They’re undeniably young and inexperienced, and without last year’s leadership from the 14 seniors who graduated, the West Seneca East Trojans will have to learn fast this season. Even the remaining players will have a dramatically increased role from last year, but they’ll do their best to follow in the steps of last year’s senior leaders, such as Brian Wasilewski.
“Brian Wasilewski was a captain for three years on this team — All-Fed All-Star,” said Trojans had coach Phil Prynn. “He’s a great athlete, great kid. We cannot replace him. He was our number one defenseman; he ate all kinds of minutes. Just phenomenal in all situations. He was a second coach on the ice. That’s how good he was as a leader.”
But Wasilewski was such a strong leader that he gave this year’s seniors something to learn from and build off of.
“When a leader that good leaves, he affects so many other players on the team that are now juniors and seniors that I already see little bits and pieces of him in some of our other players, and that’s great to see,” Prynn said.
Two of this year’s seniors are forward Ryan Krzykowski, who’s made the jump from the third line last season to the first line this year, and defenseman Eric Korczynski, who will no doubt have an increased role with the loss of Wasilewski.
“My leadership style is basically just work hard and give the effort,” Krzykowski said. “I always tell all the players on my team, as long as you’re trying your hardest, I’m not gonna have a problem.”
“Since we have a young team, there’s a lot of teaching that can be done, especially on the defense,” Korczynski said. “I only have Eli Boccolucci, who’s the only other returning player on defense, but it’s gonna be fun.”
Prynn’s role as coach is a little bit different this season as well. Like Korczynski said, there is a lot of teaching to be done this season with so many young players.
“It’ll definitely be a learning curve at first,” Prynn said. “We’re gonna definitely start simple and hope to add to our game as the season goes on. There’s a lot more teaching this year. With that many new faces, even though we do similar systems and similar philosophies as the year before, when you lose that many guys, you’re essentially starting from scratch. You’re reteaching a lot of the things that the last two years were just review — let’s see what we can do here, let’s put this guy here, let’s change this — but the systems were in place. And this year it’s all new. For me it’s not new, but I’m reteaching a lot of things, and that’s good because it makes me a better coach. I gotta learn how to communicate with players of all different ages at all different levels.”
And among the players on this year’s team, some of the new faces have Prynn just as excited as some of the seniors. He knows they’re young and will have to adjust to the varsity level, but he likes the skill he sees already, especially from freshman goaltender Jagger Maving, freshman forward Tyler Arndt, and sophomores Danny Flynn and Damond Flynn.
“One of the freshmen is a goalie who’s a very very good goalie, and the other freshman is Tyler Arndt,” Prynn said. “He made the team as a ninth grader, as a center, and he’s gonna be a good one. Great hockey player. He’s a really good hockey player. Very smart player. Maybe not the flashiest, but he’ll do the job in both ends of the ice.”
Danny Flynn will play on the top line with Krzykowski and junior Dominic Khoury, while Damond will miss the start of the season with an injury. Prynn is excited to get him back at some point during the season and have the twin brothers for the next three years.
“[Danny]’s a good little hockey player too, and his brother Damond is here too,” Prynn said. “He’s on IR right now, but they’re twins, so I’ll look to have the two of them the next three years. I’ve scouted them and watched them play JV and for their travel teams. They’re both really good little hockey players. They’ll grow into their bodies a little bit, they’ll get a little bigger and stronger each year, and that’ll turn out well for them.”
What the Trojans may lack in experience and size, they make up for with natural skill, speed, and hard work.
“I’m hoping to be more of a tenacious team that’s strong on the puck, that battles,” Prynn said. “We don’t have a ton of size this year, but what we’re lacking in size, we’re making up for in speed and strength. We have a brand new fitness component we’re using. On days we’re not on the ice, we’re in the weight room every single day. And some of these guys that have never worked out before are gonna see games right away, and I’m hoping that we’re strong on the puck; we possess the puck a lot. We’re gonna forecheck smart. A lot of our guys have natural skill on the ice in the offensive zone, so if we focus on the D zone out, the offensive zone will take care of itself.”
“My expectations are high,” Krzykowski said. “We have a very young team. It’s very fast. Not the biggest, but we can definitely beat teams with our speed. And definitely going up to the first line, I think we’re definitely gonna do some big things.”
With a challenging season ahead of them, Prynn’s expectation is that the wins will be that much more exciting, and the losses will just be something to learn from as the team learns and improves over the course of the season.
“I’m gonna have to do some juggling to figure combinations out, figure out some chemistry, but my expectations are it’s gonna be an exciting year because I think the games we win, it’s gonna feel so good for the guys in the room,” Prynn said. “And the games we lose will definitely be teachable moments for the coaching staff and I to look at it on film and say, ‘This is where we made mistakes here. We’ll clean it up in practice. We’ll be better next time.’ So I look for a constant steady stream of improvement throughout the year, and even if you don’t play well most of the year, which I’m expecting to play well, don’t get me wrong, but it all matters the last three or four games how you’re playing at the end of the year. That’s what matters most. If you can catch a team when you’re on the rise, you can do some damage.”
Something else this young team lacks is fear. Prynn has watched how hard his team plays in practices, and he expects the offense to be a strength because of that.
“I think our offense is gonna be pretty good,” Prynn said. “I mean, just because they’re new faces doesn’t mean we’re gonna be worse offensively. I think we have some good skill coming up in the form of 10th graders, and they will learn the varsity game quick. It’s bigger, it’s faster, a little more physical. Essentially you got 15 year olds playing 18u hockey, and that will be a learning curve for them, but they’re not scared. They go hard into the corners. They battle for the puck, and I think we’re gonna do well offensively.”
“My favorite kind of game is speed because usually a lot of people don’t have a lot of good speed,” Krzykowski said. “I use my speed to my advantage to skate around people. And also, I think, an outside shooter, is my game because I can hit the net from a long range.”
On the back end, Aaron Nowak returns in net. He’s a senior who’s in his fourth season on the varsity team. And in front of him will be Korczynski and Boccolucci, whom Prynn described as “rocks.”
“It’s up to them to eat up some minutes and keep the rock out of our end,” Prynn said.
“I think I play a physical game; I try to keep it more defensive than offensive,” Korczynski said. “I bring a physical presence to the ice. I like to try to keep the game exciting, make a big few plays, but I like to keep it controlled.”
Last year’s 12-4 record was one short of the school record; this year, Krzykowski expects the team to be at least above .500 come playoff time. Korczynski knows that with the loss of so many seniors, other teams won’t expect much from West Seneca East.
“I think we’re gonna surprise some people,” Korczynski said. “I think everyone knows that we lost a lot of our players, but we got a lot of talent on the team, so I think we should do well.”
And on a Friday morning the week before the season began, Prynn was pleased with the way the team was coming together.
“I like what I see a lot,” Prynn said. “I see a lot of good things. I see a lot of smart plays being made in practice. Guys are really taking well to each other and a lot of new faces on the team. Our senior leaders that are back this year are really taking charge, and it’s really great to see.”
West Seneca East is scheduled to open its season Nov. 30 against Niagara Falls at 7:45 at West Seneca.