At the McCann Ice Arena in Poughkeepsie, skates are digging into the ice. The noises of passes and wrist shots vibrate. Pucks are being aimed at the net quickly through the air.
Players on the ice are threading passes to and through one another. They are skating quickly around each other with precision and intention. Forwards rush down the ice in 2-on-1s. Defensemen keep a stick in the lane. Some bodies are even slightly thrown.
In the final goal of the team’s 5-on-5 scrimmage, player, head coach and owner Joey Bonitatibus scored a breakaway goal, walking through defensemen by himself.
Yes, you read that right. Bonitatibus is the owner of the team, the head coach and declared himself as a player. Surprisingly, this is not the craziest thing in this hockey landscape.
The Hudson Valley Reapers, a “senior A” hockey team, are the newest installment of senior hockey in Poughkeepsie. Most of their players come from varying levels of hockey including collegiate Division III, collegiate club, low-end pro, junior hockey and even some making the jump from men’s league.
This team is often declared as “semi-pro,” which in many regards it is. However, the players are not compensated, hence it is truly declared as senior A. The program is essentially the same team as a previous franchise: The Hudson Valley Vipers. To understand the Reapers, one has to understand how it all began with the Vipers.
The program was founded in late 2023. During the 2024 season, the Vipers existed from January to May in the American Premier Hockey League (APHL), under the ownership of Pat Manning. The program got off to a rocky start, but that was just the beginning.
“I applied for the coaching job, and was able to get it,” said Bonitatibus. “Unfortunately, when we started, we had a group of about six to 10 guys. It was pretty rough.”
Although the Vipers started slow, they ended the season going 14-5-1. Not to mention, they won their first championship in their inaugural season, an incredible feat for the program.
“The Vipers originally started off really poor,” said Bonitatibus. “We lost our first game by 12 goals, and then obviously ended up going on to win the championship.”
Not only did the Vipers create success on the ice, but they also created a lot of buzz around one player: forward Sal Safonte, the team’s enforcer. In most, if not all of the games the Vipers played, Safonte dropped his gloves. In front of a home crowd, the fans chanted Safonte’s name, “all hail Sal!”
“I get on average three to four minutes worth of playing time,” said Safonte. “This entire place can be packed wall to wall with people, and they’re chanting, ‘we want Sal!’… insane.”
After their 2024 campaign, the Vipers announced the relocation of the Elmira River Sharks. The River Sharks were members of the Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL), but they relocated to Poughkeepsie and called themselves the Hudson Valley Venom; still under the management of Manning. Vipers players like Safonte and forward Tim Hanlon were “called up” to the Venom for short periods of time.
However, the Venom/Vipers entanglement faced many practical issues. The McCann Ice Arena’s status as a venue became questionable, as its ability to host home games for both teams was a logistical challenge. At the beginning of the season, the Venom played at IceTime Sports Complex in Newburgh. After the Venom had issues with Icetime Sports Complex, and before a scheduled game on Nov. 22, all of their games at the venue were cancelled by the FPHL.
On Dec. 9th of that same season, the Venom went through an ownership change. The Venom were acquired by PKB LLC, a sports management firm. The Venom played the rest of their games as the HC Venom at McCann Ice Arena until May 2025 before folding completely. The team ended up relocating to Pee Dee, S.C., as the Pee Dee Icecats.
It is very clear why professional hockey is a challenge in Poughkeepsie. FPHL franchises have rinks that hold around 3,000-9,000 fans. The McCann Ice Arena only holds a maximum of 1,288 fans. This made the Venom’s seating capacity the lowest in all of North American professional hockey for its time, making it much more difficult to keep the team afloat.
Although this occurred, wherever a door closes, another opens. At the time, Bonitiatibus and the Vipers were forced to move to the Brewster Ice Arena from September to December 2024. However, travel expenses got in the way of the team playing the 2024-25 season. That gave Bonitatibus the idea to start his own franchise: The Hudson Valley Reapers.
“[The Vipers and the Reapers are] technically two separate entities,” said Bonitatibus. “We were the Vipers. Pat unfortunately got into disagreements or a breach of contract with the rink, whether it was for payments or whatever purposes.”
