K-United Enjoying Dream Turnaround
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
January 24, 2017
KALAMAZOO — When Mitch Kihm was a freshman, his Kalamazoo United hockey team posted a 1-9 record in league play.
A year later, the team went 0-10, and his junior season, 5-5.
The goaltender said he was confident things would get better – and his patience has paid off.
“In my dreams freshman year, I was thinking of my senior year but never expected us to be this good,” Kihm said.
United is currently 5-1-0 in the Southwest Michigan High School Hockey League, losing for the first time last week, 4-3, to the Kalamazoo Eagles. United is 14-1-1 overall.
“This is cool this year,” league commissioner Frank Noonan said. “In the 18 years I’ve been doing this. they’ve never been a powerhouse team.
“I think a lot of it is their coaching. They’ve got a young guy (Tyler Kindle) in there who’s a former professional player and now he’s taking that energy as a player and turning it into coaching.”
Kihm added that experience is also a key.
“I knew from my freshman year that we might not have been that good but we all bonded, and now our entire team has really come together and has nice chemistry,” the Hackett Catholic Prep senior said.
“Everything’s a lot different in the locker room, attitude-wise, now from our first two years.”
Hackett senior Hunter Taplin agrees.
“My sophomore year, the attitudes weren’t that good,” he added. “We were expecting to lose. That’s slowly going away. This year it’s all positive.”
United is a co-op team with players from K-Central, Loy Norrix and Hackett. Norrix’s Andrew Laboe is the team’s athletic director.
Next month, the team will host an MHSAA Division 1 Pre-Regional at Wings West which includes East Kentwood, the team that knocked United out of the postseason last year. Lowell is the other opponent.
Not having all his teammates as classmates has its good side, Taplin said.
“It can be for the better because if you’re having problems with someone at school, that can transfer over,” he said. “Here, it’s just hockey.”
Loy Norrix senior Jake Remelius blends two of the schools.
Although he and senior Noel Cavey are the only two from Norrix, Remelius attended K-Central the previous three years.
In addition, “Most of the Hackett guys, the seniors, I’ve been playing with them since I was 10. So we’ve grown up together, and we’ve gotten a lot closer over the years.”
The seniors have stepped into leadership roles and are the team’s top point-getters.
Cavey leads United with 44 points on 21 goals and 23 assists.
Hackett’s James Amat (5 goals-21 assists) and Taplin (10-16) are next with 26 points each. Hackett’s Quentin Cerutti has 25 points (14-11), and Remelius rounds out the top five with 24 (8-16).
Remelius is team captain.
“He does everything for us,” Kindle said. “He plays nearly half the game. He contributes offensively for us and is really stout defensively.
“He’s one of our biggest hitters. He takes the body well and is strong on his feet. He makes smart plays.”
Cavey and Kihm are the only four-year players on the team.
“Noel Cavey’s been through it all,” Kindle said. “He’s seen all the ups and downs and it’s fun to see him have a good season. He’s leading the team in goals right now.
“James Amat has been playing really well, especially lately, and Q’s (Cerutti) a really big kid and he’s a force out on the ice. He can shoot the puck. When he’s playing well, we’re tough to stop.”
Kindle said he has confidence in his netminders.
“Both Mitch and Jake Gerhard (Kalamazoo Central sophomore) have done a real good job back there when they’ve been in.
“They’ve really stepped up and are stalwarts back there.”
Kihm has eight wins and Gerhard has five. K-Central senior Jenna Stanley, playing her first year of high school hockey, was in goal for one win.
Taplin is a two-play player.
“He’s having a really good year,” Kindle said. “He’s a forward but he also drops back on D.
“He’s been kind of our utility guy. He plays wherever we need him.”
Cerutti’s first year with the team was the 0-10 season.
“Just the fact that we knew we had a great, great core and all of our ‘stars’ were sophomores at the time while all these other schools had juniors and seniors leading them,” he said.
“We were thinking just another year, another two years and we’re gonna be that team that everyone looks up to. This year we came in with sky-high confidence, and we just keep going.”
Kihm said being the team’s last line of defense is not easy.
