Brian Day and his staff at the Noble and Greenough School are looking forward to returning to normal just as much as their players.
After the turbulent nature of the season (or lack thereof) in 2020-21, it's hard to blame them.
When the official Independent School League season was called off due to the pandemic, the Bulldogs did their best to maneuver the uncertainty of the partial winter campaign.
“We got to skate about three times a week on average," said Day, who's served as head coach of the Dedham, Mass., prep school since 2001.
Ultimately, they took whatever they could get their hands on and used it to their advantage.
"We turned over a lot of guys from the previous year, so I think it was a huge experience in terms of establishing some building blocks for this season. We had a lot of new guys and they could get a taste of what we do and how we do it. The culture piece was really hard because there was no locker room, but I think the kids did as good a job in trying to build a cohesive unit as they could under the circumstances," Day added.
Now, with the ISL on track to return to normal -- games start on Dec. 1 -- Nobles looks to build on that foundation to find success in 2021-22.
Leading the charge will be a cast of upperclassmen, many of whom return from two seasons ago and have an idea of the culture that Day is referring to and looking to establish out of the gate.
Up front, seniors Roman Tacelli (Needham, Mass.), Drew Haxton (Wakefield, R.I.), Will Canavan (Sudbury, Mass.), Colin Norton (Pembroke, Mass.), and Dedham native Nate Szpak, fill out the veteran leadership group.
In the back end, senior blueliners Johnny Logan (Hanover, Mass.), Aidan Lyons (Brookline, Mass.), Will Friedman (Newton, Mass.) will be the anchors of the defensive group.
“That’s a really good core of senior guys right there. All with varying degrees of experience but certainly all good hockey players that are going to help lead us,” Day said.
The Bulldogs also boast an impressive junior class, headlined by Harvard commit Ben MacDonald (Weston, Mass.), who appears on the cover of the November/December 2021 issue of New England Hockey Journal.
Other noteworthy junior forwards include Brian Kerns (Easton, Mass.), Austin Tasca (Hope, R.I.), Evan Heath (Walpole, Mass.).
In the back end, junior defensemen Brian Grant (Mansfield, Mass.) and Matty Tully (Foxboro, Mass.) will look to aid the efforts of the seniors.
As for the underclassmen, Day said, it will be up to each of them individually to decide who steps up and takes on greater roles.
“There’s a lot of key minutes available compared to two years ago. We got a touch of it last year, but we’ll see who really jumps out and takes those minutes," he said.
Over 630 days since their last official game -- a 6-3 loss to Avon Old Farms in the 2020 NEPSAC Stuart/Corkery quarterfinals -- Day and the Bulldogs are itching to get going with the hope of securing another playoff spot come March.
Nobles will hit the road on Wednesday, Dec. 1., for its first official game of the season against Pomfret.
“There’s nothing more that these guys are looking forward to," Day said. "As are we. We can’t wait to get back in the rink, it’s another classroom for us.
“We love being there and beginning a journey, and we’ll see where it takes us this year, but overall we like our group and we think we’ve got the makings of a good, competitive hockey team.”
(Previously in NEHJ’s prep school preview series: Brunswick, Gunnery, New Hampton, St. Mark’s, Tabor, Loomis Chaffee, Berkshire, St. George’s, Cushing, Belmont Hill, Middlesex, Pomfret, St. Sebastian's)
@_LiamFlaherty
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