The Dawgs Play On: Adrian's ACHA Teams Grateful for Ice Time Through Pandemic
It would typically be around this time that I would write a mid season recap, summarizing the first semester of hockey played by Adrian College. However, this year has proven to be anything but typical as two out of seven teams have yet to even take the ice for a game and none of the seven teams have played the number of games they would usually play by this point in the year.
Amidst what has been repeatedly referred to as "unprecedented times", sports are one of the many things that have been a question mark as we navigate a months long pandemic.
It's been nearly nine months since we've seen normalcy, nine months since the hearts of athletes across the nation had their hearts broken and many careers were cut short in what could only be described as a heartwrenching manner.
In the past nine months, people have questioned whether or not they could make a living or ever go back to their chosen profession. They've questioned whether or not they could see their loved ones in nursing homes or in neighboring countries. Students have wondered if they were ever going to get graduation ceremonies, proms, homecomings or a proper college experience after high school had ended.
While many people have shoved the idea of sport under the rug and deemed it "non-essential", a term we have coined and used frequently since this pandemic began, and many have labeled the cries for a way to continue athletics as silly, foolish and even dangerous, the question still remained in the minds of athletes, coaches and administrators across the world.
What will the 2020-21 season look like?
The NHL took great strides this summer, creating two "bubbles" were athletes were contained in hotels and rinks and gyms while they played out the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all without a positive COVID case for nearly 90 days. The NBA did the same with the bubble format and the National Women's Hockey League recently announced that their six teams (with three Bulldog alum on two different teams) will compete for the Isobel Cup in a shortened bubble season at the hockey history rich Lake Placid.
But the question has remained for collegiate sports, especially winter sports as we saw the end of summer come and go and have gotten into the winter with no idea what is to come.
Adrian College announced their intentions to safely return to campus this summer, but the question was still left regarding athletics. The MIAA announced they would not be playing and putting on league play for the fall, moving it to spring instead. But Adrian College chose to continue playing.
While the athletes of Adrian College could breathe a collective sigh of relief when their coaches would inform them that they would be playing once again this year, there was still one large looming question.
Who would we play?
This question has definitely impacted the hockey program at Adrian College, especially since 5 of 7 hockey teams are ACHA teams, playing in a league where the majority of other teams are buying ice from public rinks and paying thousands of dollars a season to fund their own programs. The risk of not having a season or the risk of being taken off the ice because of COVID concerns is too great a risk to take when a program is funded by players own money.
Multiple leagues in the NCAA have announced their intentions to either halt play entirely this year or at least take the first semester off of sports. Many schools with club programs have not allowed their teams to take the ice or travel to play away games. The ACHA National Tournament was moved a month later to accommodate the majority of teams who are unable to play until January.
But the Bulldogs play on.
The Women's ACHA DI team was the first to take the ice this season in October, playing Gilmour Academy, a high school team from Ohio. They played five games this past semester, two against Gilmour, one against Belle Tire's Senior Women's team and two against the Women's NCAA team. Most of their ACHA counterparts haven't even taken the ice yet and won't until the new year.
The Women's ACHA D2 team, however, wasn't as lucky. While they were set to play against Lake Superior State this semester, they found out prior to their game weekend that Lake Superior was not allowed to travel to Adrian and their only contests of the semester were cancelled. Luckily, head coach Kelsey Dupuis set up an intersquad game and skills competition for her team for the weekend of the cancelled games to get her team on the ice in front of their parents at least once this semester.
The Men's D1 (MD1) team took the ice a week later, October 16th and 17th, against the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Eagles are in even a bigger predicament than the Bulldogs, they are the lone American team in a Canadian junior league and unable to cross the border and play games. The only way they could manage to play games would be if the entire team uprooted and went over the border and found a new home in Canada, something that is obviously unable to happen in such a short amount of time and given the circumstances dealt.
The MD1 team felt the bitter ending to the 2019-20 season, the year long #1 ranked team in the nation who put up a record of 32-2 while steamrolling every opponent that came their way, it looked like it would once again be the Dawgs year to go out on top. All the signs pointed that way until March 12th, 2020 when the world began to turn on its side and life as we know it was halted.
"I definitely think we are motivated to not only play for ourselves, but to play for last year's seniors who did not have the chance to compete for another national championship," said head coach Gary Astalos when I asked how the abrupt ending to last season affected his team's outlook on this season, "It has also made me realize how much more grateful I am this year to show up to the rink every single day."
The D1 team was one of very few ACHA teams playing this fall and one of even fewer Michigan or Ohio based teams playing hockey. However, even as more and more teams get on the ice and show you can do it safely, some teams are still opting out of the season.
