The boys of Hamburg hockey don’t mind getting up for 5:30 am practices. In fact, they love it.
“It’s the best before school,” said goaltender Griffin Coppola. “Then we go into first period, and we’ve got all the energy in the world.”
“It is the best part of the whole season, honestly,” agreed defenseman Owen Gonter.
The Bulldogs’ hope is that those early mornings will be the key for them to finally break through to the Section VI finals this season. For the past four years, they’ve been so close but so far, as four consecutive semifinal losses have left them wanting more.
“I guess it was second verse, same as the first last year,” said Hamburg coach John McFall. “Can’t get through that semifinal game. It’s been four years that we’ve been knocking at that door of the semifinals, trying to get to that championship game, and just couldn’t get there.”
Last year’s result was a 6-4 loss to Williamsville East, the Bulldogs’ third loss to the Flames in three matchups last season. Hamburg, along with Williamsville East and Kenmore East, moved up to play large schools for the regular season last year, and they’ll do the same this year. The Bulldogs started off slowly last year before earning their first win against Division 1 Niagara Wheatfield on Jan. 3. Hamburg finished 3-2-1 against Division 1 schools, including a tie with Williamsville North, last year’s large school Section VI champion.
“I thought last season went alright, moving up a division,” Coppola said. “We had some success, but obviously it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, losing to Will East, but hopefully this year that can change.”
“I think last year went better than we expected it to,” said Gonter. “We had a pretty solid team, but like Griff said, it didn’t end like we wanted it to, losing for the fourth year in a row in the semifinals. But hopefully this year we can come back and avenge that and finally make it to [Section VI finals].”
“Just trying to get past that game finally,” added Delmont.
Last year’s top line of Jason Lucarelli, Josh Dake, and Bobby Slemmer has graduated, along with the 21 combined goals the three forwards scored during the regular season. McFall is looking for some new leaders on offense this year, including Jason Delmont and Joey Dubill. Coppola mentioned Jared Milley and Jake Hangen as well.
“We’ve got a couple senior forwards we’re hoping to see a lot more out of,” said McFall. “Joey Dubill, he’s a big strong kid, about six-three, carries a heavy heavy shot. He started coming on strong toward the end of the year last year. We’re expecting him to step right in and start the year off strong and continue that. Jason Delmont, a good smooth-skating forward, is gonna be one of those seniors that needs to step into that role. He can score goals, he can find some other players too, so those are two main guys that I think we’re gonna see a lot more production out of this year.”
And McFall is excited to see what Gonter will bring this year on both ends of the ice. He’s a junior but already a leader in his third year on the team, and his hard work stands out.
“We have a lot of young guys on this team, so older guys are gonna have to step up and take a role, let ’em know what’s gotta be done,” Gonter said. “Last year was a good season as a returning sophomore. It went better than expected. I felt more comfortable because freshman year, you’re a freshman in the Fed, and last year I felt I took a more leadership role and helped out the team a lot more.”
“I think [Gonter] could be one of the most dominating players in the league this year as a junior,” McFall said. “His strength with his abilities out there, with his motivation — he’s one of the most determined players I’ve coached over nine years now. He was a top performer last year, and we’re looking for him to be even more so.”
This year’s biggest strength?
“Our defense, definitely,” said Coppola.
“Goaltending!” Gonter interrupted.
“We got some veteran defensemen, so hopefully that works out,” Coppola continued. “We got eight defensemen, so we’ll be fresh out there.”
“Like I said, goalie. I think we got the best goaltending in the league,” Gonter reiterated.
McFall and Delmont agreed with Gonter.
“The prognosis this year is we’re gonna try to keep ’em out of the net and find the opportunistic goals when we can,” McFall said. “And then we’re talking about scoring goals, but I think one of our biggest strengths is keeping the goals out with Coppola in goal.”
“Griff, it’s his third year on varsity,” Delmont said. “He’s one of the best goalies every season, and he probably will be one of the best again this year, so I think that’s our biggest strength.”
Coppola split time in net his sophomore year and was the hard-luck loser when Hamburg lost to Kenmore East in the semifinals. It took four overtimes for Kenmore East to score in a 1-0 win. Last year, Coppola started 15 of 16 regular season games and all three playoff games.
“I just wanna do the same again this year, play every game and try and get as many W’s as I can, get to the Sabres’ arena for once — get a W,” Coppola said.
Coppola was a leader as a junior on last year’s team, and this year he’ll be expected to step up once again. His hope is to inspire confidence in his teammates.
“I just want everyone to be confident,” he said. “I want everyone to know that I’m gonna try and have their back out there, so just give it 100 percent, and if they fail it’s alright. As long as they’re doing it right, it’s alright, especially in practice this year. That’s where it all counts — right here.”
“One hundred percent effort is really all we’re asking for,” Gonter said. “If you’re into the system we’re playing, we’ll come out with wins.”
