When they were youngsters in Middletown, N.J., they learned of van Riemsdyk's off-the-charts intensity. Whether they were playing video games, backyard football or Wiffle ball, their soft-spoken friend was obsessed with winning.
"He had to be the most competitive kid on the planet," Passariello said.
Van Riemsdyk has six goals and 12 assists in 18 games and is scheduled to join the Flyers in today's 1 p.m. contest against Buffalo at the Wachovia Center.
Passariello recalled the day when a group of friends, playing on a field they affectionately called "Mile High" because it was elevated, was trying to throw a football into a tiny trash can that was 40 or 50 yards away.
Van Riemsdyk, 15 at the time and a freshman at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, N.J., was the only one who was getting close, and most of the others quickly gave up.
Close to 1 1/2 hours later, van Riemsdyk was still trying.
"His mom came to pick us up and give us a ride home," Passariello said, smiling at the memory, "and he wouldn't let us leave until he made it - and he finally did."
Van Riemsdyk, also known as "Reemer" to his friends, was a talented soccer and baseball player in his younger days, but hockey became his first love.
"We always knew he was really into hockey," Passariello said. "Our freshman year in high school, we'd all hang out and he couldn't because he'd be off to some part of the country or off to Canada to play hockey. We knew he was always playing, but we didn't know how good he was."
That is, until his first year at Christian Brothers Academy.