“The mental part before the games is tough,” he said. “It does seem like a lot is riding on you. It feels like if you let a goal in, it’s all your fault.
“But you can’t think that way or it’s gonna make the whole game, for you at least, pretty bad.
“The fun part is definitely making the big save that helps the team, gets them motivated and then go score a goal. Winning games is the most fun part.”
Remelius said the worst part of the six-team SWMHSHL is “Our team is actually the only team in the league without a rivalry, without a Cup. All the other teams have one and then there’s us.
“There’s Mattawan and Portage Central, Central and Portage Northern. Eagles and Blades have a rivalry cup so we’re left out. The only trophy we’re playing for is the league championship trophy.”
Kindle took over as coach three years ago and his first year was the winless one. From there, he started building a winner.
“We have a saying, “Nine years in the pros,” Taplin said of the coach. “He actually does bring experience.”
“He’s a fun guy, too. He’s the right coach for our team.”
One of Kindle’s pro seasons included a stint with the minor league Kalamazoo Wings.
He took over United when he retired.
“I got old and started to slow down a bit,” said the 38-year-old who is a civil engineer at Kingscott Associates. “The minors aren’t always glamorous.
“It was a lot of fun, but it got to a point where it’s time to let the younger kids play. I would never trade anything. I have no regrets.”
When he took over the team the biggest problem was motivation, Kindle said.
“When I first got here, there was a lot of just standing around on the ice,” he said. “I would see the puck and I would be like ‘Go get it, just go get the puck. That’s all you have to do. It’s easier to score if you have the puck.’”
Forwards include K-Central sophomores Topher Strunk and Tony Schirripa and freshman Jack Kirschensteiner, plus Hackett juniors Dominic Monendo, Brenden Warner and Matthew Romano and freshman Garrett Warner.
Defensemen are K-Central junior Michael Schirripa and freshman Brandon Murray and Hackett juniors Eric Smith, Nathan Carr and Andrew Burke.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo United players (from left) Noel Cavey, Quentin Cerutti and Hunter Taplin celebrate a goal. (Middle) Clockwise, from top left, coach Tyler Kindle, Mitch Kihm, Jake Remelius and Hunter Taplin. (Below) Cerutti scores one of his 14 goals this season. (Action photos by Rob Carr/Action Shots Photography.)
Powers Pursuing Flint's 1st Hockey Title
January 26, 2016
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BURTON — Flint Powers Catholic was on upset alert, locked in a 3-3 tie with unheralded Mount Pleasant after squandering a 3-0 lead. 
It was time for a hero to emerge for the Chargers.
But who?
The team's leading goal scorer left the game with an injury, as did another of the team's top point producers.
So, of course, it was a player who had only one goal all season (sophomore Josh Warda) who broke the tie with 6:09 remaining, propelling the second-ranked hockey team in Division 3 to a 6-3 victory at Crystal Fieldhouse.
Of course.
For Powers, there is no such thing as an unexpected hero.
The Chargers' seemingly endless quest to produce the Flint area's first MHSAA hockey championship isn't being spearheaded by one superstar player or one explosive line.
Rather, Powers has built a 14-1-1 record with a lineup that is remarkable in terms of sheer balance and depth.
The Chargers' top eight scorers are all within nine points of each other, led by Brendan Smith and Conor Witherspoon with 24 points each. Smith has 11 goals and 13 assists, while Witherspoon has 10 goals and 14 assists.
Following closely behind are Jon Thomas (6 goals, 17 assists), Chase Knoblock (12 goals, 7 assists), Mason Weiss (6 goals, 13 assists), Cam Lieffers (6 goals, 10 assists), Brendan Walker (3 goals, 13 assists) and Jake Polakowski (2 goals, 13 assists).
"We've had teams in the past that are pretty top-heavy," 10th-year Powers coach Travis Perry said. "Right now, you can't focus on one line. We have three lines that can score, and we've got a fourth line that can play, too. This is the first year since I've been here that we can roll four lines consistently."
