The Lake Zurich hockey team skated off with more losses than wins last year, but this year they have shifted their momentum completely.
The LZ hockey team decided to combine with players from Mundelein High School (MHS) late last season because of an inadequate number of players on the team. Unlike LZHS, MHS did not have a pre-existing hockey team before the combination of the two schools.
“A couple of the players had penalty issues and weren’t allowed to play, so we were short [a few] team members,” Steve Sarauer, head coach, said. “We had to combine the teams in order to keep the season going.”
Currently undefeated, the new Lake Zurich-Mundelein (LZM) team is ranked first in their league and holds a record of 9-0-4.
Sam Morgan, LZHS senior captain, believes combining with MHS has been beneficial for both teams because now there are enough players on the team so their players are not completely exhausted by the end of the game. More than half of the team is now from Mundelein.
“Now that half of our team goes to another school, playing together is a little different,” Morgan said. “At the beginning, not knowing each other was pretty tough because it was hard to work together. Now, we’ve gotten to know one another pretty well, though, so on the ice it’s basically the same as if we all went to the same school.”
Michael Nieckula, MHS sophomore, likes his new teammates and believes they have all bonded and are becoming better friends as the season goes on.
“[My teammates] are a bunch of fun guys. I also like being on the team because we play good, strong hockey together,” Nieckula said. “I like being able to meet new people and to have new teammates. If we had enough people who could play [at our school], that would be great, but we don’t. As long as I get to play hockey, I could care less.”
Along with combining into one team, LZM has dropped down from the varsity level to the junior varsity level because of the greater number of freshmen and sophomores on the team rather than juniors and seniors. They currently have one team, but hope to be able to have two next year.
“Our whole goal is to step up to varsity next year, so the players have to show their level of commitment and work hard in order to get to that level,” Sarauer said. “We plan to have a consistent JV and varsity team next year. We hope to have more kids interested in the team next year since word is getting out that we have regrouped this year.”
The team lost many talented players from past years due to them quitting or graduating, according to Sarauer. This year the team is starting to focus on developing each player and playing as a team rather than depending on certain individuals to carry the team.
“We’re working on improving each individual player and developing individual skills,” Sarauer said. “Another aspect we focus on is the players’ overall knowledge of the game and being able to execute the systems that the coaching staff is providing. We’re also being harder on the kids as far as commitment. Everyone has to be at every practice and doing their best all the time. Our key to success is wanting to work hard and wanting to be there.”
Both Morgan and Sarauer believe that combining the teams has been successful and see great potential in this team for the future.
“I think the work we’re putting into this team will really start to show in the next season,” Sarauer said. “I really think we can make a strong run in our JV league. We’ve played a good amount of the teams in our league so far, and we’ve been very competitive. We haven’t blown anybody out; we’ve had to work at every game to win, so throughout the season if we continue to get better and develop, we should be able to make a strong run through playoffs and hopefully even make it to the championship in our league. Our goal is to stay undefeated; hopefully, the kids can keep up what they’re doing.”