Gearing Up for Next Season

Now that the season has come to the an end, the returning players have said goodbye to their senior reammates and have started their off season training for the 2009-2010 season. After finishing 7th overall in the nation this past season, next years team will hav some big shoes to fill. The team will be losing 10 guys to graduation this June, which will force the younger guys to step up as the leaders. Next season there will only be 1 or 2 returning players that will have a senior status, which means the majority of the team will be underclassmen. Through some heavy recruiting, the coaching staff has been able to find a few guys throughout the youth and junior hockey programs in the U.S.

Since DePaul hockey is a club sport at DePaul, the team and its members are on there own when it comes to keeping in shape for the upcomming season. Many guys stick to running and keeping up with a regular workout in the gym and others take a little more dedicated approach and partake in hockey camps. The team doesn't offically meet as a whole until the end of August where they partake in a week long conditioning camp in the Wisconsin Dells. The camp gives the players a chance to play with eachother and get there skating legs in shape for the following week at the tryout camp.

The summer off season is a big chance for guys to condition themselves and improve their skills that they will need to take DePaul hockey a step up and win a national championship. Even though the team will be losing quite a few weathered DePaul players, they will gain a lot of younger talent. As one can see from the Blackhawks success this year, a young team can sometimes be an asset to an organization and because they are are young team, can rise to the occasion to compete against the more experienced teams.

DePaul Hockey is on the rise and I don't be surprised if you see them take home the National title in 2009-2010.