The University of Tampa ice hockey team has nailed down a competitive schedule for the 2011 spring season.
UT is set to play two games against Florida Institute of Technology, after beating the Panthers in the club’s inaugural game back in November. UT will open the 2011 portion of their season Friday night at its newly named home rink, Tampa Bay Skating Academy in Oldsmar, and face FIT in Melbourne, Fla. the following night. The team has gotten the initial game out of the way, which was a big step.
“We kind of know how we stand as a college hockey team. We know we can compete against other college hockey teams,” goaltender Mark Baccoli said.
But there’s still a lot up in the air. The two teams that will take the ice this weekend are very different than the teams that took the ice in November. For UT, they lost two players, but added three new faces. The team also has a new alternate captain, forward Phil Gilchrist.
“I have no doubt that Phil will be able to step up and perform an important role in team leadership. He’s a good guy and he’ll work well with Cody [Kopf] (alternate captain) and Leif [Benner] (captain),” Coach Steve Kucera said.
Gilchrist doesn’t believe that the leadership change will make a significant impact though, because it’s still the same core team. “There’s not something I need to do more than others. Maybe down the line, as the team starts getting more developed, my role will start coming through. Until then, it’s just trying to get the guys to have fun,” he said.
The FIT squad is different this time around too. The previous game was affected by a tragic plane accident that killed four people, including FIT students.
“While we played FIT, we did not play their full squad last time. There were five kids that didn’t skate because of the plane crash, they were so shaken. We played against a good team with good players, but not their full roster,” Kucera explained. “I’m a scientist. You can’t deduce any kind of trend from one game. They played very well in that one game; I think they have the potential to play very well in the future.”
Kucera stresses the importance for the team to remember that they’re still a new team and they don’t know exactly what to expect.
“Never underestimate your opponent. You don’t go into a game cocky. It may work for the Jets, it worked all year until [this past weekend] but that’s just not who I am when I step onto the ice. When you do that, you’re communicating that you don’t respect your opponent,” Kucera explained.
Plus, there’s the old “any given day” adage.
“If you underestimate your opponent you can be careless. You can pay dearly for that in a hockey game. And it’s needless,” he added
The team responds to Kucera’s mentality. “We have to go in there with high expectations and play hard. We can’t go in thinking that we beat them last time, it’ll be an easy game,” Baccoli said.
These are also the first games since the winter break so it is important for everyone to stay on their toes. The team also hasn’t had as many practices before these games as they had before the first game. “Hopefully it’ll be like a bike, they’ll pick up where they left off,” Kucera said.
But he’s unsure of what to expect from the team following the break. The team works with conditioning coach Dr. Wilson, who helps each player formulate a training plan.
“[We’ll] see what extent of Dr. Wilson’s advice they took over the break. It’ll show on the ice whether they followed it or didn’t follow it. But [the break will] be equally hard on FIT as well,” Kucera added.
At least one player is concerned about the conditioning of the team. Gilchrist is already looking to the future conditioning. Gilchrist, a personal trainer and adult fitness major, plans to help with the conditioning aspect.
“Our main priority is just to keep all the boys in shape and next year go above that,” he said.
April Weiner can be reached at april.weiner@spartans.ut.edu.