"Obviously we can only control ourselves and I am not sure what is going to happen in the world," said Astalos when I asked if there was a worry that they would not be able to complete their season this year, "I know we were very successful, safely participating in the Fall. I am hopeful and confident that we will continue to move forward with that success in the coming months."
The Dawgs were set to play 8 games this semester, 6 at home and 2 on the road. The two game set against the Eagles followed by a home-at-home with Lawrence Tech that was cancelled the Monday of what was supposed to be game week. They were set to take on Indiana Tech the following weekend, again once at home and once on the road, but they found themselves once again without an opponent once game week rolled around.
"It was definitely challenging. We had a lot of teams decide not to play first semester," said Astalos when I asked him how trying to schedule games this past semester was, "We had a lot of games cancelled by other teams due to covid restrictions. I am hopeful next semester will be smoother but we fully expect more games to be cancelled, rescheduled, etc. We have to be able to adapt to all situations in these challenging times."
The season was different from the get go, the traditional D1 training camp that consists of nearly a week of practices and scrimmages against different groups of guys each night was axed for a training camp for the entire ACHA program where players were split into pods and played against the same group of guys all week and weren't able to be on the ice for practices. Training camp is also notorious for rigorous off ice and practices that go along with scrimmages, If you aren't in shape at the beginning of camp, you're going to end it in shape if you're on the D1 team.
Not only did training camp operate much differently than in years past, it was also held a few weeks later than normal because of COVID precautions.
"We definitely had a different camp process this year," said Astalos, the mastermind behind the rigorous tryout week for his team, "Ultimately, we could not get our players in game shape as quickly as we would have liked, but honestly that is expected during this time. That is just a small bump in the road in my eyes and like I said earlier, our guys worked really hard to get back in shape."
The Dawgs ended up playing four games, two against the Eagles and two against the Liberty Flames, who were only originally scheduled for one game against the Dawgs.
But how do you keep a team prepared to play at the drop of a hat after so much down time? Especially against the #2 team in the country?
Practices.
"Our guys worked really, really hard over that stretch," said Astalos of the month stretch between the exhibition series against the Eagles before their clash with #2 Liberty, "With practice, off ice workouts, film, and black/gold intersquad games, our guys were just preparing every week to hopefully play games. I give a lot of credit to the guys on our roster for preparing the right way."
Back in 2018 when the MD1 team entered the National Tournament as the #2 seed in the country, the highest the Dawgs had ever achieved going into the tournament, many people criticized them, saying their 31-1 record didn't indicate how good they were because they played a "weak schedule" against "weak" teams. The players responded in interviews saying that they may not have been playing top five teams every weekend, but they were competing every day in practice against the best players in the country.
Three years later, that statement is still true.
"The biggest thing we have focused on in practice is appreciating every day we get to be on the ice," said Astalos. "There are so many teams around the country who have already cancelled their entire seasons, I think we really just need to appreciate how fortunate we are to attend such a supportive college."
Not only did the MD1 team have an abrupt end to what looked like it was going to be the best season in program history, they lost their winningest class in program history in a heartbreaking fashion. The Class of 2020 lost 9 games in their four years as Bulldogs, losing fewer games in four years than 80% of the ACHA Div. I lost just in the last year.
"Yes for sure," Astalos said when I asked him if watching the seniors have their final four games taken from them affected his returners, "Rainer Glimpel, our captain last year, was determined to win the last game of the year and he made it clear to the team in our first team meeting he would lead by example to help get us there. All those seniors were awesome guys. We show up everyday to play for them. Dom and Barzy [the team's two returning fifth year players] have done a wonderful job leading the way and I know they are playing for those guys as well. But honestly, we have a great group of guys this year. I know all of them are 100% bought in. I can't wait until we get back going again in January."
Not only did watching their friends lose their last four games as Bulldogs and as competitive hockey players light a fire under the D1 returners, but the ending that they were handed last season, Astalos says, has made them much more grateful for the time they are able to spend on the ice both at practice and playing games. And the gratitude for showing up at the rink everyday doesn't just comes from the players, but, like many things, it starts at the top with Coach Astalos.
"I think the biggest thing is I have never appreciated showing up to work more than this year," said Astalos, "We can't take any day for granted and I enjoy showing up to the rink every day and getting in more work with a great group of young men."
For the ACHA D2 and D3 teams, the season was over when the pandemic began. Neither team had qualified for their regional tournament. The Men’s D2 team had been off the ice for nearly a month when COVID sent the world into a halt and the Men’s D3 team’s season had ended in playoffs a week prior.
