Frisco hockey team claims national championship

Featuring players from throughout the district, including five Redhawks, the Frisco Ice Hockey Association varsity team won the  2017 USA High School Hockey National Championship on April 3, 2017.

Featuring players from throughout the district, including five Redhawks, the Frisco Ice Hockey Association varsity team won the 2017 USA High School Hockey National Championship on April 3, 2017.

The Frisco Ice Hockey Association varsity team won the 2017 USA High School Hockey National Championship on Monday morning, winning 5-0 against a team from Missoula, Mont.

The team, featuring five players from the school (Skylar Boughner, Andrew Cimino, James Gillilan, Chase Nies and James Wheeler), won all six of its games in Cleveland.

This is the first Frisco hockey program to go to nationals and that’s an accomplishment no one else will ever do,

— head coach Ryan McLean

“This is the first Frisco hockey program to go to nationals and that’s an accomplishment no one else will ever do,” head coach Ryan McLean said. “I’ve watched the program grow year after year and it’s just positives all the way around.”

Scoreless after the first period, Frisco scored a flurry of goals in a five minute span of the second period to lead 3-0. The team tacked on two more for the final margin.

“We owe a lot to our goalie in getting a shutout in the national championship game,” McLean said. “He stopped 26 shots that game and once we got going, we didn’t stop and I’m very proud.”

For senior center James Wheeler, Monday’s win is the payoff for years of work.

“It’s really unbelievable just seeing us grow from 9th grade all the way to now,” Wheeler said. “And just working and getting better every day and now we see the results.”

Winning the championship 5-0, the path to the title was a rocky road as the team had several close calls edging Meadville, PA 4-3 and Chicago 3-2.

“The hardest part of this weekend was probably keeping our composure in close games early on so we could move on to the next round,” Wheeler said. “We just stuck together as a team, worked with each other and held the people across from us accountable.”

Playing in Division 2 team, the Frisco team features players from schools throughout the district, rather than having one team per school.

“You’ve got to get to know guys from other schools so you have to bond more out of school in morning practices and stuff,” Gillilan said. “It’s important because you don’t have time to think on the ice, you just have to hope and trust that your teammates are there, and you have to do the same.”

I never thought we’d do it from the start of the year,

— senior Chase Nies

The championship win is a by-product of early morning practices.

“We practice every day at 6 a.m. so the boys come to practice before school and most of the boys play outside of school as well,” McLean said. “They’re very dedicated athletes.”

After a long and successful season, the win still hasn’t sunk in for everybody.

“It’s pretty crazy,” senior Chase Nies said. “Pretty surreal, that’s the word I’ve been using, I never thought we’d do it from the start of the year.”