Steve Zaffuto, the pride of Massapequa High School, will represent the Nassau team as one of the 21 high school students taking to the ice in the quest for the acclaimed Vytra Cup. Zaffuto and fellow teammates will compete against Suffolk rivals in the 6th annual Vytra Cuip tournament at Nassau Coliseum Jan. 5, beginning at 1 p.m.

Zaffuto will be a star defenseman for the Nassau team. All players participating in the Vytra Cup tournament were selected by the High School Hockey League Association of Nassau County and the Suffolk County High School Hockey League, and include students from every member school within the leagues.

This year, Vytra is teaming up with Athletes Helping Athletes, a not-for-profit organization that administers a mentoring program pairing high profile athletes with high school students. The athletes and students work together on issues like drug and alcohol abuse prevention, nutrition and health education and fair play. Representatives from AHA will be at the Coliseum distributing teen-related materials and selling raffles for official Islanders' merchandise and golf equipment. The Islanders have donated four tickets to an Islanders' home game, an autographed team jersey and an autographed puck package. Newsday had donated two golf packages consisting of a putter, a golf shirt, a golf shoe bag and a hat.

The Vytra Cup kicks off the company's 2002 community events sponsorship season. Vytra will also sponsor road races, baseball, volleyball, soccer and other events this year. In total, Vytra will sponsor over 150 community events, involving more than 150,000 families on Long Island.