05/28/2026
The Portville native behind Jason Zucker’s game
OLEAN - In Portville, New York, hockey was never supposed to become a passport to the NHL.
It sits tucked into the Southern Tier, closer to Pennsylvania farm country than the bright lights of professional sports. It is the kind of place where Friday nights revolve around high school sports, where everybody knows everybody, and where hockey dreams can feel a long way from the pros.
Ron Gay grew up there, playing youth hockey in Olean before skating for Archbishop Walsh during his sophomore, junior and senior years. He did not play professionally. He did not come through a famous coaching pipeline. There was no grand blueprint for what his life in hockey would become.
And yet decades later, Gay would look out across the ice in Lansing, Michigan, and see NHL players circling around him during summer training sessions. Stanley Cup champions, first-round draft picks and future pros who trusted a man from Portville to sharpen their talents.
One of those players was Jason Zucker, now a veteran forward for the Buffalo Sabres.
“Ron was one of those guys who made you better every time you stepped on the ice,” Zucker said. “Even as a teenager, you could tell he saw things differently.”