Along with Gonter, lacrosse star Jason Chiodo is expected to bring some offense to his game as a defenseman. Colin Bartoo and Joey Iafallo will provide “rock solid defense.”
“We’ve got two rock solid defensemen, Bartoo and Iafallo,” McFall said. “If I get three points out of the combination of them, that’s gonna be one more than I think we’ll get. So we’re not gonna get a lot of points, but they are rock solid and make that great first pass and can be some shutdown defensemen while we let the two other guys, Chiodo and Gonter, kind of roll with the puck a little bit more. They know that they’ve got Bartoo and Iafallo sticking around in the back a little bit for them.”
Bartoo, Iafallo, and Chiodo are familiar faces on this year’s team, along with most of the players McFall will depend on. Perhaps the one exception will be goaltender-turned-forward Neil Dake.
“That’s our key weapon right there,” said Coppola.
Neil Dake is the younger brother of Josh Dake as well as two more Dake brothers who have gone through the Hamburg organization. Josh gave up travel hockey to play for Hamburg his senior year, and Neil gave up a chance to play prep hockey out of state in order to play one year of Fed hockey. McFall couldn’t be happier.
“Here’s a kid who’s a top flight goaltender who had an opportunity to play out of town at a prep school this year as a goaltender and chose to stay home, and one of the reasons was he wanted to play high school hockey,” McFall said. “Now he’s great friends with Coppola, and he’s a top flight goaltender. He’d challenge Griff for time in that net, and we’d have to split it up. Dake’s decided, ‘No, I want to play forward.’ He said he’s wanted to play forward since freshman year. He skates like a goaltender, he doesn’t understand the game out front there, he’s winded as anything out there, but he’s a big solid kid, has a heavy shot. He’s gonna find his time. You’re not gonna see him bearing down the wing and beating a guy wide like Gonter will, but you’re gonna see him fighting and winning battles in the corners, and put him in front of that net and he’s gonna find pucks, and he’s gonna score a few goals for us, which, that’s a nice surprise. We didn’t expect him. It’s like Christmas, I guess. You kind of expect something, you’re hoping for something, and then when it’s there, it’s like, ‘Yeah, we got it!’ So he’s gonna be a good one. He’s the fourth Dake we’ve had on the team here. So I know what kind of kid he is. I’ve known him since he was a little guy. That’s gonna be a real nice surprise.”
McFall won’t be concerned if Hamburg starts off slowly once again as far as record is concerned, as long as his team plays well. He knows the competition won’t be easy, but the focus is on the two games each against Williamsville East and Kenmore East, and then on the playoffs.
“I’m not worried about a fast start with wins, but a fast start with good play,” McFall said. “I think what we need is we need good work in practice. We need leaders on the ice and on the team. They know their individual things that they need to work on, and they know to focus on the team things once we get on the ice and work on the team things. It’s not gonna be perfect from the beginning, but we talked about, yeah, you make a mistake once, you correct it, and now we expect you to do it better next time. And that’s gonna go with every shift, every period, every game as the season goes on.”
“If I see something that they can improve on or if I can improve on something, I’m always trying to better myself and the team,” said Delmont, demonstrating the type of leadership McFall is looking for. “It’s my last year of varsity, so I want to play well. It’s good to finally be a senior and have the team for the seniors, and it’s just kind of sad though because it’s my favorite time of the year, and it’s gonna be sad giving it up next year.”
Before Delmont, Coppola, and the other seniors graduate, they have one goal for this season — to win a championship. And Gonter wants it just as much.
“Definitely a championship’s our goal,” Gonter said. “We gotta avenge all those losses in semifinal games.”
And the plan is simple — literally.
“Play smart hockey,” said Delmont. “Always work hard. Smart, simple plays. We got the best goalie in the game.”
“Heart. Intensity. Hard work,” said Coppola. “Can’t waste any time at practice. Gotta be competitive during the game for the whole game.”
The Bulldogs certainly don’t waste any time at practice. Most of them show up to the rink at least half an hour before they’re scheduled to take the ice, and they aren’t about to let anyone take that away from them.
“We had an opportunity with the change at Frontier,” McFall said. “[Frontier coach Brian Dehlinger] and I met with the rink manager here, and Brian can’t make their 3:00 practice times. I was kinda thinking, I wonder if the boys would like to switch. I sent out messages and I asked the returning seniors, ‘What do you think? Do you want to go at 3:30/4:00?’ To a man, they said, ‘No Coach.’ One was just about militant about it. He said, ‘Don’t give our ice to Frontier. Don’t give them our ice.’
“This is their place. This is their time. This is their rink. Even though we don’t play many games here at home, it’s become a part of our culture here, and that’s one of our biggest things. We haven’t won a championship, but we’ve got a lot of kids that are winners, based on the culture of our team.”
Hamburg opens its season Nov. 28 at HarborCenter against Timon. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:30 pm.