Moffat County Bulldog hockey hard at work, early with combined season

With the rest of their fellow athletes at Moffat County High School still in practice mode, the senior members of Craig Youth Hockey Association have already had quite a few games, with many more to come.

The Moffat County Bulldogs hockey team as part of CYHA has a bountiful roster this season with a combined lineup of high school and high school age players.

Traditionally, the squad is made up of top-level athletes aged 15 to 18, but with only a handful of children aged 13 and 14 at the Bantam level, the two teams have been combined.

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We don’t have enough for a full Bantam team, but they are doing quite well, said coach Cary Herndon. We have some speed, always speed, now it’s just a matter of dialing in. We have some young children and we need to get them up to speed.

Herndon is in his first year coaching the older kids with son Memphis and daughter Dylan, both in the lineup after predecessor John Doane.

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I followed Doane for two years, then his son graduated, so I took over, Herndon said. I got a lot of help from Tim Knez, and the parents are great, and I have one of our old kids helping me on the couch. It’s nice, I have support.

As is customary for CYHA, which is a club hockey organization rather than a team that exists under the auspices of MCHS and Colorado High School Activities Association, the top-level team will have minimal home games this season, although they will benefit from participating. participate in a fall plan Colorado Recreational Hockey League that extends into the winter.

It officially starts at the beginning of November, then you play through the winter until January. Then they rearranged us and we start playing against other teams for the final round, Herndon said.

The schedule will be considerably fuller than last season, although the downside is against teams that have had a lot of preparation time.

A lot of things slowed us down and we were only on the ice two weeks before our first game. Some of them have been playing since the summer, but our kids can hang out with them, he said.

MCHS junior Garrett Anson noted that he could see a difference in the team’s first set of games.

Many of the teams have been on the ice for over a month and we just got out of here, Anson said. We have a lot of experienced players, so that’s nice.

Three weeks into November, the Bulldogs are at 2-5-1, ending a weekend streak on the Front Range with a 2-0 win over Fort Collins on November 21 after consecutive losses to Arvada.

While their home games at Loudy-Simpson Park Ice Arena will be limited with preliminary games set for early December and a series in mid-February on a still-evolving schedule, MoCo kicked off the season with a 1-2 weekend against Hyland Hills, which sent three full teams to Craig Nov. 6 and 7.

While the Bulldogs fell to the Orange and Black Jaguars squads, they took their first win in a 7-6 game that came to the last minute.

The Jags led 3-0 in the second period before a successful penalty from Garret Stockman kicked off the Bulldogs.

It looked like he could break the ice for us, Stockman said of the score.

Stockman, Kyle Hoag and Baryn Suessmeier are the seniors of the team, which has regularly seen high school athletes play, although that dynamism has been pronounced even this season.

I try to have fun and help the little kids and help them get better, Suessmeier said, adding that as a defender his strategy was to hold back and help the keeper as much as possible.

He noted that after a very sporadic season in 2020-21, he is looking forward to a more consistent schedule.

It’s going to get a lot better this season as there are a lot more games, Suessmeier said.

As someone who played at 18U level before high school, Stockman is especially excited to get back to normal and help the newer teammates too.

We booked some good games and tried to figure things out with the younger guys with us and tried to get things going, he said. I’m trying to be a leader to these younger guys and help them so we can be a good team this year.