For the second year in a row, the Manitowoc Breakers’ Bantam Hockey team has punched their ticket to the state tournament this weekend.
The team is coached by Jason Suchomel, who says the biggest improvement he has seen this year is their game awareness.
“They are starting to see the game and see the little mini-games inside of the big game,” he explained. “It’s great to see these kids I haven’t coached before and see the improvements in their skills from the first day to today and hopefully through state. Watching the kids gel as a team has just been great.”
Suchomel also noted that he has enjoyed seeing the Breakers program as a whole improve over the last several years.
“When I started, we had really small numbers. We had one team at each level, or barely even that,” Suchomel noted. “Now that we have multiple teams coming up at each level and multiple chances for these kids to go to state and earn a championship, it’s great to see them have that opportunity.”
Brock Dimitris was a peewee last year, and we said the biggest changes between the levels were “Probably that it is a lot more faster and that you can get a lot more physical.”
Emilia Suchomel tells us she is excited to go for a state title with this group of young men and women.
“The team dynamic is very cool,” she said. “I think it is going to be amazing going to state.”
Vincent Stephens thinks he and his teammates, “will do very well as long as we play as a team and cycle the puck.”
For some of these players, this is their last chance to earn a youth state title before they move up to the High School level and join Manitowoc United.
The Bantam tournament this weekend will be held at the Barron Ice Arena, with the Breakers starting the weekend off by facing the top seed, Burnett at 11:30 Saturday morning.
