League undergoes changes in front office, on benches

As seen in ThisWeek News
Thursday, November 20, 2003

JEFF HUNT
ThisWeek Staff Writer

The Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League is back for its sixth season and the notable modifications for this year are within management.

Arthur Burghes is the new GCHSCHL president after Mike Grubb stepped down following last season.

Burghes, a London, England native, spent last season on the board of directors for the Buckeye Travel Hockey League.

"I did a lot of scheduling for the travel teams in town, so I was familiar with scheduling and hockey administration in general, so the GCHSCHL board asked me to take the president position," Burghes said. "I was attracted to it because it's interesting seeing this league develop in Columbus."

Three teams -- Northeast, Olentangy and Westerville -- each have new coaches.

Tom Whalen replaces Rich Hertle with the Storm, Don Lewis replaces Mark Skogstad at Olentangy and Westerville has its third coach in as many years as Don Rodgers has taken over for Bill Roen.

"Coaching is a heavy commitment," Burghes said. "I think it's quite good. Westerville has picked up a very good coach, and the Storm has made quite an improvement with their new coach. Olentangy's new coach, from what I understand, is very well-qualified as well, so that will just add to the program."

"Part of reason I decided to step up is to develop hockey in Westerville," said Rodgers, who was the goaltending coach the last three seasons. "Bill and I are good friends and play on a travel team together, so when he left, I wanted to make sure we had continuity, so I stayed."

The league opened Nov. 2 and defending Blue Jackets Cup Club Division champion Pickerington-Reynoldsburg-Pataskala-Canal Winchester was atop the standings as the lone undefeated team at 5-0.

The Ice Prowlers went through last year's postseason unscathed at 4-0 and scored two unanswered goals to upset No. 1 seeded and defending league champion Athens in the championship game last February at Nationwide Arena's CoreComm Ice Haus to finish 21-5-2. Jimmy Betts netted the game-winning goal and Ryan Markell was named the game's MVP.

PRPC lost eight players, including seven seniors, from last season's squad.

"We did lose quite a bit due to graduation or going on to another league," said second-year PRPC coach Marty Laroche, a Cornwall, Ontario native who played for the ECHL's Columbus Chill in their final season (1998-99). "Obviously there's a ton of holes to fill. Those guys were playing a lot of minutes for us. So far, it's been a good surprise."

Markell, son of Ohio State coach John Markell and the team's leading scorer last year, is now playing Junior B with the Columbus Stars. Betts, who graduated last spring, also is with the Stars.

Therefore, the team will rely on senior captain and forward T.J. Hess and alternate captain and senior defenseman Josh Martyn, along with sophomore goalkeeper Jesse Betts, who finished last year's tournament with a 1.36 goals-against average.

"I think we still will see some downs throughout the season," Laroche said. "We're not young as far as age but are as inexperience."

Athens won last year's regular-season title for the second year in a row with 38 points (18-4-2). PRPC finished second (17-5-2, 36 points) followed by Olentangy (17-6-1, 35), Westerville (16-7-1, 33), Hilliard/Southwest (7-16-1, 15), Northeast (3-19-1, 7) and Newark (2-22-0, 4).

Athens has gotten off to a rocky start this season. The Bobcats were 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the league before playing Olentangy last Sunday. They went a combined 50-4-2 in their first two seasons in the GCHSCHL and won the Cup in 2002 by beating Westerville 4-1.

The Bobcats also play in the Buckeye Travel Hockey League. They beat the Troy (Ohio) Bruins 4-0 on Oct. 26 and the Charleston (W.Va.) Chiefs 4-1 on Nov. 1 before falling 2-1 to Northeast on Nov. 2.

The Bobcats have two girls -- forwards Emily Oberlin and Olivia Hogan -- among its 35-player roster for second-year coach Glen Christensen.

Westerville also has to be considered a favorite. After reaching the league title game the previous two seasons, the Warcats fell to Athens 5-2 in last season's losers' bracket final. Fourth-seeded Westerville had won 5-3 in a winners' bracket semifinal.

"I think Westerville is always one of the teams to beat," Rodgers said. "We were in the final two of the last three years, so I'd say we're viewed as a contender and a team to beat."

The Warcats were tied with Olentangy for second in the league at 2-2 as of last weekend. They beat Athens 4-2 on Nov. 9 and lost 5-2 to PRPC last Sunday. The Warcats also lost to PRPC 5-2 on Nov. 7.

Westerville, which entered the season going a combined 55-28-12 over the last three seasons, had seven seniors last year, most notably goalkeeper Jason Grubb, who finished 10-9-1 overall with an .864 save percentage and 2.85 goals-against average last season. Brandon Lee (29 points) and David Sobish (27) were among the other seniors who made an impact last season.

Nine players return for the Warcats, including five of six defensemen. They are Chad Mason, Sam Mergler (2 goals, 3 assists, 5 points), Joe Salerno (3-6-9), Justin Sacchs (2-6-8) and Tony Franco (1-3-4), and last year's backup goalkeeper, Morgan Rodgers, coach Rodgers' son. Last year as a sophomore, Morgan Rodgers went 8-0 (.882, 1.88) with two shutouts.

The Warcats also had the league's best power play during the regular season, scoring on 24 of 134 chances (17.9 percent). Athens was second (22 of 130, 16.9), and the Ice Prowlers were fourth (18 of 132, 13.6).

"Westerville seems to be the class act of the league," Laroche added.

Westerville draws players from Central, North, South, DeSales and London high schools.

The remaining teams in the league are Hilliard/Southwest, Newark and Northeast.

Hilliard was 1-2, Northeast 1-1 and Newark 0-2, according to the league's web site.

Hilliard/Southwest is coached by Darwin McClelland, who played a season for the Columbus Chill (1993-94), and has players that attend Hilliard Darby, Hilliard Davidson, Ready, Westland and West high schools. The Northeast team draws athletes from Berne Union, Bexley, Bloom-Carroll, Columbus Academy, New Albany, Wellington and Whetstone.

Burghes doesn't believe the league will have as many lopsided games as a year ago.

"It looks like we have some pretty well-matched teams," he said. "I'm aiming to get the teams as competitive as possible. We want well-rounded competition."

"It will be even more balanced this year," Laroche said. "One good thing is we have three new coaches, which is a testimony to even more improvement. No one will be able to take a night off.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the teams that was an underdog last year just take off."

To add to the league's strength is the fact that Newark, Olentangy and Westerville have junior varsity teams.

"That's good news to have a feeder system," Burghes said.

Schedule-wise, the seven teams will each play the other six squads four times to comprise a 24-game league schedule. The team which accumulates the most points will be the regular-season league champion and receive the top seed in the postseason tournament, which will start in late February.

The six venues the teams will play at are Bird Arena in Athens, the Dublin and Easton Chiller, the Ice Haus, the Newark Municipal Ice Rink and the Worthington Ice Center.