Amherst finished with a record of 4-11-0-1 last season, but coach James Ryan saw it as an improvement over the team’s last place finish the year before, Ryan’s first with the team. Ryan and his coaching staff are now entering their third season with Amherst, and they’re slowly starting to see changes for the better.
“We knew obviously that it was gonna be a process, not something that we were gonna be able to turn around in a year or two,” Ryan said. “But we think that we’re starting to build a culture at least where the kids are working hard, they’re starting to understand what we’re trying to teach them, and kids that we’ve had for a couple years now kind of know what to expect. We know the class of our small school league is gonna be Will East and Ken East, so we’re just looking to be really competitive in our division and really improve and set ourselves up for February.”
Last year’s record moved the Tigers up a spot in the postseason seeding to the 11-seed, and they lost in the first round. And while there’s room for more improvement this season, Ryan felt that his team was more competitive last season than the year before, and seeing that gave him more confidence for the future.
“We made some strides; we were much more competitive in our division,” Ryan said. “Our regular seasons have been very competitive with close games and a couple overtime games, so we feel like hopefully we can be a little better in our own division and in the next couple years, hopefully compete with the rest of the section.”
Steve Vukelic, a senior captain along with Ben Lackner, has been with the team through it all. His first season with the varsity team was his freshman year, the year before Ryan took over. When Ryan became the head coach, Vukelic watched the team develop and adjust to Ryan’s methods.
“My first year was a bit of a struggle, but Ryan came in and we played an easier schedule, I thought, and I think we won a couple good games,” Vukelic said. “But Ryan as a coach, he’s a very passionate guy. I think we have the most passionate coaching staff in our division, from what I know.”
Junior Will Grisko is an assistant captain this season, and he’s also been on the varsity team since his freshman year, Ryan’s first with the team.
“The first year, we were kind of getting used to the systems, so we didn’t get our couple wins until the last two games when we actually started really working with them and everything,” Grisko said. “Then the following year, we played well, and we lost a lot of one-goal games, so this year we’re hoping to improve on that.”
Amherst lost 10 seniors to graduation at the end of last season, most notably Ben Battaglia, but he, along with seniors past, left a lasting mark on the program as he helped his teammates adjust to Ryan and the new systems.
“Ben Battaglia, I thought, was really underrated, as far as in our entire section,” Ryan said. “He was a huge loss. Really physical, played power play, penalty kill for us, so it was tough to lose him. He was a team leader, but I think he, along with Brian Smith the year before, those guys kind of set a precedent for how we’d like the program to go in the future.”
This year, Grisko and Vukelic will help their teammates continue to develop and adjust to the varsity level.
“I’m a captain with Ben Lackner, and I think our job is to get the younger kids bought in with the system that our coach is running,” Vukelic said. “We take each practice one at a time and really work on the system that our coach is doing, and I think it’s gonna work out good for us.”
Vukelic does what he can to promote team chemistry too.
“Off the ice too, we do a lot of team bonding stuff to get the guys to know each other that usually don’t know each other at school to build good chemistry and really become a team,” he said.
Grisko does what he can to teach his younger teammates more about the game.
“Show the young kids what to do; show them things to do and what not to do,” Grisko said. “Power play, penalty kill, and how to be smart with the puck. Tell them what’s gonna happen in game situations.”
Grisko and Vukelic will play on the top line on this year’s team, and Vukelic believes that leading by example will be important.
“I just want to leave it all out there my senior year,” Vukelic said. “I think it’s important for the younger guys that we work every shift, and we don’t want to slack off at all.”
Along with working hard, Ryan expects the Tigers to play “smart and simple.”
“We won’t try to over-complicate things,” Ryan said. “Try to keep things basic for kids, get them in a good routine where we’re gonna try to do the little things well, as far as passing, moving our feet, working hard down low. And we feel like if we do those things, we’re gonna have some success.”
He expects that success to at least consist of being even more competitive in the small schools division.
“Expectations are that we’re be really competitive in our division and hopefully by February, we’re the best team that we can possibly be,” Ryan said. “Our expectation is to be very competitive in the division and hopefully within the next couple years, we’d like to get back to the sectional finals.”
“The schedule is always changing with the division and stuff, and I think this year we have an easier schedule again than we did last year and the year before,” Vukelic said. “So I think we’re gonna be a lot better than we were in previous years, and I expect a couple big wins out of us, but I think we’re gonna take it game by game and expect the best.”
The team is a smaller one, with Ryan expecting six strong forwards and four defensemen. Smaller numbers have plagued Amherst boys’ sports over the past couple of years, but Ryan hopes to see that change. And although he has a small group of players to work with, he’s excited about each one of them.
“It’s funny — I teach at Sweet Home and the culture there is the boys’ programs have always kind of taken a lot of the attention other than girls’ volleyball, but at Amherst it seems like it’s different where the girls have had a lot of success,” Ryan said. “But we’ve had kids that have played baseball that have gone to the sectional final. The soccer team had a good year, so I hope the trend is changing where our boys’ athletic programs are starting to excel. They’re great kids. I haven’t had one issue or one problem, so with great kids and kids that work hard, I feel like you can get a lot out of them.”
The main concern Ryan has this year is whether Amherst’s defense and goaltending will hold up against the other teams in the Fed.
“I think you’re always worried about your defensive end and your goaltending,” Ryan said. “But it’s not just on your goalie and your defense — making sure those forwards support, and just playing a team defense. We’ve got a lot of kids that haven’t played at the Federation level, so they’re gonna compete and learn our systems, and play pretty good team defense is the goal.”
“We just need to work on following the systems; score more goals than we did last year,” Grisko said. “Goaltending needs to be a little bit better, but our goaltenders have looked pretty solid in practices so far, so it should be interesting.”
Jason Howard and Zack Clor make up the goaltending tandem. Howard saw more ice time by the end of last season, but this year he’ll once again have competition.
“They’re both juniors, but we’ve kind of opened up the competition, and we feel like that will benefit both of them in the beginning of the year here,” Ryan said. “Jason did a great job at the end of the year, but we’ve kind of opened it up. Zack has improved from last year, so whoever is the better guy is definitely gonna go early on.”
More than anything, the Tigers want to prove their doubters wrong and find that elusive playoff win.
“It’s been a while, so we’re hoping we get back there, and that’s the goal,” Ryan said. “This is a process, but people have kind of dogged Hamburg for a couple years, and we’ve been the kind of garbage of our league, and some of the kids are starting to take it personally, so hopefully we’ll start changing that perspective.”
“As a senior, I’ve never won a playoff game,” Vukelic said. “So it’d be nice to make a surprising run and prove ourselves to the better teams in the Fed this year.”
“I think we could be a top team in the division,” Grisko said. “That’s an expectation that I’d like to see come true. It’s gonna take a lot of work though.”
They’ve already begun.
Amherst is scheduled to open its season Dec. 3 at 7 pm at the Northtown Center against Sweet Home.