By Michael Holcombe, Sports Writer
The one thing that can be said about this year’s South Brunswick High School ice hockey team is that it would be hard pressed not to improve on its performance from a year ago.
Last season, the Vikings struggled through a trying season that resulted in only three wins, while being beset with a multitude of personnel and scheduling difficulties.
It was a difficult year not just for the players, but for rookie coach Mike Slansky.
”Last year we were terrible,” Slansky laughs when looking back to the 2006-2007 campaign. “There is no easy way to put it. We really had our ups and downs. We had issues. We had serious holes at some positions, most notably goaltending. You can hide forwards and defensemen but you can’t hide a goaltender.
”Unfortunately the year before I took over we didn’t have a very successful year either. Then, somehow (last year) we wound up playing seven or eight teams that were ranked in the top 20 in the state at one time or another. So the schedule didn’t help us.”
But as bleak as things may have been last winter, Slansky feels there is reason to be more optimistic this time around.
”This year we’ll be competing in the Central Blue Division so we’ve dropped down a division,” said Slansky, whose team opened the season Wednesdays and visits Monroe in Wall Friday. “That’s going to help. And we’ve got a goaltender. That is going to help, plus we’ve got three or four solid freshmen playing at the varsity level.
”We are most likely going to have a good mix of upper and lower classmen. I think, altogether we are looking to have a successful season. And we should get good leadership from our two captains. They’re solid players and good all around leaders.”
Slansky is counting on his two captains, senior forward Tyler Scharff and senior defenseman Dan Schiatta to lead the way, but one of the most promising personnel developments so far has been the arrival of freshman goalie Dylan Trioano.
”We’ve got a freshman goalie who’s looking to be a top goalie,” he said of Trioano. “He’s got the resume to go with what he can do. He’s going to be a freshman playing at the varsity level but he has the experience playing club hockey at a high caliber and I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to ride his coattails.”
Trioano is only one of several talented and club tested freshman players Slansky is counting on to make an impact this season. Included in that crew are a trio of forwards, Bill Connell, Russell Lorring and Tyler Rule.
They will be joined by last year’s freshman surprise, Kush Patel, who will be returning for his sophomore season.
”He can play forward or defense,” said Slansky. “But he’ll probably play mostly as a forward. Last year he started as a defenseman but played a JV game against Edison at forward and had a heck of a game. He wound up playing there the rest of the season. He was a bright spot in a bad season last year and we’re looking for some good shifts out of Kush.”
In addition to the young talent and his team leaders, Slansky feels he has three players who will form a solid core of defensemen. Two who haven’t competed for the past two seasons with SBHS despite playing club hockey, senior Vinnie Caputo and junior Matt Siegel, will join returning senior Patrick O’Shea to comprise that trio.
”The biggest challenge I face this season is getting the players to gel as a team,” Slansky says of his roster. “We have so many freshmen as well as new players. They haven’t played together before. They know each other but they don’t know each other on the ice.”
But it’s not just the players who will be facing challenges this season. Slansky himself feels he has a job to do in ensuring the future of the South Brunswick program.
”If you look at the top public schools, they all have great feeder programs,” Slansky said. “You can’t really teach that at a high school level. My challenge at South Brunswick is getting interest back in the program. Everybody wants to play for a team that goes to states but nobody wants to play for a team that’s 2-20. And it’s the talented ones that don’t want to play for that team. They’ll just go play club hockey.
”My challenge is rebuilding the program and I think we’re stepping in the right direction to rebuild. We’ve got seven solid freshmen and three sophomores. So right there we have 10 underclassmen. So it’s a good start. Last year we only had three freshmen so the interest in the program is getting better.”
While Slansky is looking to the future, he and his team have not lost sight on the present and have some higher ambitions for this season. They got their chance to hit the ice Wednesday at home against Edison and will be back in action this Friday at Monroe.
”We’ve got some goals we’ve set for ourselves,” Slansky points out. “And I’m not talking about the coaching staff. Before the season we had a meeting and asked them what they wanted to do and to a man they all said their goal is to finish at least .500, make the playoffs and go to states.
”We’ve got some achievable goals as far as I’m concerned. With the mix of players we’ve got we’re in a good position to achieve those goals this season.”

