This past weekend we had our awards banquet and we all had a great time. I want to start by thanking President Hemesath for coming to the banquet and saying a few words. It is great to see the support and interest in our hockey program building not only in the alumni community, but also on campus.
Traditionally we have had a formal banquet in the Founders Room of the Quad. The dining staff puts together a great buffet for all involved and it becomes a great send off to the senior class. We also like to hold the banquet on the Sunday after “Mom Prom” (Another great SJU tradition) so that a lot of the families are already on campus. Unfortunately, I took a little smack from the dads in the group because this also fell on the final Sunday round of the Masters.
So with that, we handed out four awards this year; Most Valuable Player (MVP), Most Improved Player (MIP), Freshmen of the Year, and the Hard Hat Award. The hard hat award is the only one that may need some explanation. Every win we hand out a hard hat that is given to the guy that played a great game and that did whatever was need to get the win. This goes to the guy that will block shots, take hits, and do the dirty work to get the win. This award goes to the guy that culminates all of these things in how he plays the game.
This year’s MIP went to an entire line that we called the “Orange Line.” This line consisted of Freshmen Mitch Fritz, Sophomore Sam Valerius, and Junior Dan Voce. This line caught fire the second half of the season and was a large part of our second half success. The line had a combined 7 points (4 goals) in the first 12 games and had a combined 36 points (14 goals) in the last 13 games. These guys all improved a ton this season and we can’t wait to see what they do next year.
The freshmen of the year was also split between two players. Mitch Fritz was once again recognized for his great second half and his second highest point per game stat with this award. Sean Lang was also recognized by his teammates due to his contribution throughout the year on the blue line. Sean played a ton of minutes and quarterbacked our power play that finished second in the league. Sean also killed penalties and played pretty much every other shift.
The MVP and the Hard Hat awards went to our fearless leader in Andrew Commers. Andrew not only led our team in goals with 11, he also led our team through adversity and success. He was one of the best leaders that I have ever coached. He does everything for his teammates and he cares so much for them and the game. Andrew also stepped up in the big games earning him the MVP. He scored the game winning shootout goal against UST in the regular season, he scored the game winning OT goal against UST in the first round of the MIAC playoffs, and he scored a hat trick against Augsburg in the MIAC Championship game. He is a big time player that is going to have big time success in his future.
After we handed out these awards we honored our six seniors while shedding some tears. They will be missed and very difficult to replace. This senior class was very unique in that it consisted of two guys from junior hockey, two Division I transfers, and two guys that came right out of high school to play at SJU. Very rarely do you see this kind of mix and to make it even better, they are all very close friends that will be forever. All six seniors brought something different to this team, but all brought character and leadership. My goal is to get each of them to write a blog about their experience here at SJU and to share those in upcoming blogs so that you can all learn more about them. Below are links to their online profiles.
As we transition out of our active season we will be moving to a blog post every two weeks. I believe you will find these posts interesting and engaging as we talk about hockey alums, focus on our upcoming hockey golf event and continue on our path of player recruitment. In the later parts of August we will again go to a weekly format as we begin ramp-up for our 2016-17 hockey season. Thanks again for reading our blog. Events like this senior banquet remind me every year how special SJU is and how special the guys are that I get to coach.
