Matt Bednara's on-and-off status as head coach of the Collinsville hockey team is back in the "on" mode.
Bednara, who has been involved with the Kahoks' program for nine years, will step into the head coaching role Chris Moore held last year.
"He's still going to college, and he felt it was just too time consuming," Bednara said of Moore's decision to give up the head coaching job. "He's still going to be part of the coaching staff, so it really doesn't make a lot of difference one way or the other."
Collinsville was 13-7 overall last year, including a 13-5 regular season record in the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association. The Kahoks lost in two straight games to Columbia in the East Division semifinals.
"It was pretty disappointing in the playoffs because I thought we could have done a lot better," Bednara said. "We lost a lot of players from that group and defense is where we're hurting this year. We lost four defensemen and added only one."
Still, Collinsville has a solid core of players to build around, including forward Dusty Watt, who had 58 goals and 20 assists. Watt had four goals and an assists as the Kahoks beat Triad 6-5 in the season opener on Nov. 1.
"Dusty is definitely our star up front," Bednara said. "Austin McEwen is our leader on the defensive side."
With the graduation of Ray Bednara, Matt's son, Kyle Bray takes over as the starting goalie.
"He's a big, athletic goalkeeper, and I'm excited about his potential," Bednara said.
The Kahoks have a trio of forwards in Adam Garcia, Dominic Zavaglia and Keith Henderson. Zavaglia was a standout on the Collinsville soccer team and was was also the kicker for the football team. Dan Cook, provides versatility, taking shifts up front and on defense.
"Zavaglia is an all-around athlete, and we're glad to have him playing with us again." Bednara said. "Cook is one of those crash-and-burn buys who likes to throw his body around."
Collinsville returned to action Monday with a 10-5 win over Civic Memorial and will play Freeburg at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at the U.S. Ice Sports Complex in Fairview Heights.
Bednara gave a mixed review to the win over Triad.
"We were pretty lucky to pull that one out because we were outplayed for much of the game, but we had some timely scoring," he said. "We won the game on special teams. They had a lot of penalties and we capitalized on them with the power play.
"Our first goal is always to win our division, then we want to win the (1A conference championship) cup at the end. To do that, we need to stabilize our defense."
Jon Bednara, Matt's son, is among the key players on defense.
"Christian Brussatti is brand new to the Kahoks, and we're throwing him in the fire," Bednara said. "Mike Dour is another kid who can play pretty much anywhere."
