Bezio against Stonehill College on February 6, 1992 resulted in an 11-2 win for USM and is tied for the benchmark in goals in one game.

Bezio is employed by Howe Hockey Development and the East Coast Selects, a development company for youth players, 5 of whom were drafted to the NHL this year.

After graduating from USM, Bezio and teammate John St Pierre who was a senior at the time began putting all star teams together as a hobby. “We put teams of high school students together and began perfecting the process of sending allstar teams to Europe. A few years later, John went to Philadelphia where he met Gordie Howe’s grandson Travis and they started doing this as a business. When it got close to a size that it could support a full time person working on it, they needed someone with backgrounds in hockey and business. Since I have a CPA and John and I had done this together in the past, I fit the bill and I was asked to handle all of these functions. We’ve grown about 1000% since I came on board 3 years ago. This year we are taking 30 elite teams from around the US and Canada to Europe for tournaments. We run elite training camps in 5 age groups all over the US. We also put on an international tournament every May in Rochester, NY. We have about 150 teams from all over the world participating and we recently added a girl’s branch. I have to admit, it’s not often you get lucky enough to work at something most people volunteer for. I really enjoy what I do. Until last year I worked out of my house but as we grew and started employing people we needed more room so we opened an office in Essex.”

Bezio currently resides in Westford with his wife and 3 year old twins Annika and Jordan who got their first pair of skates and helmet last weekend. Travis plans to do some public skating this winter and get them on the ice early.

Learn more about East Coast Selects hockey here: http://www.selectshockey.com