From The East County Californian
By Phillip Brents
Red and Black
June is also time for college teams to start cobbling together their training camp rosters for the upcoming season. San Diego State University head coach Phil Bateman is hoping his team’s second season at the ACHA Division 1 level in 2023-24 is more prosperous than last season’s 1-20-1 foray into the higher division.
Bateman expects 45 to 50 players at tryouts Aug. 25-27. He’s already released a list of 31 prospects, including nine returners.
Among them are a pair of high-profile South County marksmen:
Eastlake’s Braden Mayer and Otay Ranch’s Sean Devaney.
Both Mayer and Devaney played roller hockey in the CIFMetro Conference and were among the top players on wheels. They appear to be just as good — or even better — on ice skates.
The current list includes 15 players with California roots as well as two players from New Jersey and one player each from Arizona, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado and Georgia.
Bateman has turned his attention across North America for the new incoming class of recruits. Eight prospects hail from Canada.
Swede Daniel Flodman is among the returners.
Other Southern Californians on the training camp roster include defensemen Zachary Casinghino (San Diego Saints/L.A. Jr. Kings) and Zachary Strooza (Yorba Linda) and forwards Marcus Kim (Irvine), Brandon Grant (Irvine), Nolan Conrad (Corona), Gavin O’Bryan (Tustin) and Shane Ege (Patrick Henry).
SDSU remains the lone Division I ACHA team in California and is a steppingstone to higher levels of play in the sport.
“Ultimately, it’s a field of dreams scenario,” Bateman said. “As painful as last year was on the ice with our results, we needed to ‘build it’ so this year they would all come. The collection of incoming, extremely talented players this year are so excited to take on this challenge and be a part of the upward trajectory.”
The Aztecs entered their final homestand at the Kroc Center Ice Arena Feb. 17-18 against George Mason University with a numbing 0-19-1 record. SDSU pulled out a thrilling 5-3 victory with late third period goals by Conrad and Luke Desmarais to snap a 3-3 tie. Ege, Ian Stentz and Michael Eng also scored for the host team while Isaiah Tano and Kim both picked up two assists. Michael Pellegrino, the team’s season scoring leader with 22 points (three goals, 19 assists) in 22 games, also drew a helper in support of Parks Owensby, the winning goaltender, who made 26 saves on 29 shots.
“The guys celebrated like they had just won the Stanley Cup,” Bateman enthused.
But the celebration was mixed with a dose of reality as GMU won the season concluding game 9-3.
SDSU’s 2023-24 season faces off following the conclusion of training camp. Aztecs opponents for the upcoming season include Colorado Boulder, Colorado State, George Mason University, the Naval Academy, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Grand Canyon University, UNLV, University of Utah and University of Oregon.
(Originally published at https://eccalifornian.com/june-weather-melts-the-ice-for-hockey-champs/)
