Don your scarves, hats and mittens...high school hockey is back for the 2021-22 season!

The Becker/Big Lake Eagles hockey team will once again be headed by coach Zach Barzee and he and his coaches hope to see a significant improvement on their 3-15-1 record from a year ago in the Mississippi 8 Conference.

BBL finished last with Monticello (9-2-1)and Chisago Lakes (9-3-1) having nearly identical records to win the conference. Cambridge-Isanti was 8-6, St. Francis was 7-7, Pine City was 7-7 and North Branch was 6-6.

BBL ended up with one win in the conference and just three on the year.

Barzee will return a full coaching staff that includes  Assistants Tom Kluk and Erick Sjoquist and Goalie Coaches Greg Mullen and  Lindsey Hartfiel. They have 27 skaters this season and three team managers (Kate Mehelich, Jadyn Kluk and Joe Darland).

Jason Hartfiel resigned as assistant coach from the 2020-21 team.

The roster includes: Luke Bordson, Jestin Toulouse, Tyler Lillemo, Charley Pishney, Logan Ahlbrecht, Trevor Briggs, Amado Espinosa, Samuel Rusin, William Johnson, Rylan Tobako, Garrett Marotz, Brayden Graning, Jase Tobako, Dillon Lindenau, Eli Scheideman, Cooper Wright, Jack Beckstrom, Erik Baker, Jacob Dietsch, Grady Slepica, Jacob Polacec, Ben Sellner, Andrew Holm, Declan Weber, Josh Lillemo, Gavin Leitold and  Gunnar Hanson.

Captains for the 2021-22 season are: Jack Beckstrom, Luke Bordson and Jacob Polacec.

“Each of these young men personify what it means to be a student-athlete by maintaining high GPA’s while being multi-sport athletes and multi-sport captains,” said Coach Barzee. “Becky, Poly and Bordy as they are known by their teammates, are extremely deserving of the honor of wearing the ‘C’.  Their commitment to our developing culture and to making the experience of playing hockey in the Becker-Big Lake program great, is the legacy that these three will leave and every BBL player and family are the beneficiaries.”

A challenge the BBL coaches see for the 2021-22 season is the lack of experience at the goaltending level.

“We have three young goaltenders who have not yet played varsity level hockey,” said Barzee. “But I have complete faith in them to rise to the challenge.”

Barzee sees his team filled with great kids who are all skilled hockey players.  

“They show up every day to work hard for dryland and practice and I know that their dedication and discipline will carry over into the games,” said the BBL coach.  “We have a number of players who have the potential to put pucks in the net and/or play a significant role in being a competitive team.”