Featured Story
St. Luke's Varsity Hockey: Season Outlook
The St. Luke’s Varsity Hockey team heads into the season welcoming a few familiar faces back and a number of new players too.
Michael Thompson ‘20 and Bear Crystal ‘20 return after a year on the sidelines. Head Coach Zach Brusko is pleased to have the two seniors back on the ice: “Bear and MT’s return is huge for us. Bear is a really smart kid who plays positionally well and rarely gets himself into trouble. MT is another great player and will bring some physicality to the lineup and really help our defense.”
Brusko knows his team will have to work extremely hard this year after losing a number of key players, including top scorer CJ Woodberry. However, he is confident the Storm can challenge for FAA honors again. “I’m optimistic that we will be contending for the FAA’s. It is always our goal to make the FAA playoffs and advance to the championship game. This year is no different, but we will need some guys to step up on the offensive side. Pierce LeClerc (‘21) is new to the squad. We will be looking for productivity from him, as well as from Lars (‘20) and Anders Ernberg (‘21).”
This year’s puck squad is captained by Lars Ernberg and Goose Ansaldi, with assistant captains Hayden Critchell and Anders Ernberg. Brusko believes the quartet has everything he is looking for from his leaders. “Lars is a really good leader and very well respected by his teammates. Goose, Hayden, and Anders lead by example. Their work rate is phenomenal, and Hayden is extremely physical. Those are two things we want our players to model. They have fantastic examples in their captains.”
The Storm is again a mixture of experience and youth, and Brusko has been impressed with some of the greener members of the team. “Jack Dolan (‘22), Dominic Powilatis (‘22), Henry Robb (‘22), and George Foster (‘23) are invaluable to the team. Foster is one of the purest hockey players on our team and just goes about his business. They will play a lot of minutes for us this year, and I expect them to contribute to our success.”
Buzz Olson returns for his fourth year as part of the coaching staff that also welcomes John O’Neil, Candy Lu, Justin Kramer and Graham Foster. Brusko is delighted to have them work alongside him. “The players are going to learn so much from our coaching staff. Buzz puts in a lot of work on our systems, game plan and practices. We are excited to have John move from our middle school program to help us this year. Candy, Justin and Graham, technically our JV coaches, are on the ice with us every day, helping the squad get better and better.”
St. Luke’s opens its FAA league play at Rye Country Day School on Friday, December 20, and Brusko knows his team will have to be at its best. “We have to work harder than the other teams, and we can’t afford to be short handed. We have to be in shape and able to compete for all three periods. I think we are just going to get better as the new players adjust to playing with each other and get used to our coaching style and systems.”
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.
