As the 2011-12 high school hockey season begins, there's no shortage of news on the Granite City front.
Granite City's Mississippi Club Hockey Association team is the defending Class AA champion, defeating Althoff in two straight games to claim the title after going 15-3-5 overall and 11-1-5 in league play, The Granite City entry in the Mid-States Club Hockey Association disbanded after last season, with some of its players moving to the MVCHA squad.
"It was just a case of the Mid-States team being down to so few players," said Scott Topal, in his second year as head coach of the MVCHA team and his third year with the program. "We picked up four of their varsity players plus one JV player."
Those players will be joining a team that won the championship after losing in the finals to Althoff the previous two years.
"The team just jelled really well," Topal said. "Our top line was able to score a lot of goals and they got some support from the other lines."
Granite City lost four players to graduation, but with four seniors coming from Mid-States plus five or six freshmen on the varsity roster, the Warriors should have more depth this season.
"This is the first year since I've been here that we've had a full roster," Topal said. "We lost Brandon Whitt, who was a rock-solid defenseman, but we're picking up Jared Lewis from Mid-States. We lost a big strong forward in Cody Rivenburgh, who came back and performed really well after missing half of the season with an injury. But Nick Sabol is coming over from Mid-States, where he had a huge season (56 goals, 18 assists).
"Our our other seniors from last year, Adam Jones and Scott Pinkston, were second-line forwards, but we should have plenty of guys to fill in the second and third lines."
The top returning forward is Matt Burton, who had 25 goals and 35 assists including the playoffs.
"Matt is probably the best kid I've ever coached," Topal said. "He's more of an assist guy, so it's really going to help having Nick Sabol come over to play on his line. Brant Takmajian (20 goals, 13 assists) is the other guy on that line and he's gotten bigger and stronger.
"Our second line should be able to produce more offense this year. Defensively, even though we lost Whitt, we still have a good corps with Lewis, Ryan Tinsley (10 goals, 16 assists) and Ian Veizer. Jesse Slecka is a sophomore and we used him more on offense last year, but his true position is defense."
Last year's No. 1 goalie, Clint Steinmeyer, is still on the roster but isn't expected to play much after making the roster for the Junior Blues. Cameron Barton will take over as the starter with fellow junior John Wojtowicz as the backup.
Granite City opens the season Tuesday at home against Duchesne. The Warriors play host to Edwardsville on Oct. 8.
"In high school hockey, you don't see teams repeat very often," Topal said. "There are a lot of good teams in our division and our league and I hope the boys show up to defend their title. The key is how well the Mid-States guys and the MVCHA players mesh."
