Clarence has spent the last couple of years rebuilding after graduating 14 seniors in 2013. But the Red Devils have prevailed with two competitive seasons in which they’ve advanced to the semifinals in the large school playoffs.
“We had a lot of speed and skill to fill with the seniors leaving,” senior defenseman Anthony Lunetta said. “We were a small team last year, but the league was pretty even, and we had a pretty decent season.”
“Last year we did have a lot of talent,” added senior goaltender Jack Niesyty. “We worked hard. Didn’t get as far as we wanted to go, but with that being said, we lost some good seniors, but we did gain a lot of people to fill their spots.”
Last year’s team relied heavily on Josh Slowinski, a senior who led the team both on and off the ice. He had a natural leadership ability and played through pain, always willing to do whatever the team needed him to do. He’s now playing Division II lacrosse at Le Moyne College in Syracuse.
“We lost a very key person in Josh Slowinski,” Clarence coach Richard Brooks said. “Great athlete and all-star for our large school group, and he’ll be missed greatly, plus his leadership ability was something you can’t teach overnight.”
Slowinski was one of six seniors who graduated last season. Their leadership and contributions will be missed, but as Brooks said, “six is not as bad as 14.”
And the players returning this year are players who developed, improved, and grew as last season progressed, and there are quite a few of them. There’s still room for improvement, but just like every season, Brooks is confident that those things will come as the season progresses.
“We have good numbers,” Brooks said. “I think we’re looking at a team that’s a little bit smaller, hopefully a little bit quicker. They’ll have to work on that. We’re still not playing together as a team, we’re not finishing well in the offensive zone. We have the puck and we’re buzzing around, but we’re not getting quality shots to the net, but that’ll come, so we should be okay.”
The Red Devils don’t have the advantage of size this season, so this season’s smaller players will have to be fast and clever and be in the right place on the ice. Playing a physical game won’t work, Brooks said.
“We want to see a lot of puck movement,” Brooks said. “We want to see a lot of foot movement. We want three or four lines. I’d like four lines that can actually all do a job out there, and really keep a high tempo pace going throughout the contest. We don’t have a lot of size. Banging and bruising probably isn’t gonna work that effectively, but you don’t have to in this game. You just have to get to the spot, get in people’s way, and do a job. We got enough kids to do that, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
“This year we don’t really have the size we did last year,” Niesyty said. “We had a couple big guys last year, but we definitely have more speed than other teams do and just have to work harder and be better than we did last year and see how far it could take us.”
Lunetta does like to bring a physical presence to his game along with solid defense, though.
“I’m a defenseman, so the whole object for us is to guard our net and protect our goalie,” Lunetta said. “Also just keeping it in in the other end, putting on pressure, playing physical.”
Also key on defense will be Aaron Partridge and Ryan Kelly, who were pleasant surprises as sophomores last season; senior Will Corwin, who has improved every year and will be even better this season, Brooks believes; and Mike Faso, who returns to Clarence after playing for the Jr. Sabres last year.
Anthony Lunetta’s younger brother Nick is a forward who was one of the team’s leading scorers as a sophomore last season. He’ll be expected to contribute on offense again this year.
“Nick Lunetta was one of our leading scorers last year as a 10th grader, so now he’s gonna have to learn how to do it himself because Josh Slowinski’s gone, so he’s gotta be the one that makes it happen,” Brooks said. “Still, I anticipate he’ll be able to do that.”
Junior forward Brett Naylor brings a physical presence at six-foot-four, and senior forward Randy Felber will also be key for Clarence’s offense this year, but Felber stressed the importance of each player’s role on the ice.
“I’m a forward on the team, so obviously our coach expects us to score, but I think as a forward and a center, it’s good to set the plays from the defense up, so I think the defense has a huge role,” Felber said. “Forwards just take it from the blue line and out.”
Behind all of them, Niesyty will share time with Anthony Campione in goal. Niesyty sees his role as more than just keeping the puck out of the net.
“I think you have to guard the net and make sure they don’t get any goals,” Niesyty said. “That’s the main point, but you also have to let the guys know who’s coming, what’s happening in front of them, so they don’t get blindsided. And just basically help the team get zero goals against.”
As seniors, Felber, Lunetta, and Niesyty have leadership roles off the ice as well.
“I think all seniors should step up and teach the underclassmen respect and really how to work as a team out there,” Felber said.
“We have to teach everyone on the team that this is a group effort, and we’re all basically a family, and everything should be done together,” Lunetta added.
“We gotta teach young guys coming up how Fed’s played,” Niesyty said. “The fast pace they’re not used to on JV, we gotta work them into that, and we gotta kinda show them what it’s like to be on varsity and just help them through it.”
As the Red Devils come together over the course of the season, the goal is simple: finish better than you started.
“It’s not where you start; it’s where you end that’s important,” Brooks said. “When we hit December or the end of December into January, we should be much stronger. And we only have five games in December, so it is a bit of a slow start for us, but that works out well.”
Clarence is scheduled to begin its season Dec. 5 against Williamsville East at 3 pm at Northtown Center.