One of those top-heavy teams was last year's squad. Powers got all the way to the MHSAA Division 3 Semifinals before losing 4-1 to Houghton. That team was led by all-stater Mike Forman, who had 61 points. Jeff Polakowski was second with 52 points. The drop-off was steep after that, with Witherspoon ranking third on the team at 23 points. The next two scorers tied for fourth with 18.
"Mike Forman was our leading scorer last year," Smith said. "He could put up points. He always had a target on his back every game. It was tough for him sometimes to get open and score goals. On this team, we have a group of guys who are all pretty close in stats. It's hard for teams to target one of our guys. They get one of our guys, and another one of our guys is going to be open all game long."
Powers hopes this balanced approach will finally pay off with an MHSAA championship March 12 at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth.
The Chargers have the most successful hockey program in Michigan that hasn't won it all. They own a record 32 Regional championships, one more than Trenton. Trenton, of course, has 14 MHSAA Finals championships, second only to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood's 17.
Powers has been to 19 MHSAA Semifinals and seven title games. The Chargers' best shot at the championship came in 2008 when they controlled play for most of the game, only to lose 1-0 in overtime to Calumet in the Division 3 Final. It's a loss that still haunts Perry, whose team lost 3-1 to Cranbrook Kingswood in the championship game two years later.
Although Genesee County at one time had more than 20 schools playing hockey, it still has not won an MHSAA championship. Teams from Genesee County are 0-12 in the Finals, with five schools reaching the title game at least once. After coming two victories short of ending that streak last season, the returning Chargers immediately focused on this season.
"It was a heartbreaker, but I know everybody was determined at the end of the season to come back out and have a better result this year," senior forward Charlie Start said. "It'd be amazing having that reputation of being the first team in Genesee County to win a state championship."
Powers typically plays a tough regular-season schedule, expecting to take some lumps that will pay off come playoff time. Last year's team, for instance, went 17-8 in the regular season before reaching the Semifinals. The schedule remains tough, but the lumps have been few.
The only loss for the Chargers was a 3-1 decision to ninth-ranked Sault Ste. Marie on Dec. 11 in the Division 3 Showcase in Gaylord. Powers played a 3-3 tie on Jan. 9 against Detroit U-D Jesuit, the third-ranked team in Division 1.
The only team ranked ahead of Powers in Division 3 is Grand Rapids Catholic Central (13-1), which eliminated the Chargers in the 2011, 2012 and 2014 MHSAA Quarterfinals. If they meet this season, it will be in the Quarterfinals on March 9 at Munn Arena in East Lansing.
"Really, it's just a number," Smith said of Powers' ranking. "We don't come in thinking, 'Hey, we're No. 2 in the state.' We're coming in trying to be consistent every game, playing how we know. We're not letting that No. 2 get to our heads and get our egos up."
Before Powers can entertain thoughts of a matchup with Grand Rapids Catholic Central or hoisting the championship hardware in Plymouth, the Chargers must first get past one of their toughest opening-round assignments ever. Powers will travel to Saginaw-Bay Ice Arena on Feb. 29 to play a Pre-Regional game against No. 5 Saginaw Heritage on the Hawks' home ice.
"It's one of those things where one of the top five teams in the state goes home the first night," Perry said.
Asked if this was his best team yet at Powers, Perry hesitated.
"Uh," he said. "I don't want to say that yet. We'll see what happens when we get to March. It's definitely been the most enjoyable season so far, just because of the lack of seniors. Seniors usually run your team, and they're the core. We have three great seniors and they've done a great job, but we're bottom-heavy right now.
"This is one of those weird years where this is the least amount of seniors we've had in my 10 years. We have almost every guy coming back. I'd think we'd be just as strong next year, if not stronger."
Bill Khan served as a sportswriter at The Flint Journal from 1981-2011 and currently contributes to the State Champs! Sports Network. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Flint Powers Catholic hockey players huddle up in front of the net this season. (Middle) Forward Conor Owen prepares to unload a shot during pregame warmups. (Below) The Chargers are paced by a large group of contributors, and this group catches a quick break. (Photos courtesy of Flint Powers Catholic.)