Sports

Bottineau-Rugby to fight lack of depth in 2012-13 season

By Tyler Ohmann

11/20/2012

Following up a senior-led trip to the state tournament is a tough thing to do. Trying to do it after losing 13 seniors is even harder, but that this what the Bottineau-Rugby Braves hockey team has to do deal with this season.

“Things are a little different, the whole dynamic has changed,” said Braves head coach David Hoff. “But I like where we’re at and how we’ve worked. It’s just going to be interesting how we fair, because we have some injury and eligibility issues early on.”

Seniors from last year’s state squad included West Region Senior of the Year and state scoring leader Logan Millican, as well as strong forwards Kyle Volk, Nick Monson, Jackson Bernstein, Andrew Lorenz and Taylor Neubauer and defensmen Zach Kihle and Ging Martin. Oh, and goaltender Cody Brooks, who started all but two games between the pipes for the Braves last year.

Returning for the Braves are second-leading scorer and state assist leader Harrison Aide, a junior, sophomore scoring threat Luke Amsbaugh, as well as senior defenseman Cody Longie.

And that is where Hoff said the strength of their team lies in defense.

“Right now we are still trying to find our way in there, and find three lines that with that little bit of depth that can play,” Hoff said. “Right now, we have five defensemen that have some good experience coming back, that’s probably an area of strength.”

“We have some experience there, it’s just the depth of forwards where there is a lack of experience right now,” Hoff added.

The other four defensemen with varsity experience from last season are senior Wyatt Johnson, and juniors Cody Bedlion, Nigel Hagenness and Andrew Hill.

“So far when you look at us through a week and a half, we do have some guys that have a lot of experience, we just don’t have that depth of experience that we had,” Hoff said. “The good part of that is that there will be some guys that will get to be a part of some of those situations, and show some improvement.”

Longie is looking forward to the Braves opener tonight in Devils Lake.

“Obviously we are a smaller team, after losing 13 seniors, but we are going to try and get in shape and do what we can do,” Longie said. “It feel’s good.”

In order to win the senior said the team is going to “need to put up points,” but he said he learned how to score as a defenseman last season.

“I’m going to try to skate the puck up, and then get back fast if I have to,” Longie said.

Hoff said he believes Longie is one of the best defenseman in the state.

Longie said he learned a few things from the 13 seniors last season.

“(I learned) to try and be a leader, lead the team and get some wins,” Longie said.

He also learned it is a difficult task to make it to state, and that they will have to work even harder this year to get there.

“It’s not easy getting there (State Tournament),” Longie said. “We’re going to have to work hard to get there again.”

Hoff too is excited to see how things pan out early in the season.

“A lot of it now is we have done some different things in practice, with the numbers being a bit smaller and the fact that we only have one goaltender, and we will get to see where we are at,” Hoff said about next Tuesday’s game. “I’ve like the skill I’ve seen, but where is our conditioning at, and maybe even just a strategy of how we can play with the numbers we have. So how do we use the people we have to play with good tempo, but get rest for the guys.”

“That will be the challenge, but we’ll figure it all out,” Hoff added.

However, a 19-7 overall record and 14-1 West Region record from last season is a tough thing to live up to.

The Braves have 17 total players on this year’s squad (10 from Bottineau, seven from Rugby), with only one goalie, Riley Monson. The junior played in two games last year.

The first home game for Bottineau-Rugby is at 7:30 p.m., on Friday, Nov. 30 against Jamestown.