While many were celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary, a group of local ball hockey players and coaches were making history representing the United States in Slovakia.
From July 1-5, teams from the USA, Czechia, Canada, Slovakia, Switzerland and Great Britain met in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia for the 2026 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation (ISBHF) U18 Men’s World Championships. When the final day rolled around, only Czechia and the United States, made up of several Mon Valley and Pittsburgh area members, remained.
Despite the Czechs knocking the Americans around for an 8-1 win in the group stage Friday, and team USA facing a 3-1 deficit with under two minutes left, it was the Americans that scored two goals to force overtime before Jonathan Trosky scored the overtime winner to give USA its first-ever gold medal at the U18 level.
“It’s been a few days, but I still can’t put it into words,” USA assistant coach Willie McKeen said. “They’re an incredible group. They bought into everything all week. Everything that we asked them to do, they did, whether it was on the rink or off the rink. We were down by two with two minutes left, and everyone stayed strong, stayed true, bought in, and scoring two in the last minute and a half gave us a lot of confidence going into the locker room.
“Head coach Eddie Costa, he’s from Massachusetts, and he had a great command of the group and the staff. He set us up for success in overtime. I still don’t have words for it, but it was euphoric. I’m still reliving the moment and the thoughts I had at the time, and it’s been incredible. There was a lot of profanity shouted when we scored the game winner in overtime, and to do it with local guys, some of which I’ve coached since they were six, seven, eight years old, it’s a book that writes itself.”
USA’s Ryan Gallen opened the scoring before Czechia’s Michal Mareček replied right before the end of the first to make it 1-1 after one. The Czechs then took control of the game with two goals in the second period, one from Maxim Fišer and the other from Matouš Pospíšil.
That left the Americans in a jam, playing the majority of the third period down two goals. But when it mattered most, they found a way.
First, it was Jayson Hoffman that scored with 1:26 left in regulation. Then, with just 18 seconds before Czechia would secure the gold, Gallen tallied his second goal on the power play to force an overtime period.
After 5:06 of extra play, Trosky fired home to claim the gold medal for the USA. Collin Moffett made 24 saves in the winning effort while Connor Lammi, Anthony Bonari, Caleb Horner, Ian Basilio, Greg Krongel and Macin DeFazio all picked up an assist each.
“It was an amazing feeling, and it was almost even like a relief as I’ve been with this group for multiple years in the U16 program,” USA GM Ryan Shannon said. “They’ve come so close and worked so hard, so it’s something that they’ve earned. It was great to see them get over that final hurdle and get something they’ve deserved for years.
“There was just a confidence about this team. There was a goal scored with about 1:30 left on the clock by Jason Hoffman from New Jersey, and by the way they celebrated, you knew they weren’t going to be denied. They had this confidence about them that they were going to get another goal, and they knew what they had to do. They drew a penalty and got the opportunity on the power play, and they took advantage. They just had a confidence about them, it was just a special group doing special things.”
The team’s roster included Gavin Ambrose, Ian Basilio, Lucas Blose, Anthony Bonari, Mason Bosco, Tyler Brenner, Macin DeFazio, Brady Gabriel, Ryan Gallen, Jayson Hoffman, Caleb Horner, Greg Krongel, Connor Lammi, Jackson Nasuti, Robert Persson, Jake Simon, Eric Stief and Jonathan Trosky as skaters with Collin Moffett and Andrew Weir serving as the team’s goaltenders.
Costa manned the bench alongside assistant coaches McKeen, David Lammi and Nate Zevola, while Ryan Shannon was the team’s GM. Molly McDougal served as athletic trainer while Vaughn Shannon, Tony Demonico and RJ Gibbs served as equipment managers.
Several of the squad’s players and coaches had local ties, making the win all the more special for everyone involved.
Moffett lives in the Belle Vernon Area School District but is homeschooled while Weir is from Elizabeth Forward. Horner plays football at Belle Vernon, Bonari went to Yough and captained the Ringgold ice hockey team to its PIHL championship this past winter, and Blose and Simon are from Thomas Jefferson where they starred for the ice hockey team this past season.
Shannon was born and raised in Charleroi, still living in the Magic City while teaching at Ringgold Middle School. McKeen lives right around the corner from Bill’s Dek Hockey where he coaches and works with several players, including much of this gold medal team.
Brenner, a Plum resident, was honored to represent his community and his country in the U18 tournament with pride from being selected for the team through prospect camps earlier this year.
The opportunity for Brenner carried an especially meaningful family dimension. His sister, Payton Brenner, competed in the ISBHF U18 Women’s World Championships last year in Great Britain, helping Team USA to a championship victory.
“I was just a great time. We all had a lot of fun,” said Brenner a rising senior at Plum and a member of the Mustangs boys lacrosse team this spring.
“We all had our individual challenges, depending on whether it was the heat (100 or higher most days) or the running around from planes and trains to make it to where we needed to be. We overcame all of the challenges as individuals and those as a team. We came together and played very well against some really good teams. It was definitely an experience.”
Brenner, a defender, wasn’t Plum’s solo representation in Slovakia as Brayden Caliguri, a forward, played in the ISBHF U16 Men’s World Championships. Team USA made the semifinals before falling to Slovakia, 6-1. The U16 Americans then suffered a close 4-3 loss to Canada Red in the battle for bronze.
Caliguri, a rising junior at Central Catholic and a member of the Vikings JV ice hockey team this past winter, scored four goals and added an assist in the team’s seven games.
As GM, Shannon was responsible for setting up prospect camps to determine the best players for selecting the team, and he said that area players are some of the best that the county has to offer.
McKeen agreed, adding that the Pittsburgh Penguins build many of the dek hockey facilities in the area that have blossomed with new players over the years. But the area’s success predates that, with the last junior USA gold medal coming in 2006 with TribLive columnist Mark Madden coaching the squad.
“I was lucky enough to play for Mark Madden growing up,” Shannon said. “The Pittsburgh area has always been huge for ball hockey. Obviously with the success of the Penguins, people have wanted to play hockey in any way they could, so I think that has also added so much to the community. The team that won gold 20 years ago was made up of a lot of Pittsburgh-area players, too, so this area is just special for the game of ball hockey.”
“There was a big rocket in numbers around here when the Penguins got involved,” McKeen said. “They built all kinds of dek hockey rinks, and still to this day there’s all sorts of organizations at these facilities. Iron sharpens iron, so you have all these top players playing each other at all kinds of tournaments.”
Team USA finished the group stage of the tournament with a 4-1 record as Czechia handed them their only loss, but the Americans topped that phase of the championships with 12 points to Czechia’s 11. USA knocked off Slovakia, 8-4, to move on to the final while the Czechs downed Canada, 4-3.
With the gutsy come-from-behind victory, the group is now immortalized in USA ball hockey history as the first group to win the U18 age group. The Americans also won in overtime over Czechia, 2-1, in the Men’s World Championship a week prior to the U18 competition as Costa earned another gold medal on the bench of that team as an assistant.
Staff writer Michael Love contributed.