Team of the Month: Byron Center Hockey
January 13, 2023
Byron Center ice hockey has done nothing but trend upward since its start as a program in 2016-17, with Regional titles the last four seasons, two trips to the Semifinals and a Division 2 runner-up finish in 2021.
There aren’t many rungs left to climb – but if the start of this season is an indication, the Bulldogs may be nearing that final step as this winter rolls past its midpoint
Byron Center is 14-0 heading into this weekend’s trip to Traverse City for the Rick Deneweth Memorial North-South Showcase, where the Bulldogs will face Marquette tonight and Lake Orion on Saturday. Byron Center also is ranked No. 1 in Division 2 in part on the strength of a December that saw the team win eight games while giving up a combined 10 goals – earning the Bulldogs the honor as MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month.”
They’ve played one game since the end of holiday break, shutting out Rockford last weekend after heading into the two-week layoff by also shutting out the Rams. Byron Center total has five shutouts total this winter and allowed only one goal in four others games, backstopped by senior goaltenders Carson MacKenzie (1.30 goals-against average) and Devon Lay (1.07).
It’s also not just how the Bulldogs have won, but who they’ve defeated. They started December with a shutout of Midland Dow – which admittedly is having a rough go this season, but remains the reigning Division 3 champion. Byron Center followed with a 4-1 win over current Division 3 No. 2 Flint Powers Catholic, and also picked up wins during December over Division 1 No. 6 Muskegon Mona Shores (6-3) and Division 3 No. 8 Grand Rapids Catholic Central (4-2). Those were in addition to handing Division 3 No. 10 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern its first loss, 3-1, on Nov. 25.
The Byron Center team is a cooperative that includes players from Wayland and Grand Rapids South Christian. The Bulldogs are a combined 123-46-4 under coach Jordan Steger since that start in 2016-17, and a 2019-20 Division 1 tournament run was stopped in the Semifinals when the season was abruptly ended due to COVID-19.
MacKenzie made the all-state second team last season and is one of four all-state honorees back from a year ago; senior forward Brady Breit, junior forward Jackson Froysland and senior defenseman Josh Philo also made the all-state second team at their positions.
Breit and senior forward Logan Nickolaus lead with 12 goals and Nickolaus has a team-high 28 points, with Breit at 23 points and Froysland at 10 goals and 22 points total. Junior forward Cade Pratt has eight goals and 17 assists for a team second-best 25 points.
Past Teams of the Month, 2022-23
November: Martin football - Report
October: Gladwin volleyball - Report
September: Negaunee girls tennis - Report
Clarkston Eying Postseason Possibilities with Challenging Regular-Season Schedule
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
December 20, 2023
It might not be January just yet, but the Clarkston hockey team has probably already felt like it has competed in the MHSAA Tournament for the 2023-24 season.
The Wolves have gone through a gauntlet of a nonleague schedule, with two games against last season’s Division 1 runner-up Brighton, a game against reigning Division 3 ion Flint Powers Catholic and a contest against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, a Division 1 semifinalist last winter.
However, there has been a method to the madness for a Clarkston team that’s normally not so ambitious with nonleague scheduling.
The Wolves saw a 20-win season end with a 6-1 Regional Final loss to Hartland in March, and the idea is that playing some of the state’s best so early will toughen Clarkston up further for when this season’s playoffs arrive.
“I think we’ve already kind of went through hard times and had moments of adversity,” Clarkston head coach Nathan Bryer said. “We’re already a team that has faced a lot more hardship than our team last year at this point. I think last year at this point, we were still undefeated and had an easier time with it.”
So far, Clarkston has done a good job navigating the tough early slate, with wins over Powers and Forest Hills Central and close defeats to Brighton (4-3 and 3-1).
It’s all in an effort to eventually do something no team in school history or any squad in the Oakland Activities Association has done – win a Division 1 Finals championship.
No OAA squad has reached the championship game in Division 1 since Clarkston did so in 2005, and only two have reached the Division 1 Semifinal round since 2011 (Lake Orion in 2011 and Rochester United in 2019).
Farmington is the only OAA school to ever win a Finals hockey title, doing so in Division 3 in 2014.
Based on who returns from last year’s team, Clarkston likely will be in the conversation and could represent the OAA’s best chance in recent years to have a team make it back to Plymouth and the season’s final weekend, and perhaps do some winning there also.
The Wolves return 15 players off a team that dominated the OAA last season, finishing 8-1-1 in league play.
Junior forward Ron Wade was a first-team all-state performer in Division 1, while defenseman Evan Adams was named second-team all-state.
Those two along with forward Owen Croston are the team’s captains this winter.
The Wolves are 7-2 going into a Thursday night contest against league rival Rochester Hills Stoney Creek.
With so much familiarity among players and coaches, not as much time needed to be spent during the offseason getting to know one another.
“The team is already pretty bonded this year,” Adams said. “We didn’t really have to worry that much about being a big group, or chemistry, this year.”
In January, the toughening-up process won’t end for Clarkston, given the Wolves will have a game against four-time reigning Division 1 champion Detroit Catholic Central.
“We haven’t had a hard (nonleague) schedule before until this year,” Croston said. “We just have to be ready for those games.”
When the MHSAA Tournament does roll around, Clarkston will have to jump over the same hurdles it usually must in its Regional – Hartland and Lake Orion.
Wade said the team still has lessons learned from the playoff loss to Hartland on its mind.
“We just learned that we really have to stick to our identity in those games,” he said. “This year, we have to rely on our forecheck and all of us pushing for the same thing.”
Indeed, it might not be 2024 yet, but Clarkston already has found out a lot about itself as it tries to replicate the postseason in November and December before the real one arrives.
“I think those teams who play a rigorous schedule all year, they are a little bit more battle-tested when Regionals come around,” Bryer said. “That was our goal this year, to have a team that’s played against top-10 opponents consistently all year. I think we’ll be better for it throughout the regular season, and better for it in Regionals.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Middle) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Photos by Keith Dunlap.)