Former New Trier High (Winnetka, Ill.) hockey captain Neal Goss watched from his wheelchair as a Northbrook teenager accused of leaving Goss paralyzed after a check in a contest last November pled no contest during a hearing in Lake County Juvenile Court Monday.

Doctors say Goss' injuries, received at the end of the Nov. 3 game between New Trier High and Glenbrook North at the Rink Side Sports Arena in Gurnee, appear to be permanent.

According to both sides, the Glenbrook North player, whose name is being held under the judge's order, began skating hard at Goss with his stick off the ice as the game ended and crashed into Goss, sending him into the boards. The collision with the boards severed Goss' spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.

The 15-year-old defendant was first charged on Dec. 7 with two felony counts of aggravated battery. Prosecutors dropped the original charge of aggravated battery, a felony, and substituted a charge of misdemeanor battery, which carries a maximum punishment of one year in juvenile prison but is also punishable by probation.

Under the plea agreement, the high school junior is found guilty by the court but does not admit to any criminal wrongdoing in the incident. He faces up to a year in jail, but prosecutors have said they will not press for incarceration. Sentencing is set for Sept. 29.

The case would have gone to trial on Monday.

Both sides left the courthouse without comment. The Goss family still has several suits pending in the wake of the incident, including civil suits against the Glenbrook North boy's family, the Illinois Hockey Officials' Association, Glenbrook North coach Adam Young, the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois and the Northbrook Hockey League.

Both New Trier and Glenbrook North are not official high school teams, as local clubs sponsor them.

Said Alan Kray, president of the Northbrook Hockey League, which sponsors the Glenbrook team, in a Dec. 8 Associated Press report, "I think it's a terrible thing that the police have to get involved in something that happened during the contest of a sporting event."