James Buffoline is entering his 16th season as the head coach of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity Hockey Team. Coach Buffoline holds a overall record of 152-118-23. His teams have reached the Final 4 Sectional 2 Playoffs in 7 of his 15 seasons and the Section 2 Finals once. Coach Buffoline was awarded the Section 2 "Coach of the Year " in 2015.
Coach Buffoline has been coaching hockey for over 25 years. Buffoline is a Level 5 Certified Coach through USA Hockey. He has also been coaching high school wrap teams through SYHA for the last 15 years.
Coach Buffoline holds a bachelors degree in physical education and a masters degree in health education. He has been a physical education teacher at Ballston Spa High School for the past 22 years.
Along with being the varsity hockey coach, Coach Buffoline has also been coaching soccer at Ballston Spa High School for the past 20 years and coached JV Baseball and Varsity Softball from 2006-2019.
Buffoline and his wife Scarlet live in Ballston Spa. Scarlet is the Vice President of Medical Services at Saratoga Hospital.They have two children, their oldest daughter Gabrielle is a graduate of Saint Rose College and is a licenced social worker, she is currently a social worker at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. Their son Geordan is a graduate of Cortland College where he played D3 College hockey for the Red Dragons and is currently pursuing law school at Syracuse University.
Dear Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa Hockey Fans,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 2025-2026 Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity High School Hockey Season.
I am very excited about the potential we have this season. This year our team will comprised of 15 returning players and 9 new players. We will be a fast and exciting team to watch. We will be a well-prepared team that pays attention to detail, plays with passion and structure as well as a team that takes pride in always outworking our opponent.
This year we will be led by team captains Josh Darcy, Cameron Olsen and Vinny Rossetti. Our team captains have demonstrated leadership skills on and off the ice. They are positive role models and will push their teammates to achieve our team goals that we have set for the season.
Our team has a strong Senior class led by our goaltender Kash Kinowski and Captains Josh Darcy, Cameron Olsen , and Vinny Rosetti. We also welcome back Tim Moynihan to the team after a one year absence as well as Ronan Kuhn who was injured most of last season. Marcus Sollecito will lead our strong defense and Joey Gabrielle will lead our ofense.
We will be looking to our junior class to contribute to the scoring this season. We are loaded with some very skilled young players led by Weston Rakvica, Matt Broker Jeremy Barber and Andrew Banares.
Our Sophomore class will look to take a step forward this year and contribute to our team. They are led by Conner Cook, Michael Priest, Wes Almansberger and JP O'Rourke.
We also have several young and skilled Freshmen joining the team this year. These players will be our future stars, they all have a lot of potential and great character. We would like to welcome to the BHBS Family Cam Smith, Liam Lahn-Scofield, Cole Youlen, Noah Karpovich and Jase Kinowski
I would like to wish all our seniors a very successful season and thank them for being such a valuable part of our program.
I am grateful for the generous support of our hockey parents and all the hard work our booster club does to support our team.
Thank you to our Athletic Directors, Joe Scalise (Burnt Hills HS) and Matt Griep (Ballston Spa HS).
I am once again joined this year by Assistant Coaches Robert Mergen, Jason Darcy and Kyle Grace.
This is Coach Mergen’s 15th year coaching with me. I have tremendous respect for his insight and dedication to this team. Coach Mergen is a great role model for the players on our team and is a honest sounding board for myself and the rest of the coaching staff.
This is Coach Darcy’s 3rd year with the program, he brings tremendous knowledge and experience to the team. Coach Darcy brings not only experience and knowledge to the coaching staff but great communocation skills with the players.
This will be Coach Grace’s 4th year as our goalie coach on our staff. His work ethic, knowledge of the game and experience are invaluable.
I am very fortunate to have these gentlemen on my coaching staff.
Please join me in supporting our athletes as they pursue their hockey dreams.
Sincerely,
James Buffoline
Head Coach Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa Varsity Hockey