The concept of starting an independent franchise from the likes of Manning or any other group of ownership gave the team itself more freedom and control. That sense of freedom gave the team a new spark of life. Along with that, the McCann Ice Arena proved to be a perfect home that could fit a reasonable amount of fans for the Reapers to get off the ground in terms of attendance.
“We got a lot of returning players, but we came in with a different identity, from an ownership perspective to just a player perspective,” said captain and forward Max Henry. “And from ownership to the logo to the players we’ve grown quite a bit. We learned a lot after we played with the Vipers.”
Although the Reapers have gone through many big changes, they still are a very steady franchise. They compete in the Power Play Senior Hockey League (PPSHL), and are currently undefeated with a 5-0 record. It is clear that the energy feels fresh, yet it’s almost the same group of players.
Being a player on a senior A hockey team is a unique experience. There are a lot of benefits of being with a team at this point in life. Not all hockey players get the opportunity to play collegiately, let alone professionally. Most of these players have played in many different places. Therefore, it is a true privilege to be able to play in front of a crowd.
One example is Henry. Henry played at the junior level for the Brewster Bulldogs more than a decade ago. He went on to play for Marist in the ACHA until 2017, and it was not until six years later when he ended up playing competitively again with the Vipers.
“[The Reapers] is a completely different stage of my life,” said Henry. “I’m 30 years old. I got a job. I got a wife … I’m busy in different ways. So I would say I went from being a little less busy, where hockey was the only thing I was worried about, to being more busy with school, and then now busier than ever.”
Along with Henry, other players on the team have real-life responsibilities. Most of the players work jobs during the day, and then show up to practice at night. Some players have much longer commutes to McCann Ice Arena than others.
“I definitely do have a pretty busy life compared to a lot of other guys,” said Safonte. “I am a single dad. I work a full time career. I run a close to $2 million a month in a service sprinkler and suppression company, that’s my career… I’m in the central, western area of Jersey.”
In terms of what the Reapers do off the ice, it varies for many of the players. Being on the team and having that commitment to show up makes it difficult for the players to manage time. Along with that, they have games on the weekends, travelling as far as Massachusetts to play.
“We all work full-time jobs,” said defenseman Justin Geigel. “This is a 9-to-5 gig that I have, I find myself driving three hours to go to an away game, and it’s taxing.”
Even though most of the players feel tired from all their responsibilities and working full-time, they always try and make an effort. Sometimes players feel like they are doing too much. Other times they want to put more into the program. But everyone has a role.
“I always want to contribute,” Geigel said. “I want to do this, I want to do that, but I constantly remind my coaches to stay on course to what I do best, which is play defenseman, be that responsible guy back with the goalie, and just not do too much.”
While the team has faced on-ice and off-ice struggles in the past, all the players on the Reapers have the common goal of improving their game, no matter what role they fit on the team.
“A struggle [for me] was matching skill,” said Safonte. “I aged out of juniors when I was 21 and I stopped playing hockey altogether. I actually turned out to hate the sport for quite some time, so it definitely took a little bit of time to get back.”
Overall, the team has, for the most part, relatively defied the odds of their past shell. They were first depicted as a team who struggled with winning and acquiring talent, to become a well respected hub in the realm of senior hockey. Even the likes of rink conflicts involving Manning and the Venom could not stop them from at least starting up again. And despite what it takes to bring all that together, what matters is that the Reapers and the community show up.
“I mean, just running the whole thing [is difficult],” said Bonitatibus. “Getting the money, finding the money, running the contracts, making sure everything’s smooth, finding people that want to help. At the same time. we can’t really compensate people that much for their troubles. It really comes down to people being here that are here for the community.”
One interesting fact about the Reapers and the Vipers is that a lot of their players come from beer league, which is recreational, non-contact hockey, but can oftentimes have very skilled players.
“For the Vipers, beer league was a big recruiting factor,” said Bonitatibus. “We were in a league, and I found some of our top guys in the local beer league. Rob Clerc, who is one of our little guys. He was a local John Jay kid, and I found him in a beer league just through connections that I met, and obviously he’s one of our best players … All roads lead to beer league. Everyone will tell you that NHL players play Beer League now.”
As the season continues, the Reapers are looking to further transcend as the top senior A program in the PPSHL and beyond; and along with that, take on the challenges on their way there.
Edited by Max Rosen
Graphic by Xavier Angel
Photos by Jaylen Rizzo
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X, TikTok and Bluesky, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.