The Wildcats have a very small roster this year and almost didn’t have a team due to the few hockey players that attend Westminster. Six seniors graduated last season and only two freshmen joined the team this year. Mid States hockey has a pool of players that attend high schools that do not have hockey teams, or players that did not make the school’s team. Since Westminster has so few students that play hockey, they were able to take players from the pool to have enough players for a team. Seven of the twenty players on the roster are not students at Westminster.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year, and now this year with only two (one of which being a goalie), the lack of seniority for the underclassmen will take a little toll. I am looking forward to leading the team this year and hopefully teaching some of the new freshmen how to give that team the energy we need for next season.” Said senior Drew Gingerich

Last year the team finished with a record of 10-9-1 finishing just above .500. Caleb Bross was the core of the offense. His presence will definitely be missed this season as he contributed to most of the goals scored last season. This year the Cats will be looking toward junior Joey Morici to be the go to guy on offense. Joey is a power forward with good hands that can make things happen in the offensive zone. 

“I think I will be able to help lead our offense to success this year. And obviously this year is going to look a little different from last year. We are a much younger team and lost a lot of seniors this year.” said junior Joey Morici when asked about his role on offense this season.

The defense also lost heavy hitter Zach Kilgore who went on to play at the University of Arkansas. In his time, he heavily contributed to the offense, and was the heart on the defensive end. The Wildcats do not have anyone that has the size of Kilgore that can put up big hits. This season Logan Swenson will be leading the defense. He will have some big shoes to fill after Zach Kilgore graduating, but he has the skill set and knowledge to be able to excel this season. 

“I think that we will need to play smarter as a team, especially the more experienced guys. I think that leading the defense this year will be all about showing the newer varsity guys how to play smarter with less time to make decisions on the ice than they are used to.” said junior Logan Swenson.

This year the Cats only have two seniors and six juniors on the team. Being a team that is primarily underclassman, the Cats are lacking experience. High school hockey is a very different game than club hockey because of the wide range of skill levels, and it is a hard adjustment to make especially for the smaller players that have to play against older kids that are much bigger than they are. 

“Although we had a slow start with our first game of the season and we are a very young team, we have a lot of potential and we are hoping to grow every game and compete with every team we play,” said junior John Schweppe

If the Cats can generate power with their young team, they will have some success this season, but they will probably not reach the level of success that they had last season with the previous senior heavy roster. It will be an interesting season as the cats try to navigate their schedule with a very different team than they’ve had in the past.