The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Area coaches, teams navigate campaign
Uncertainty has never been so prevalent. Insight from a cross-section of area coaches reinforces that truth.
Albeit unintended, perhaps all you need to know about the havoc wreaked on News-Herald coverage area high school hockey squads, not even one month into the season, can be found in one entry on The Pond’s daily schedule.
For Dec. 5, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin has booked ice time for a game.
Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m.
The opponent, right now, is listed as “?”
Indeed, uncertainty has never been so prevalent.
Insight from a cross-section of area coaches, from University’s Andy Gerow in the Great Lakes Hockey League to Mentor’s Paul McKito in the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League’s Red Division to NDCL’s Bernie Kosloski in the GCHSHL Blue, reinforces that inescapable truth.
“I think at this point, I have called every rink in the city,” Gerow said.
“Put it this way: This morning (Nov. 30), varsity practiced at Rocky River at 6:30 a.m. I sent 10 guys from our JV team over to the North Olmsted studio rink. We have a practice on Friday at The Pond. And then on Monday, we have a practice at Barons (Arena in Parma). Then I think next Wednesday, we’re at Strongsville.
“So pretty much, whatever ice I’ve been able to get my hands on, between the hours of 4 p.m. when we can get our kids in after school to when they close, or even before school, I’ve kind of grabbed it up because it’s been a real struggle.”
Not only on the ice, but off.
McKito got in one week of practice with the Cardinals and had a scrimmage Nov. 8 hosting Perrysburg, following all safety protocols.
The night before, McKito said, he got calls from two players stating they were not feeling well and couldn’t play. One of the two players contacted McKito on Nov. 8 to inform him he was positive for COVID-19. Then the next day, the second player came back positive as well.
“Then it trickled down from there,” McKito said.
More positive tests came,
and Mentor was subsequently shut down until Nov. 22. The district has gone to virtual learning as well, with winter sports on pause in turn.
McKito is hopeful further clarity will be available soon as to how to proceed.
Gerow confirmed his US squad has been in quarantine twice already, once in the preseason and again to start the regular season, before logging games this past weekend against Holy Name and Cincinnati Moeller, a 4-2 win and a 4-0 win, respectively.
“I think any time they can get on the ice, they’re just so appreciative to be out there,” Gerow said. “This year is a year where tomorrow is never promised. We’ve already kind of experienced that. So I think anything they can get their hands on, they’re gung ho about it.”
And then there’s rink availability.
Nov. 23, Mentor Civic Arena announced it was shutting down through the
end of the calendar year. Cleveland Heights, which hosts area squads Benedictine, Brush and US, closed in March at the onset of the pandemic. Heights intended to reopen in October, Gerow said, but had to pause due to an ice malfunction. It wanted to then prepare its South rink for use, but when COVID-19 numbers spiked, the decision was made to keep both Heights sheets closed.
“The thing is, ice is at a premium,” McKito said. “But I don’t want to commit to ice slots at other rinks and then have to cancel and get charged for them. That would blow our budget out of the water, so I’ve just been playing a wait-and-see game.”
Gerow booked practice time through December at C.E. Orr Arena in Euclid, which nearly 20 years ago served as US’ home rink. But C.E. Orr shut down and is now also closed, according to its website, “until further notice.”
US has also skated in recent months at Winter
hurst. Kent State, longtime home to the Kent District tournament, is closed and has, according to an Ohio Hockey Digest report, taken out its ice entirely and may not open at all this season.
“It’s been a mess,” Gerow said
hen Mentor closed, Kosloski immediately contacted Elisa Nash, The Pond’s owner, to book practice and game slots.
“The challenge is, and I think all of the coaches are on the same page, is to keep your programs moving forward,” Kosloski said. “You want to be on the ice.”
Even if it means early morning practice slots — and figuring out opponents on the fly.
“I think, like everyone, you’re just dealing with it,” Kosloski said. “The fact that we’re winter sports and the fall sports have gone through their seasons, these kids have played other sports in the fall, so they saw what happened in the fall sports. So I think they were prepared coming into
winter sports.
“High school kids, they kind of roll with it. I think obviously they’re disappointed we’re not playing as many games as we typically do or we’re not touching the ice as much as we typically do. But I think they appreciate the fact we’re able to keep things moving forward.”
The GCHSHL announced last week it would not employ a league schedule for 2020-2021 amid the pandemic, with all games teams log during the regular season deemed independent. There are hopes to stage a modified Baron Cup in February at Brooklyn in which all teams would qualify for the tournament.
Gerow said the GLHL was zeroing in on using win percentage for Cleveland Cup seeding, should there be games that are postponed and unable to be rescheduled.
All three coaches lauded their players for the moxie they’ve shown amid the challenges of the pandemic.
“They want to play,”
McKito said. “They want to get back. They want to practice. I’ve been sending them a bunch of stuff through their emails. We have a couple Zoom meetings where we talk about X’s and O’s and stuff, just trying to get our minds back.to hockey here so at leastW we can hit the ice running once we get back to it hopefully.
“It’s a real thing. Some people think it is. Some people think it isn’t. It hit us pretty hard, to say the least. It took out one-third of our team pretty much for two weeks and put us all in quarantine for two weeks. The life lesson there is you’ve got to protect yourself. You’ve just to stay healthy, and you’ve got to do what you need to do.”
Even if it brings some question marks along the way.
“It’s kind of fun for me, when I’m pulling my hair out trying to find ice, when I see the smiles on their faces going into the rink, it’s all worth it,” Gerow said. “So that’s been a positive.”