By Patrick Z. McGavin- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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WEST DUNDEE— The first sound is the whistle, followed closely by that particular and unmistakable sensation of blades cutting the ice. The 20-player roster of the West Dundee Leafs work quickly and thematically off each other at Canlan Sports.
“I just love stepping on the ice, and the sound you hear,” said Anthony Carr, a senior at Schaumburg and a defenseman for the 18U program. “Everybody has their own job, and they do it to the best of their abilities. I’m the defensive leader, and I like to keep guys in the back sharp.”
The late Sunday afternoon practice is the last one until the players embark for USA Hockey 18U 3A national championships in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Pool play started on Wednesday, March 25, and the championship bracket will run through Sunday, March 29.
By capturing the Illinois state championships, the Leafs secured an automatic qualifying bid for the 16-team national finals.
Now in his seventh year as coach, Jeremy Szczurek is also the director of player development.His top assistant, Kyle McHale, also matriculated through the program as a player. Caryn Rosborough is the manager.
The club was founded in 1973. Butch Treiber, the vice president of hockey operations, has been connected to the program since 1993. He coached Szczurek and McHale when they began in youth leagues.
“They were both good hockey players,” Treiber said. “They both had very inquisitive minds for the game, and that’s the best foundation for becoming a coach. We feel like we’re doing right when the kids that played in the program become our coaches.”
Szczurek grew up in the northwest suburbs, and attended Huntley High School. He played collegiately at Iowa State. His time as a player has shaped his philosophy as a coach and allowed him to survey the growth and development of the game.
“The game has changed,” he said. “There are a lot of kids with a lot more skill and skating talent. There’s not as much emphasis on physicality, and that allows kids to be creative. We have some very creative kids, but they’re also not afraid to play an older brand of hockey.”
Szczurek said the roster is composed equally between returning players and newcomers. The club conducted tryouts last September, and then moved immediately into league play.
“We just go right into it,” Szczurek said. “I think at the beginning it was a process to get the guys not necessarily to put their egos aside but just understand that everybody has a role on the team. These are older kids, and now their games have started to fill out more. They’ve bought into their roles, taken it and run with it.”
In Illinois, hockey is not an official IHSA team sport. It’s a club sport. Just two of the current players on the Leafs also played for their high school teams.
In the close-knit world of local youth hockey, the level of familiarity and fraternity is deeply connected. It passes from family to family.
Center Salvatore Lombardo is a senior at Marmion. His younger brother Luciano is a defenseman on the team. His older brother Santino was on the team last year.
“Jeremy has built a great culture, both with guys and now going forward,” Salvatore Lombardo said. “In our league, the rivalries are great, and that really makes hockey what it is. It’s more than just a game. Seeing the same kids multiple years in a row is the best.”
Lombardo lives in Bolingbrook, and makes the trek multiple days a week to sharpen his game and develop his skills. After wandering, he found his way.
“My parents never played the game, and my brothers and I just started off with different clubs,” he said. “Every other club we played with eventually fell apart, and I came to the Leafs. It’s the best decision I ever made.”
The camaraderie, toughness and cohesion was a natural byproduct of their time together.
“Honestly, every single one of our games, we just bonded and bonded,” Lombardo said. “Even some of the losses we had made us who we are now. Now we’re all excited to be together on this one last ride.”
The mix of talent, personalities, coaching and structure all blended seamlessly.
Center Thomas Zaletel, a senior at Crystal Lake Central, said the team navigated the typical ebbs and flow specific to any sport.
“Even dealing with the ups and downs, we just definitely stuck together through all of it,” he said. “We don’t get on each other, or gripe at each other. It’s always one team, and that’s whether it’s team dinners, games or tournaments.”
The game is both a rite of adulthood and the opportunity to grow and develop organically.
Zaletel had two older cousins who played the game. They were his role models who provided an entry point to the game.
“This is a daily activity and ongoing thing in my life,” he said. “I’ve been doing it forever, and it’s part of my routine.”
After working through the normal rhythms and the shaping of roles, the team found itself in late December.
“I definitely felt this run was possible right around the Christmas break,” Zaletel said. “We went on a little bit of a hot streak, won some games, and we just kept going.”
The winning breeds confidence and validates the selfless culture and style of play. Everything flows together.
“We’re fortunate that a lot of kids just want to win,” Szczurek said. “We have a lot of skill on this team, and in the past they might have been a top scorer, but that’s not the case anymore. They’re doing a lot of things for us they might not have known they were capable of.”
The players are the first to recognize that talent is not always the arbiter of success.
“Systems are very important,” Carr said. “If you don’t follow your system, a team with a better one is going to beat. A more talented or skilled team.”
As a skilled former player and now coach, Szczurek knows relationships are the key that underpin their success.
“I know when I was growing up, the coaches that made the most impact were the ones who cared about me as a person,” he said. “The most important thing for me is that I want to find relationships with my kids. We find the relationship first, and that allows us to challenge them.”
Now their eyes are on the ultimate prize.
”We’re just taking it one period at a time, but we want to win that national championship,” Lombardo said.
Here is the roster of the West Dundee Leafs 18U team
3 – Luciano Lombardo, D; 4 – Lucas Potyrala, D ; 6 – Mason Bedow Bielski, F; 7 – Salvatore Lombardo, F; 8 – Anthony Germann, F; 9 – Thomas Zaletel, F; 10 – Jack Morgan, F; 12 – Brian Kittner, D; 23 – Jackson Ronkoske, F; 27 – Nathan Mahon, D; 34 – Kyle Sebastian, F; 36 – Luke Tipner, G; 46 – Caleb Shrout, F; 53 – Lucas Bailey, F; 57 – Alexander Bogacz, F; 59 – Anthony Carr, D; 79 – Dane Chock, G; 89 – Gregory Evensen, D; 95 – Tanner Rosborough, F; 98 – Adam Polecki, F.
