The LSU Hockey team will kick off conference play with a two-game series at home against Ole Miss this weekend.
The nine returning Tigers welcome seven new players to the ice this season along with first-year coach Troy Bennett. Bennett comes equipped with a level five coaching certificate from USA Hockey and 16 years coaching experience.
Bennett will be joining assistant coach Gerry Bloom, who is in his second season with the program. Bennett, who has led teams of various levels in Illinois, Ohio and Florida, said he brings desire and commitment to the Tigers.
“Really what these guys are looking for is somebody that is just committed as they are to come out and lead them,” Bennett said.
Senior center Michael Tymchak, who’s played the sport for 15 years, said he’s glad to have Bennett on board.
“I think our new coach is great,” Tymchak said. “He’s really optimistic and wants to build the program up.”
Tymchak said the program certainly wants to see an improvement from last season’s losing 9-11 record. The team started practicing earlier and more frequently this year and added off-ice training to their routine. Being the most seasoned player, Tymchak wants to make sure he helps guide the team in a direction that will benefit the program even after he graduates.
“I feel I’m a leader on and off the ice as the only senior on the team,” Tymchak said. “It’s a young team, so we want this year to be a building year.”
Coach Bennett named Alabama and Arkansas as the Tigers’ toughest competition in the Southeastern Collegiate Hockey Conference.
“Arkansas and Alabama are two teams that are more established,” Bennett said. “This team is only four years old. Those teams are a little older, plus they have full rosters and probably 70 or 80 guys coming to try out.”
Bennett said the LSU hockey tryouts were small and only produced half the roster than teams he has coached in the past. He said that youth involvement with hockey has been stagnant since the Baton Rouge Kingfish, a semi-pro team, left town.
“Coach Bloom and I are desperately trying to increase the youth interest in hockey,” Bennett said. “We’re going to come out and do special nights on Fridays and skate with the kids. The players will be here in their jerseys, and we want to see if this is something the kids might want to try.”
Bennett mentioned a study published in USA Today that examined the most difficult positions in sports and named the goaltender position in hockey as the second hardest to master. In his opinion, hockey is one of the more difficult sports.
“In hockey you come out on blades less than 1/16 of an inch thick, you have a foreign object in your hand, and you’re covered in pads, which weigh you down,” he said. “Then you have to move a small three-inch disk around that reaches speeds of up to 105 miles an hour.”
It’s the excitement Bennett described above that drew biological sciences freshman John Kaberlein to the sport as a child. Kaberlein, a New Orleans native and the youngest Louisiana player ever selected to the National Team, lived and competed in several states before returning to attend LSU.
Kaberlein said the thrill he gets from competing is his favorite part of the sport.
“It’s the rush,” Kaberlein said. “When the game is close and your heart’s beating and the coach says go out there with two minutes left, that’s my favorite part.”
 
 
 
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Contact Erin Henley at [email protected]