How do you have captains practices without captains? Just ask the UMass hockey team.
Kevin Czepiel, pictured here against Quinnipiac last season, is stepping up as a leader for the Minutemen during the preseason.AMHERST — Although the University of Massachusetts hockey team won’t skate with first-year coach John Micheletto for the first time until Saturday, the team has been on the ice plenty over the past couple of weeks.
Two to three times a week, the Minutemen have taken the ice without any coaches, for what are traditionally known as Captain’s Practices.
Except the Minutemen don’t have any captains yet.
Instead, the job of leadership has fallen by default on seniors like Kevin Czepiel and Rocco Carzo.
“It’s not in place, there’s no captains or assistants, no one has a letter or anything like that — but there’s a couple older guys like Kevin and Rocco and a couple guys that really stand out as leaders without really being told that they’re captains,” junior defenseman Connor Allen said.
To a certain extent, a more open leadership has helped the team over the past few weeks, according to Czepiel.
“It makes everyone accountable instead of having to lean on one or two or three guys, we have 30 guys in that locker room who have to be responsible for what we do on a daily basis,” he said.
Czepiel said that this isn’t the first time in his career the Minutemen have entered preseason training without set leaders — two seasons ago they found themselves in a similar spot before Paul Dainton stepped up and took the reins.
But with a new coach in place, things feel different.
“Nothing is really the same at all,” Czepiel said. “We have a new coach, and we haven’t experienced that, so it’s a whole new experience for everybody.”
The players haven’t been told when or how captains will be decided upon.
The team will have a little less than a month to get everything figured out, with the opener against UConn looming on Oct. 12.
For the players though, concentrating on what happens on the ice will be a welcome change from the focus that’s been squarely on the coaching situation over the summer.
“So much happened this summer, so much change, that it’s all been talk, now we’re just ready to get in the locker room with the coaches and learn all the new things,” Allen said. “I can’t wait to start playing games, and I think that goes for all the guys in the room. We need practice, but I just want to get going.”