It has been a while since I have written a blog so a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year is in order. It has been a great break with all of our family and friends, but we are all excited to get back to our second family and start playing Johnnie Hockey.
The guys got back to campus on Tuesday, January 2nd and we have been training hard the past week. We try to mix in some fun activities and some good volunteer activities for the players over the break as well.
On Saturday, we had our annual Christmas party at LaCasita (special thanks to SJU alum Todd Fritz ’86 for hosting us). The guys exchange gifts and we had a great meal. The gifts are always a fun thing because the guys get a chance to rip into each other a bit and roast their teammates a little. After the party at LaCasita, the guys head over to “Schueller Pond” for a little 3 on 3 pond hockey tournament. I have added some photos for you to look at or you can check out the @Johnniehockey Twitter page to see more about the event. The guys had a great time and the group of Sekesi, Dunagan, Valerius, Dockry, and Lindgren came away with the golden shovel.
This week, we will have some of the guys go to a local elementary school to read to a kindergarten class on Friday, and we will be doing an event with the people from St. Jude Hospital for a fundraiser for their children’s hospital.
Finally, this week we have two games against non-conference opponents Eau Claire and Steven’s Point. Steven’s Point is currently ranked #3 in the country and Eau Claire always puts out a very competitive team at a national level. Some important facts about these games is that the Eau Claire game will take place at 7pm on Thursday night and the Steven’s Point game will be at 7pm on Saturday night at the Anoka Ice Arena in Anoka, MN.
Every year we are forced to play a couple games over the academic break so there are no students on campus and it is hard to get a good crowd here in St. Cloud. In the past, we have played a game in Alexandria and Buffalo, MN. These games are great because the local community works hard to get fans to the game as they are able to raise money for their youth hockey programs through the game. We are also hoping to get a lot of the Johnnie Hockey alumni out to the game in Anoka as there is a strong group of recent alumni in that area.
It should be a fun week of games and I look forward to getting these guys back into some competitive hockey.
Have a great week and we hope to see you at some games this second half of the year.
Doug Schueller
