Losing 11 players from one year to the next isn’t too much of an issue when a team focuses on development and depth like Williamsville North does. Although the loss of last year’s seniors is a significant one, the Spartans have a fresh group of seniors, as well as younger players, ready to take their place on the ice and in the locker room.
“We keep a lot of younger kids around, like we keep three to four goalies practicing, so we try to get a transition of kids going back,” head coach Bob Rosen explained.
One of the biggest losses from last year’s graduating class was goalie Nick Stafford, a Bowman Cup selection at the end of the season. But this year, the Spartans will have senior Anthony Fiorella and junior Jake Zurat competing for time between the pipes. So far, goaltending coach Brian Willison likes what he’s seen from both.
“It’s gonna be different than the years past, where we’ve had one horse that has driven us or taken the reins,” Willison said. “This year, they’re gonna have to prove themselves, so it could be 60/40, 70/30, 80/20. Who knows? It all depends on their game time performance. They’re both hard workers. Each one has different traits. Fiorella’s got speed. He’s quick. And Zurat’s got size. We’ll just have to see how they progress in practice and perform in games.”
Kevin Gramlich and Brian Couto will be missed at the blue line this season; both graduated last year as well. But again, Williamsville North returns a strong defenseman in Kyle Wilk, who expects to lead the young defense this season as well as improve his own game.
“I’m looking to really step up as a D-man this year, lead the younger guys,” Wilk said. “We got a lot of young newer defensemen, so I’m hoping to lead them on the ice and hoping to find my forwards up front, really get the goals falling, and have a good year.”
Wilk expects to be a leader off the ice as well along with fellow seniors Nick Tracy, Zach Kurbiel, and Jared Cummins. They’re coming off of a 2014-15 season in which they finished as the Section VI large school runner up. This season, they feel that they have unfinished business.
“Last season, we looked really strong in the beginning,” Tracy said. “We’re looking to keep that going this year but stretch it out throughout the postseason as well and get that last win under our belts, get that section title this year.”
“Last year, we really didn’t finish where we wanted to,” said Cummins. “We thought that we could have done a lot better, and so this year a lot of our motivation is stemming off of that. We feel like we’re reloaded and ready to make another run at a sectional championship. And we’re really proud of the younger guys that we got coming up.”
The Williamsville North custom of developing its younger players each year doesn’t end with the coaches. As seniors and leaders this season, Tracy, Kurbiel, Wilk, and Cummins plan to do their part to develop the younger players as well. And they’ve already begun.
“I plan to lead by example, work hard in practice and games, prepare correctly, show the younger kids how to prepare, how to mentally get prepared for the game as well because that’s a big part of it and kind of just step up my game, and hopefully the younger kids can follow my place,” Tracy said.
“Like Nick said, work the younger kids,” Kurbiel said. “Really push them as players and on and off the ice. Show them how to conduct themselves outside of school, in public, as a team, being part of North.”
Cummins believes that this system not only develops younger players for the future but also leads to better chemistry on the ice right now.
“So far this year, me and the other captains have been having a lot of team activities,” Cummins said. “The real thing we want to accomplish is, get everyone to feel comfortable with one another at school, in the locker room, on the ice, just because it will be easier to build chemistry in the lines as far as on-ice performance goes.”
On the ice, chemistry is crucial. Both Cummins and Tracy described themselves as players who create plays and set up their linemates with scoring chances.
“I’m gonna keep working down low, feed out to the better scoring kids on my line,” Tracy said. “They’re more finishers and I’m more the passing player, so feed it to them. Hopefully we can produce a lot this year.”
“I’m gonna be working hard down low,” Cummins said. “Might not score the most goals, but I’m definitely gonna be hopefully creating a lot of plays for my teammates, set them up and everything. And hopefully I’m going to lead by example for the younger kids on the team too.”
Matt Terrance is another senior this season and after being selected to the juniors’ Bowman Cup team last year, he’ll be expected to score some goals and contribute on the ice as well. Josh Surowiec is a junior forward who will also be key for the Spartans. And they add Derek Westbrook this season, who brings a toughness aspect to the team after playing with the Buffalo Regals.
Kurbiel brings versatility to his position as forward, and he says he’s willing to do whatever his team needs him to do.
“On the ice, I’m really looking to use the whole ice,” Kurbiel said. “Play defense, offense, and in the neutral zone — every position that needs it. Penalty kill, power play. Wherever the team needs me, I play.”
Versatility is a theme for this year’s team, as Rosen revealed when asked about the team’s biggest strengths as well as weaknesses.
“I think it’s gonna be different every game,” he said. “We’re gonna need different people to step up every game. I think that we have the capabilities of every facet of our game being good on a particular night, and we also have the ability for everything to be bad on a particular night, so try and keep our highs not too high and our lows not too low. Be a consistent team this year day in and day out who plays hockey, is what our real expectation is. We do that, we’ll be good.”
Tracy is already looking ahead to the postseason with high hopes.
“I’m already looking forward to the section championship,” he said. “We need that one more win to move on, but during the regular season, I feel like our expectations are pretty high for ourselves and throughout the league.”
Kurbiel spoke of what it will take to get there.
“I think we need to take every game one at a time, really make sure we take every practice serious and work as a team to get better and really compete so we can beat better teams and compete at the highest level we are able to,” he said.
“We have a motto this year: one game at a time,” Cummins said. “As of now, our biggest goal is beating McQuaid next Friday. But we’ll see how it goes from there. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves here.”
And for all of the seniors, there’s the desire to make a mark on the Williamsville North varsity hockey program and leave it better than they found it.
“Especially since this is my fourth year and everything, I want to leave it all on the ice and leave no doubts,” Cummins said. “I want to definitely make it as memorable as possible for everyone involved. I’m really here to help build the team and if I leave the team better off than I found it, I’ll be happy with that. But obviously, I want to win some games too and have some fun out there.”
The Spartans are scheduled to open the season Dec. 5 as they host Orchard Park at the Northtown Center at 1 pm.