As coach of his former high school hockey team at Heritage High School, J.J. Bamberger can’t complain about the success he’s had so far.
It’s his fifth year as a head coach and his 13th season with the program. He played for Heritage his 10th grade season before he went to the juniors and played in the North American Hockey League. After high school, he played for Ferris State University.
“This year, we’re off to a good start at 10-3,” he said. The games we’ve lost were a shootout, a one-goal game, and to Traverse City Central up to their tournament at Traverse City.”
Heritage went to the MHSAA’s Final Four Bamberger’s first season as coach, where it lost to Trenton.
“That team was a little more mature, a little older,” Bamberger recalled. “They were both both committed and worked very hard. We had the same start record-wise. That first year, I had a player that scored 40 goals that year. That was the biggest difference.”
This year, leading scorers include Sammi Abdelaziz and Tyler Angers, who each average around 1.5 goals per game. Both are forwards. Jacob Mackie has been leading the defense.
Speed has been the strength of this team, Bamberger indicated.
“We’re a smaller team,” he said. “Everyone we play against, the first thing they’ll comment on is our speed is noticeable. It’s weird because when we’re really working hard, we’re skating. But we’ve had some bad games this year, and that’s the first thing I noticed. When we’re not playing well, we’re not skating, we’re kind of going through the motions. We had a couple of bad games where we came out completely flat.”
Nice wins included back-to-back victories over Midland Dow and Midland High.
“They’re non-conference games, but they’re two top teams,” Bamberger said. “We beat Toledo St. Johns, the No. 1 team in Ohio, in the Traverse City Tournament. Those are probably the three strongest wins we’ve had.”
Bamberger said key goals include winning the conference. Midland, Midland Dow, and Powers Catholic will be tough league competitors.
“It’s a fairly strong league,” Bamberger said. “You want to win your league. We want to go as far as we can in the playoffs. We played some of the top teams in Division 2. I think we match up really well against them.
“Obviously you need a couple of breaks here and there. We made it to the final four twice. I truly believe in the success, if you get to the later stages, are your special teams. If your special teams aren’t good, you’re not going to have success. Your penalty kill and power play have to run at a good percentage. If not, you’re going to be done. That’s one thing we’re trying to improve on all the time, special teams.”
Midland High and Midland Dow will be tough teams.
The program “is as solid as it’s ever been,” Bamberger said. “Our alumni association is strong. The Heritage hockey program has a good reputation. The kids want to play for us. The kids are coming back and coming around. This team is as talented as any I’ve coached. We have a lot of juniors, and we’re only going to get better next year. The last few years, we’ve been so young; now it’s paying off. I have kids who are juniors who played as freshmen. We’re in a good spot right now.”
OTHER TEAMS
-Dick Blasy is coaching Midland Dow, and his team is 8-5-1.
“The boys are working hard and starting to pay attention to the details,” he said
Travis McNally, Zach Paisley, and Ethan Loftis are the top three players in points.
“Our strength is in our work ethic. These boys work hard and have fun coming to the rink every day. We need to work on keeping the game simple and consistently playing at a high level. When we play well, we can play with anyone. We’ll go as far as the boys want to go.”
-The Rockford Rams, coached by Ed Van Portfliet, have started out 9-6-3.
“The season has gone well at times and then a struggle at times,” VanPortfliet said. “At this point in the season we expected a few more wins, but we are starting to battle injuries.”
Leading players are Cam Bathum on defense; Todd Millar in goal; and Stephen Shira, Jacob Smyth, David Sokol, and Trevor Mills at forward.
“Team strength is the commitment to team defense and depth at all positions,” VanPortfliet said, adding that another goal to work on “is becoming a better scoring team. Our team goal is a regional championship. We’ll need all our injured players back to have a chance to accomplish this.”
-Okemos hockey coach Bill Sipola’s team has a record of 11-3. Its league record is 7-1, which ties it for first place, and Sipola notes that their goal of a league championship is attainable.
Matt Luberto, Tristan Eggenberger, and Cam Myers are leading scorers.
“We are playing well, have to continue working hard every shift,” he said.
-Tim Beurer is coaching the Lowell-Caledonia-South Christian team that is 3-9-2, with a 1-1-2 record in conference play.
“The current season has had its share of challenges for our team,” Beuer said. “We started with a pretty tough schedule by playing against some of the tougher teams in the area (East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central, Hudsonville, and East Kentwood). It has always been my plan to start the year with some tougher opponents to get the team ready to play our conference schedule in the second half of the season.
“We have seen some improvements over the past month where we are moving the puck better and seem to be generating more scoring chances. Unfortunately, we are struggling to convert the chances into goals. The entire team is working hard in practice and games.”
Beurer has a young team. “We have less than a handful of seniors on our roster,” he said. “Not all of the these players have played at the high school level before. Our team is led by our captain, Jake Rossman (senior from Caledonia) and other seniors Eric Balut, Jake Roetman (out with an injury), and Ben Smith.”
The team’s biggest strength is its speed.
“Every game we have played in thus far, we have never been outskated,” Beuer said. “The team continues to skate all three periods and wear down our opponents. Our passing has improved over the course of the season, and we are moving the puck pretty well from one end of the rink to the other. However, once in the offensive zone, we need to improve on creating more and better scoring chances in a game. Also, when given an opportunity, we need to capitalize by putting the puck in the back of the net.”
He has hopes that his team can still finish the season with an overall record near .500.
“Our original goal for the season was to finish first in our conference, which still may be attainable,” he said. “However, we are going to need a lot of help from other teams in order to do that.”