1999 - 2000 Pre Season Update

Des Moines, IA (8.27.99): Judging from the activity on the Guest Book and the e-mail I have received, I am not the only one that is anxious for the season to begin. My conversations with Buccaneer president Ellis Moose and marketing director Andrea Gengler revealed some exciting new additions - like a large screen TV on the scoreboard that among other things will give us playbacks of Buccaneer goals. I hope they are ready for a work out because the Bucs are going to score a lot of goals! There is also a third jersey in the works. Maybe we will see a skull and crossbones?

Of course will all miss coach Scott Owens and wish him much success coaching the Colorado College division I hockey team. Steve Nelson, former Buccaneer assistant coach has also joined the staff at Colorado College. Our new coach, Tom Carroll has been hard at work putting together the 1999-2000 Buccaneers. With the pre-season just days away, I checked in with him to see how things were shaping up for the season.

For those of you that have not met or talked to the coach, let me tell you that he is very personable and approachable - and when you talk to him you can tell that this is not his first rodeo. It was not surprising then that he was focused on getting the players to come together as a team. "All of our players who are in high school are in town and the rest of the team will be here for our first practice Monday, August 30. With only 6 veterans returning and 7 high schoolers on our squad (3 of which are juniors), we are a relatively young team. I expect the veterans to provide initial leadership and as the team gels, others will have an opportunity to step-up and contribute as well" said coach Carroll.

One of the returning veterans will be goaltender Frank Berenguer from NorthRidge, California. Frank will be joined by two netminders: Mike Mantua, an NAHL all-star goalie who played for Danville last year and Jeff Ronkoske who played for Ann Arbor HS Ice Dogs. Michael Walsh, formerly of the Waterloo BlackHawks was set to join the Bucs but opted to play college hockey at Clarkson.

Losing so many veterans is going to hurt us to some degree, but the coach was quick to point out that "We are going to have a quick team, one with speed up front that will create offense in a hurry. Veterans Jerrid Reinholz, Peter Sejna and former Buccaneer Alex Kim will give us speed as well as finesse". The Soo Hawks (now known as the Soo Buccaneers) are protected by the Bucs and have contributed two fine players in defenseman Seth Vincour and forward Ryan Kirchhoff. My personal observations of the evaluation camps tell me Troy Riddle from Minneapolis, Minnesota will light the lamp with the best of them.

Only one defenseman will return, Felipe Larranaga. Coach Carroll expects the new recruits to make an immediate impact, taking care of defense first but joining the rush when appropriate. It looks as though we will get another strong defensive core from the east coast in Dominic Torretti, Jesse Lane and Landon Bathe.

We have many more players on the team that I have not mentioned, and we are as anxious as you are to get our hands on of the "official" roster. When we do, it will be posted!

Steve Bendy

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