Jason Morissette has always used more than results to measure a team’s success.
Bringing a varsity boys hockey program back to Hal High this winter after four years in the wilderness, Morissette admitted it was a challenge re-building a team from the ground up. The squad, made up of players from all four grades at the high school level, played 10 games in the competitive Kawartha division, winning two, tying one and losing seven.
One of only two single-A schools in the region to ice a hockey team, alongside Campbellford, Hal High was as competitive as it could be, Morissette said.
Having coached eight previous seasons of high school hockey in Haliburton, Morissette said he’d been keen on re-establishing the program for some time.
“We’ve been looking at this for the past two years to see if it was viable. We looked at starting a junior team initially, but being such a small school we didn’t think there was enough interest there,” Morissette said. “It can be very hard running teams that require 10 or more athletes – for hockey, you really need 20 players to make this happen. And a ton of support from the community.”
The coach credited four or five senior students for rallying enough players to make this happen. Open to all grades, Morissette said that enabled two sets of siblings to play together on an organized team for the first time, while helping players form new connections.
Flanked on the bench by assistants Nick Kulas and Clay Glecoff – both community coaches – trainer Ray Rietvelt, the auto tech teacher at Hal High, and team manager Laura Kulas, Morissette said he had a lot of help this past season. About 15 community sponsors donated funds to help pay for ice rentals and equipment.
“This program does not run this year without the support of the community,” Morissette said.
His highlight of the season was attending a multi-school tournament in Peterborough in January. Hosted by St. Peter Catholic Secondary School, the competition has been a staple of the high school hockey circuit for decades.
After struggling on-ice for most of the year, the Red Hawks were the Cinderella story of the tournament, winning four games in round-robin play to qualify for a final tilt with Fenelon Falls Secondary School.
“We ended up losing the final by one goal… but the journey getting there was incredible. The players ran our systems perfectly, guys stepped up to play in unfamiliar positions and situations and we had stellar goaltending… they made giant strides in their game,” Morissette said.
In qualifying for the final, the team got to spend a night in a Peterborough hotel, which helped bring everyone closer together.
“I was on that bus years ago when I was a student and it gave me some of my best and favourite memories from when I was a kid,” Morissette said.
The team’s season concluded Feb. 19 with a 4-2 defeat to Crestwood Secondary School.
“It was disappointing not to make playoffs, but I couldn’t be more proud of how these guys adapted and persevered throughout the season,” Morissette said. “The win for me is that we’re back playing… for 15 of our 21 players, this was their first-ever high school sport. It helps them feel more connected to the school.
“The odds were against this program being revived. A lot of these big team contact sports haven’t run at Hal High for some time,” he added.
While this season will go down as a success, Morissette said there’s no guarantee hockey will return to Hal High next year. It will be dependent on finding at least eight new players to bolster the team and retaining generous sponsors.
That doesn’t mean planning stops – coaches will be running skates for prospective junior players – those in Grades 9 to 10 – in early March.
“Fingers crossed we can keep this going,” Morissette said.
