More details emerge in case of overage goalieQuake team officials continue to await word from the North Pacific Hockey League, or NORPAC, regarding possible penalties stemming from last week's revelation that one of the team's goaltenders was actually a 25-year-old man masquerading as a 19-year-old. That verdict could come as early as this weekend when all NORPAC teams gather in Spokane, Wash., for the league's annual showcase.

NORPAC officials released a statement, but only indicated the league was “conducting its own investigation into the matter and will issue a statement when the league is satisfied that all pertinent information has been discovered.”

In the meantime, more is gradually becoming known regarding how Anthony Tocco, a one-time US Hockey League prospect, was able to establish a second life for himself under the guise of 19-year-old Nikoe Giacomo, his cousin, and play for the Quake.

“We got a call from his agent,” said John Ambrefe, coach for the Palm Beach (Fla.) Hawks, the team Tocco played for prior to arriving in Wyoming. “We were told he'd been overseas playing for an under-18 team in Milan, Italy, that he wanted to come back to the United States to play and asked if we would give him a look.”

The Hawks invited the player to attend one of their tryout camps, where Tocco's abilities earned him a place on the team's roster.

Presented with the false documentation identifying Tocco as the teenaged Giacomo, the Hawks guided the young man's registration in the USA hockey system, unwittingly helping him to establish a presence as a teenager.

Unknown to Ambrefe at the time, the man that had first called to tip him off to Tocco as a possible teenage prospect was not an agent.

“It was his father,” Ambrefe said. “The agent was his dad, Sam Tocco. I think they'd been floating the scheme around for a while, because he'd played in a couple summer tournaments, including one in Boston, under that name (Giacomo).”

And, it turns out, the youngster had never played in Milan.

Tocco's time in Palm Beach turned out to be short-lived. After dazzling coaches during the tryout process and in practice, his skills suffered in game situations. Ambrefe said he was calling the youth to inform him he was being cut when he was told something surprising.

“He said, ‘Coach, I've been asked to skate for this team in Wyoming in a couple games this weekend,'” Ambrefe recalled. “I said, I think that's a good idea and I hope you get on the roster up there, because you're not going to be able to stay on ours here.”

That Wyoming team was, of course, the Yellowstone Quake. Using the same ploy he'd successfully used in Florida, Sam Tocco contacted Quake head coach Craig Furstenau, once again playing the role of player agent.

“That's exactly the same sort of thing he did here,” Furstenau said after hearing an account of how Tocco had presented his son to the Hawks. “That's how we first heard about him. We picked him up off an add/drop list that every team in the league gets every day.”

Furstenau said he wasn't aware of the deception until Cody police confronted Tocco regarding his use of the false identity.

“They asked him if he was really Nikoe Giacomo, and he said ‘no sir,'” Furstenau said. “Then he told them his real name was Anthony Tocco and it was like, oh, Tocco. Sam, the agent. It all suddenly clicked.”

Furstenau noted the team has turned over all of its paperwork indicating they were under the belief they were getting a 19-year-old goaltender named Nikoe Giacomo to NORPAC officials.

“We're cooperating with the league in every way possible,” Furstenau said.

In the meantime, one other detail of the incident has added to the questions Furstenau finds himself answering. Anthony Tocco, it seems, is related to the same Tocco family reportedly heading the Detroit Partnership, the title given to that city's mafia syndicate.

“I had someone call me yesterday and ask if I knew there were rumors that I was tied to the Sicilian mafia,” Furstenau said. “Me? I'm German, for crying out loud. There's not a hint of Italian in my family. I don't think I can be more blunt about it than that.”