After winning the A-level State Championship last year, the hockey team has a strong presence in level AA this year with 16 of its 22 players returning.

Assistant coach Josh Belko has high hopes and expectations for this year.

“I think there aspects where we are stronger this year than last year and some spots where we may be a bit weaker,” Belko said.

“I think we are definitely a much stronger team up front with our forward group. We will be able to run 3 lines pretty consistently because of the amount of depth in our forward group.”

In terms of the team’s weaknesses, but Belko would like to see the team as a whole be more aggressive and do more hitting this year. If the team becomes more consistent playing the body, then they will be a very tough team to play against and it will only make the offensive game better.

Belko’s  main goals this season as a coach are to help all of the players improve on the ice and as people, but more importantly to make sure that the players are still have fun while playing. “If it’s not fun then there is no point to playing.” says Belko.

After winning state the team has a lot of confidence going into the year. This season will have its challenges, after losing some very important players from last season.

“Hockey is different from most sports in that your classification whether it be A, AA, AAA, or AAAA is based on how you do during the season,” Belko said. “So there is always more to gain, especially having won at the A level last year. This we are setting are sights on being a strong AA team and improving our success last year.”