While there are a number of ACHA D1 teams in the state of Michigan and teams that are willing to make a trip to Michigan in both the MD1 level and the NCAA level, finding an opponent has proven tough for the D2 and D3 teams.
The D3 team was set to start the season in October against Lawrence Tech, the same weekend the D1 team was going to face the Blue Devils. Both series were cancelled for the weekend and so were the rescheduled series this past weekend. The Bulldogs had Trine on their schedule as well who would make the decision to not play this semester.
"We had games scheduled for the first semester, but as game dates approached, Covid restrictions didn't allow for us to play either team," said first year head coach Doug Raymond ('14), "It was unfortunate for us, but there weren't any other teams playing other than LTU and Trine at the time."
Raymond, who graduated from Adrian in 2014 and spent four years on the ACHA D3 Gold team and won three consecutive National Championships with the team, has been tasked with not only taking over a team, but keeping up a positive attitude as their games get repeatedly postponed.
"I think the best way to keep a positive attitude during these tough times is creating a competitive atmosphere within practices," said Raymond, "That comes with more small area games which allows the players to push each other in a healthy competitive way. We have an amazing group of young men on this team. Every player wrote down on their goal sheets at the beginning of the year that they wanted to win a National Championship. I think we have the team to do that and I'm excited to see this group play in January."
Despite having the statistically youngest team in the hockey program, Raymond said his team has remained focused on the bigger picture through all of the cancellations.
"As a coach it's never easy informing your team about cancellation after cancellation, but not one of our guys complained about it," explained Raymond, "They were happy to still be able to skate and get better in practice. We are looking at the bigger picture and that's playing for the second semester and making a good run at Nationals."
While some may have worries about the future of the season, Raymond says he isn't worried about what happens at Adrian, but that it's a matter of who else will have the go ahead to play the rest of this season.
"With the Covid protocols we have in place at Adrian College, there isn't a worry," explained Raymond when I asked him if he worried at all if his team wouldn't be able to play at all this year, "We are one of the few programs in the country that are able to still skate daily without any restrictions. It's now a matter of other teams who are able to play us with the same protocols in place."
It seems to be a common feeling throughout Arrington Ice Arena's locker rooms that every player is more grateful for the time they are spending on the ice this year.
"I absolutely think players are more grateful for what we have at Adrian College," said Raymond, "As I said, we were still skating and practicing this year getting ready for games when other programs cancelled their seasons already. It's not the way we wanted to start off the year, but we are hoping for good news after the New Year and are able to start playing games again."
Raymond, like the other coaches in the program, is ready for the challenge ahead of him next semester as his team will be able to hit the ice.
"Obviously this is a season unlike any other, no doubt about that. But a little adversity never hurt anyone," said Raymond, "I think this will be a true character test for our team and that's what separates average teams from the best teams. How will we respond to this once we are able to play is the main question. I am ready for the challenge ahead and I'm sure our guys are as well."
The D2 team had four games scheduled against the Trine Thunder and another four against Concordia Wisconsin and also planned on playing against Lake Superior State. All four games against Trine were cancelled when Trine pulled out of playing games first semester and Lake Superior State was told they could not take the ice this semester.
That left two games against the Concordia Falcons, two home-at-home series where both teams would make a ten hour round trip to play a three hour game. The two teams split their first series on October 31st and November 1st in an intense series, both teams looked ready to take the ice again two weeks later to rehash things in another home at home series.
But like every other game so far this past semester, the third and fourth games against the Falcons were also cancelled.
But unlike the NCAA Men's and Women's teams and even the MD1 team, there were no opponents to take the Falcons' place that were willing to make the trek to Adrian.
The next closest team for the Bulldogs to play?
Iowa State.
So the Bulldogs, like the majority of other teams across the ACHA, especially Div. 2, were left with an empty schedule through the rest of the semester.
As of December 9th, the Bulldogs have six games officially scheduled next semester, five of them at home and one on the road. Quite a drop from their typical 20 game seasons in the past.
While every other aspect of our lives has been changed, I know that many people beyond just the athletes in the Adrian College Hockey program have been thankful for the sense of normalcy that hockey has brought in the past few months. I know we are all thankful, like Coach Astalos said, for everyday that we do get to be at the rink.
And while we may not know what 2021 may bring, I share the same hope as our coaches that it will bring may more Bulldog victories as the Dawgs play on.
Special thank you to the Coaches Gary Astalos and Doug Raymond for their insights and quotes.
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