Last Updated on Thursday, 19 November 2015 09:27
Superior High School captured its 13th boys’ state hockey title last season. Now the Spartans are hungry for another.
By Andrew Vitalis
Jason Kalin knows success. He and his Superior High School boys' hockey program have lived it, breathed it for decades. Kalin himself was a part of two state championship teams as a player for the Spartans in 1990 and 1992. Superior won three more titles in 1994, 1995 and 1996. As a coach, Kalin lifted the hardware in 2003 and 2005. As a matter of fact, since being head coach, Kalin and the Spartans have been to the state tournament every season except one (15th season). With all of that said, with all of the past success stories, championship banners and hardware in the trophy case, no prior season could hold a candle (or skate) to the Spartans’ march to success in 2014-15.
“It was probably the best feeling I’ve had as a head coach,” Kalin said. “I think all of the coaches echo that feeling. It was just such a contagious atmosphere, it was really fun to be a part of. I think the section final game against Hudson was kind of like our state championship. After we got past them, the kids just geared down and grabbed onto that momentum. It was really fun.”
That fun Kalin is referring to was another state title for Superior, their 13th WIAA title in school history (won two prior to WIAA). The Spartans also became the first sub-.500 team to win a state title in state history after finishing the 2014-15 regular season with a 8-14-1 record. Despite the record, Kalin remembered the state of his team after a late-season loss to Hermantown (3-0). Yes, the record wasn’t where they wanted it to be, but he and others could feel the momentum was building.
“We lost 3-0 to a very good Hermantown team,” Kalin said. “They scored three solid goals against us, they weren’t bad goals. We were right in there the entire game. We played hard and kept fighting. I think those types of things made us stronger at the end of the season and gave us some momentum going into the playoffs. We played a very tough schedule and we were in all of the games for the most part. A fight kind of developed amongst the kids in the locker room. At the end of the season we really didn’t find ourselves having a lot of soft spots in our game, we learned to never take a night off and we gained confidence knowing we could play with anyone.”
Play, and win. The Spartans rushed through the section tournament, advancing to the state tournament where they rattled off three more wins. At state, their late-season surge was evident as they outscored their three opponents 13-2, including a 6-0 win over Wausau West in the title game.
Now, with the butterflies in the rearview mirror, Kalin and his team are back on the ice ready to make another run. Like last season, his team will be no stranger to adversity as 10 seniors from last year’s team are gone, in addition to five additional players in the program who have since transferred to Duluth Marshall. One of the players no longer skating with Superior is Troy Schold who tallied a hat trick in the state championship game last March. In total, of the 32 players listed on the 2015-16 season roster, only six are seniors and a combined 19 are sophomores or younger. No question, the Spartans’ first goal will be putting last year’s hardware away and developing a new identity for this season.
“We are all ready to build for a new season,” Kalin said. “We are extremely proud of what happened last season, but to be honest, the kids haven’t talked about it much. We have a nice core returning and ready to go and we have a bunch of new kids who are ready to step in. The young guys really relish being a part of this tradition we have built, so they will be ready. First and foremost we need to be disciplined. We’re not going to have a high scoring offense. Our strength is going to be at the blue line and between the pipes. We need to play our systems, come with energy every night and stay out of the penalty box. We just need to do the little things right. We stress that every day to the kids. If we play with the energy we played with last year, we will be ready to go.”
The Spartans’ backbone will be their defense. Protected by a mature blue line, the majority of the work between the pipes is expected to fall on Caden Welch, a sophomore goaltender who is coming off a busy offseason where he played AAA hockey. When asked about his defensemen, Kalin uses one important word that is music to a coach’s ear: “smart.”
Up front, Superior will have a heavy dose of new talent mixed with returners. While Kalin and his staff will rely heavily on returners like Max Plunkett and Caden Tchop, skilled new faces will break the lineup ready to help Kalin and his Spartans develop that new identify he is looking for.
“We have a great ninth and 10th grade group,” Kalin said. “We have some size and then some little water bugs who go out there and do the little things, create havoc all over the ice. They have done a nice job getting the defensemen involved and have been creating opportunities that way. These young kids coming up have been Spartans their entire life, they have come up through the organization and have seen the tradition we have developed. They are excited to be a part of it now. It’s just a fun time for the players and coaches.”
While the Superior roster may be changing, their schedule has always, and will always be a constant. That’s completely fine with Kalin who attributes the Spartans’ brutal schedule as one of the main reasons for their year-to-year success. A member of the Lake Superior Conference, Superior will once again face Minnesota power programs such as Hermantown, Duluth Marshall, Cloquet, Proctor, Duluth East and Hibbing. In addition, Superior will play in the Duluth Marshall Holiday Tournament this season which will bring more firepower to the schedule. It’s a way of life for the Spartans and they would’nt have it any other way.
“It’s the strongest schedule in the state,” Kalin said. “We try to play the best competition in our area, I think it prepares us for the end of the season. In a lot of games last year, we only lost by one or two goals to some very good teams. That made us stronger at the end of the season and I think it was one of the main reasons why we finished the way we did.”
Andrew Vitalis will be writing a new column in LPH geared towards Wisconsin hockey. He can be reached at lphprep@yahoo.com.
Photo: Andy Manis
