The school year has started and while a lot of Johnnie faithful are thinking about football, there are a lot of us that already have our eyes set on the 2016-17 Johnnie Hockey Season.
This time of year is one of the most exciting times, but it can also be a time of year that time seems to stand still as we await the season. The students at SJU reported to campus the last weekend of August and for many of the hockey players on campus they are ready to start the hockey season. As a coach I can’t start working with the players or do any coaching activities until the second Monday of October as outlined in the NCAA rules. So for about a month and a half the players are on their own. This is especially unique for hockey players as most of them are used to starting their seasons a lot earlier. As you know, most of the players on the SJU hockey team have played in the junior hockey ranks. In fact, six of our incoming freshmen played junior hockey last year. The reason that I mention this is because last weekend most junior hockey teams played their first regular-season games. That means that they also finished up about two weeks of training camp. So at the same time the SJU students are reporting to school, junior hockey players are reporting to camps and starting their seasons. Most of my players coming out of juniors would have had about 12 games played before we even step on the ice here at SJU. That makes this time very awkward for them as they are ready to go now and they often get very itchy this time of year to get going. It’s like holding racehorses back at the gates before the Kentucky Derby. There is good reasoning behind this with the NCAA having strict rules for Division III athletes that make sure the emphasis is on the academic experience before that of the athletic experience. This time gives all of the athletes a chance to get situated in their classes and with the university before throwing a lot of time and effort into their sport.
I want to walk you through how the pre-season works here at SJU to give you an inside look at SJU Hockey and our preparation for the season.
August 26th – SJU Hockey Golf outing. All of the returning players come to this event and either golf or visit with all the alumni and friends of Johnnie Hockey. All of the new recruits are at SJU going through their student orientation and moving into their dorms.
August 30th – Athlete-to-Athlete event for all athletes at SJU. This is a great program where all the athletes at SJU get together to discuss the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, as well as to discuss the very important issue of sexual misconduct. SJU brings in speakers to discuss these issues and more importantly the teams split up in their sports to discuss these issues amongst each other. The most important aspect of this program is to get the older athletes to educate and discuss these issues with the new arriving athletes. This is one of the best things that we do as an athletic department.
September 2nd – Introductory hockey meeting for all students that want to try-out for SJU Hockey. At this meeting we introduce all the staff and have all the players introduce themselves. We give them information on the strength and conditioning programs that we do here at SJU. Kevin Ziegler (SJU Strength Coach) will be in front of them and educate them on all the lifts and how to read the program. May of our players are engaged in off-season training that keeps them in top condition coming into the season. We go over NCAA compliance and get all the forms needed to play hockey finished and signed. Finally, we discuss the culture of SJU Hockey and make sure all the players know what it means to be part of this team and how we act as men. We do this meeting on a Friday evening for a good reason. We want to get in their ears before we have any issues on the first weekend of school.
September 12th – First day of captain’s practice. The seniors always put together the captain’s practice and they usually start the second week in September. They skate 3 days a week in September and then 5 days a week in October leading up to the start of the season. All coaches are not allowed to watch captain’s practice through NCAA rules.
October 10th – Due to a new NCAA rule, we are allowed to work with our athletes off the ice starting on this date. We will do classroom work and watch a lot of video so that we have our systems set going into tryouts the following week. We will also do some team building activities to engrave our culture into the new players.
October 17th – First day of on-ice practice. Because we have open tryouts at SJU, we will have around 40 players try out for the team. Tryouts will last about three days and will start on the 17th. We will be able implement a lot of systems through this time, but we also have to do a lot of evaluations of players to find the right guys.
October 28th – Game #1 vs. Gustavus. Less than two weeks into team practice and we will be playing a regular-season game. Hockey is unique in that we do not have pre-season games. We play 25 regular-season games and they start less than two weeks after the start of the season. The MIAC holds a showcase at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine from October 28-30. This is a great chance for people in Minnesota to come out and see all the MIAC teams play. We play on Friday at 7:00pm against Gustavus and Sunday at 3:30pm against St. Olaf.
As we enter into our 2016-17 season, I hope this gives you a little insight into the Johnnie Hockey pre-season preparation and how we run our program. This time of year can become long for hockey players who are anxious to get started, but as long as we have Character, Competitiveness and Coachable athletes on the hockey team, we will be ready for our season on October 28th!
I invite you and hope to see you at all of our games this year and I know you will enjoy watching our team. Go Johnnies!
