With the fall sports season coming to an end, the winter sports season is right around the corner. The Alden Iroquois Ice Hockey Team are lacing up their skates to start their 2018-19 campaign. Leading the team this season behind the bench is head coach Brian Zittel. The Chiefs are looking for a bounce back season from last year’s 2-16-1-1 record. They are looking to return to the team of two years ago when they went 23-2-1 and made a run for state championships.

After discussion with Coach Zittel, I got to ask him his predictions on the 2018-19 season. Coach Zittel responded with, “Being our first year in the league a ‘prediction’ is pretty hard to come by.  An ‘expectation’ I have is that our whole roster is going to give 110% to make a great first impression on the Section VI hockey community.  We will be a young team with mostly Sophomores and Juniors.  These kids know how to play hockey.  We just need to get them playing together, all the same direction.  I expect to take some lumps and I also expect to give some lumps.  This year D2 and D3 play each other once and only once.  We get one look at each team in each division and need to lead with our best effort.  There is no second chance during regular season play.  I see who we have to play and I see how they did last year.  Some did very well and some struggled.  But each year is a new year.  With school sports your roster changes each year, sometimes dramatically.  New players adding 2 goals per game or limiting the other team to 2 fewer goals per game can make a huge difference.”

The Alden Iroquois Hockey team starts tryouts November 6,7, and 8. Good luck to Coach Zittel and all the players this season.