Reading's hit show: Twins on ice
Brother and sister lead their teams
N early every Friday morning this winter, a few minutes before 5, Dominique Lozzi heads out the door of her Reading home for hockey practice, a heavy equipment bag strapped over her shoulder. Her twin brother, Michael, sleeps in.
It's one of the rare occasions in which the Reading High senior is even remotely jealous of her hockey-playing brother.
The rest of the time, she's too busy working on her own game, or following her brother's exploits on the ice.
"We're definitely competitive with other people," Dominique Lozzi said. "But against each other, I think we'd rather just tie or see the other one do well. We have our battles out in the backyard every now and then, but for the most part, we're on each other's side."
And this week's Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament will allow the twins, who were first introduced to the sport as children by their grandfather, James Conrad, to follow each other.
Michael Lozzi is the senior captain and first-line center for a 20-1-0 Reading High squad that will square off against BC High in the first round of the Super 8 tournament on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Dominique Lozzi, also a captain, and her Rocket teammates faced Middlesex League rival Lexington Tuesday in the first round of the Division 1 girls' tournament.
When the two played on the same team when they were children, practices and games were easy to juggle. Together, they won a pair of state championships with their travel team, in the fifth and seventh grades. But the past two summers, their parents, John and Patrice, have taken turns taking one or the other to tournaments.
The schedule is one to which the clan has adapted, with Patrice and John alternating which child to follow from weekend to weekend.
Dominique first joined her brother's youth team in the sixth grade, and she played on a boys' squad during the off-season until her junior year. Until her sophomore season, she skated for a boys' select squad in the fall before joining the Reading High girls' team for the winter.
Their father said the two feed off one another.
"Each one kept complementing the other, both verbally and physically," he said. "Some twins want to do a lot of separate things, but not these two. They always did things together, whether it was soccer or hockey. It just happened to be that they're boy-girl twins, because they support each other so much, it doesn't matter."
The experience playing with, and against, boys shaped Dominique's playing style.
"I think playing with the guys made her more aggressive, which is something you don't really find with a lot of girl players," said her brother. "She's not afraid to take a hit or a bump. She's very strong and she's got a great shot, so that helps, too."
The 5-foot-8-inch Lozzi, who finished the regular season ranked third in Eastern Massachusetts in girls' scoring with 57 points (39 goals, 18 assists), will play at Bowdoin College next year.
"She's been the on-ice leader for the past couple of years now," said Reading High coach Sandra Sweeney, who guided the Rockets to a 12-4-3 record during the regular season.
"She's the best player in the league, in my opinion. She's really an offensive weapon other teams try to key in on but don't have a lot of success against. She's a natural goal scorer and our offense revolves around her this year."
Michael Lozzi, a four-year starter who will prep at either Phillips Andover or Phillips Exeter next year, is at the trigger for a high-powered Rocket attack that also includes linemates Rob Toczylowski and Pat Kiley. With 20 goals and 43 assists, the 5-foot-11-inch, 170-pound Lozzi finished fourth in EMass. in scoring, and Toczylowski (56 points) and Kiley (56) weren't far behind.
Mark Doherty, who assists his father, Pete, on the Reading High boys' bench, said that Lozzi's good nature and maturity make him the unquestioned leader of the Rockets.
"His consistency is his biggest asset," Doherty said. "There's no highs or lows; you know what you're going to get every time he takes the ice. You're dealing with a kid who's very rational, very stable in every zone of the ice, and very thorough in every facet of his life. He's the leader of any room he walks into. That's what's going to help him down the road in anything he does."
The two Lozzis have developed into prolific scorers whom their respective coaches have come to depend upon, both on and off the ice. They practice nearly every day, whether it's on the ice or working out on roller blades when the snow isn't covering the tennis court in their backyard.
John Lozzi jokes that he and his wife "could coach our own team now.
"You do pick up a lot from watching practices and games." he said. "During their junior and sophomore seasons, I would go to all of their practices, and then stay after and ask the coaches why they would do certain things. It was definitely different watching them play than watching the sport on TV."
If you ask the two who is the better player, their answers are not terribly surprising.
"She is," Michael said. "We've always been playing together since we were kids. We were on the same line on most teams and now we're on our tennis courts as much as we can be. We're not too competitive, but the good competitive where we make each other better."
Pose the same question to Dominique and there is no hesitation.
"He is," said Dominique. "He's wicked good on defense and offense. In high school, you can get caught up in the offense but he keeps the team together on defense too. He's very unselfish and makes the best play for the team. He scores a lot, too, which is a good thing."
Dominique Lozzi this season became the first girl in program history to net 200 career points. And when it happened, her brother was cheering the loudest in the stands. 