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| Captain brings winning attitude to Bulldogs |
By: Pat Beck
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Posted: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:12 am
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Boys hockey captain Beau Bachman brings the same attitude as the team’s nickname: Bulldog. The Bulldogs face off against long-time rival New Ulm in the season opener at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3 at Le Sueur.
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LE SUEUR — Boys hockey captain Beau Bachman hopes to bring a more competitive winning attitude to the St. Peter/Le Sueur-Henderson/Le Center/Montgomery-Lonsdale Bulldogs this season.
“One of the big goals is to not just win the games we’re supposed to win (Sleepy Eye, Austin),” Bachman said. “Those are games that we know we better win by a handful of goals, where we want to win those games that matter a little more, that are more competitive and that we really have to work for. We’ve come just short of a lot of those in the last couple of years.”
With that winning attitude, Bachman thinks that the Bulldogs have a chance to knock off New Ulm in the South Central Conference, even though the Eagles haven’t lost a conference game in about a decade. “It’s definitely possible to win the conference,” Bachman said.
Bachman said the Bulldogs’ goal in the section playoffs are to put a record together in the regular season to host a playoff game for the first time since 1999 and then win that first round game and move on to the second round.
After playing in Class AA last season for the first time, the Bulldogs have been given a special exemption to drop down to Class A which will give them a better chance. “When they came out with the sections, we were in AA big schools with Edina and Bloomington Jefferson,” Bachman said. “The state high school league reviewed over it and decided that since we had only one student from Le Center (Cody Preisler) that they would not count Le Center’s enrollment, so they put us back down to single A with the Mankato schools and Albert Lea.”
The Bulldogs lost many key players to graduation including four defensemen: Danny Endres (21 points), Sam Weirs (17 points), Mitch Thune (9 points) and Jeremiah Fettig (2 points) and the foward line of Troy Manteufel (19 points), Laird Mueller (15 points) and Tyler Hanson (15 points).
“We’re going to be fairly inexperienced defensively,” Bachman said. “Luke Eustice is back. Lance Willson and Nick Stepka got some time along with Mike Stewig.” All are seniors.
The Bulldogs have their top two goaltenders back: junior Kevin Renneke and freshman Chris Amsden.
“A big strength is both of our goaltenders who rotated as starters last year and they’re still young, but they can get better each year,” Bachman said. “We’ve got a lot of younger guys.
“Overall we’re pretty well balanced. We’ve got a handful of guys with really good speed and stick-handling skills, and a handful of guys who are really big and tough.”
Bachman said the Bulldogs need to work on team chemistry. We need to work together as a team and not worry too much about me, me, me. Learn more about what we can do to help each other on the ice and reach team goals.”
Teamwork is more challenging with four schools combining to form the team. Although they have played together since their youth hockey days, they’re not as close as teams that are together the entire school year
“That’s a disadvantage we’re at,” Bachman said. “It’s not to long ago we were playing Le Sueur in football and Montgomery was playing Le Sueur in football. You’re out there playing against each other, and all of a sudden you’ve got to come together and try to work as a team. We’re here for maybe two hours, whereas most schools, they’re in the same school all day long.”
Although the Bulldogs lost five of their top scorers to graduation, returning are co-leading scorer sophomore Jack Swanberg (13 goals, 8 assists, 21 points), No. 4 scorer Bachman (8-9-17), No. 8 junior Seth Wenner (6-6-12), No. 9 senior Carter Henry (4-5-9) and No. 10 junior Nathan Tiede (2-5-7) and No. 11 junior Brian Johnson (2-3-5) and senior Josh Stumm (2-3-5). all forwards.
“I think it will be all right at forward,” Bachman said. “We have guys who will step up into those roles and play a lot more minutes this year. They should take advantage of that, and we’ll see what they can do.
“We have a lot of speed and strength up front. It will be fun to move guys around the lines to see what works. We don’t have a lot of seniors up front, but there’s a lot of skilled underclassmen who will help the team out a lot this year.”
Bachman will likely play on a line again with Wenner and Swanberg. They got together late last year. Earlier in the year Bachman played with Tiede and Swanberg.
Asked about his strengths as a hockey players, Bachman said, “My biggest thing when I’m on the ice, I’m going hard all the time. I’m not standing around and coasting. I’m not the greatest shooter or stickhandler by any means, but I go hard to the puck and I’m physical. That’s where Swanberg was on my line last year. He’s more of a stickhandler and shooter, so we complement each other well. You have the big bruisers who go in the corner and throw their weight around and I’m like an undersized one of those. It’s what I try and be at least. (Willing to go into the corners)
Bachman also has a lot of speed. “It helps you’re racing guys for pucks.”
Playing hockey since second grade, Bachman has lettered twice for the Bulldogs.
But he’s going to play football next fall at Gustavus Adolphus College. An all-conference quarterback, wingback and defensive back at St. Peter High School, Bachman is unsure what position he will play in college. He’s also undecided on his major, but is considering health or physical sciences.
Bachman also may play intramural hockey. “The football guys put together a hockey team,” he said.
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