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St. Luke's Ice Hockey Season Preview
There is a familiar face back with the St. Luke’s Ice Hockey program this winter as Corey Gammill returns to coach alongside Zach Brusko and the pair are looking to put together a season to remember.
The Storm have a large group of returning players and have also added some talented younger skaters, something Gammill hopes will lead to success on the ice.
After a somewhat mixed campaign last season the head coach has been impressed with what he has seen during the first few weeks. He said, “Everyone is playing hard and having fun. The group have really bought into all we have asked and they truly understand that preparing is the bedrock for success. It should be a fun season!”
The team will once again play out of the Sono Ice House in South Norwalk and Gammill believes he has the firepower at his disposal to push for the FAA title. He said, “Winning the FAA’s is definitely one of our goals. We want to play an aggressive style and we want to play with our head up and see the ice ahead of us. We have incredibly strong goaltending with Evan Ruschil ‘18 and Andres Falcon ‘19, which is going to allow our team to take chances. If we play aggressive and physical, we can make opponents uncomfortable, which will lead to turnovers and opportunities.”
St. Luke’s have started the season well, under the leadership of captains Will Foster ‘17 and Paul Woodberry ‘17, winning their opening two games against Canterbury School (2-1) and Kingswood-Oxford school (8-2) before a 1-1 tie against West Haven High School.
The coaching staff believe they have real depth to their roster and hope to utilize it throughout the course of the season. Gammill added, “We have a lot of good players who are going to contribute a lot this year. Up front we have Will Frossell ‘18, Charlie Whiteley ‘17 and Will Foster ‘17 who are all returners. They produced a lot of points last year and will be relied upon heavily. We also have Ryan Neafsey ‘18 and Jack Neafsey ‘19 who are work horses, coachable and are play makers, CJ Woodberry ‘19 just continues to get better and better and we will look to him for goals too. The offensive line of Brenden Whiteley ‘18, David Ball ‘17, and Jack Halsey ‘18 is an exciting line. They are smart and willing to play physical.”
He continued, “Defensively, our top guys are Paul, Will Pond ‘18 and Sam Boston ‘20. Michael Thompson ‘20 is new to the team but will see a lot of minutes and is a very steady physical presence and then we also have Andrew Epprecht 17, Rebecca Taylor ‘18 and Ciaran McEnroe ‘17 who will bring solid depth.
There seems to be a real buzz around the Hockey team this term but they are taking nothing for granted. Gammill concluded, “The energy is incredibly strong but we know we have a tough road ahead if we are to achieve what we want to. King will be strong, we know Harvey will be much improved and Rye Country Day will probably be our biggest test. We always have them circled on our calendar!”
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
