Story and Photos by Janet Schultz, NYHOL
Earl Utter was named head coach of the second-year Hilbert Women’s Ice Hockey Team in July with eight returning and eight new recruits, four being goalies.
So what can we expect from a team that is almost brand new?
“Hard work, fun and our first win,” said Utter. “And scoring more than 5 goals.”
“My theme for this program and what I wanted from the beginning was to build a mountain from a little hill and you do that by taking small steps.” said Utter.
“We just want to get better every single game by controlling the things we can,” he continued. “We can’t control who other schools recruit, we just have to worry about ourselves and play according to our game plan.”
The Rochester native came to Hilbert because it was close to his hometown. In addition he has a track record of helping programs grow and developing new programs. He has accomplished that at Morrisville College, Cortland College and he began the program at Wilkes College.
“It’s like a niche for me to take a program from inception or from lower parts and grow it to a place for the next person coming in to have a good program and represent the school well,” he continued
In this world, Utter explains, you just want to get people who can play and from what he has seen he has that in this team. Definitely the goalies are college-level goaltenders.
“Brooke Thompson is a big player and it’s her first year in college play so she will have some adjustments to make,” said Utter.
Tia Card, Jewely Monford and Cassie Troy have played college hockey and so Utter plans to build from the back out, as most teams like to do.
Three of his players, Abby Dawson, Courtney Wesolowski and Troy are in their final year and they just want to play hockey.
“They work as hard as they can,” said Coach Utter.
Utter plans to go with a total group effort making sure all players have an equal part knowing that some players need more help than others to adjust to this level of play.
“You can see those who can skate better, shoot better but I think this group will be building a group confidence,” said Utter.
He plans to have only one captain, but chosen on which player can talk to officials and understand what they are saying, rather than a “boss” over the team.
“They will pick their own leaders as the season goes on,” said Utter.
Utter has coached both men and women and finds that with women it’s more of confidence building. They want to get better and they need to know that if you make a mistake and a coach yells, it’s not being yelled at but being helped to correct the mistake.
“I try to ask questions that are short and precise, rather than accusatory,” said Utter.
The focus this season will be on improving, learning, growing and making sure the players have fun on the ice.
“I want people to make friends that last a lifetime.”
“Even though we’d like our opponents to adjust to our game, with running two lines and it will be hard to make people adjust to us. But we have a hard working team that does it’s job and has fun doing it,” said Utter.
Hilbert’s Athletic Department and Administration want to make their all their athletes feel special, whether the team is winning or losing.
“The school has taken some really nice steps to build things to make athletic teams feel like they are welcome and they have an important role on campus,” said Utter.
At this point Utter isn’t commenting on any individual player. But he does know that it’s the goaltenders that will be contributing to the team.
“Momentum is key in a game,” said Utter, referring to Coach Scotty Bowman’s philosophy. “Goalies can do everything you need. They can play the puck, they are smart and they can make saves.”
“Those are the things you need,” he concluded.
Hilbert’s current roster includes several New York State players including Kaitlin Cowie, Henrietta; Wesolowski, Buffalo and Brooke Kwiecien, Perry.
Hilbert will be playing as an DIII Independent School this season as they look at what leagues fit their goals.
The team will open with a game against DIII Buffalo State College at Buffalo State on Friday, October 20 at 7 p.m.
On Saturday, October 21 they hold their home opener at the Hamburg Nike Arena against Stevenson University at 2 pm.
King’s College will come to Nike on October 27 and 28 at 6 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively before the Hawks hit the road to Neumann University for a doubleheader on November 10 and 11 and at William Smith Collge on November 14 at 7 p.m.
Hilbert will host Chatham University on November 21 at Riverworks in Buffalo at 4 p.m.
Only two games in December at Trine University.
After a short break, Hilbert will host Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts at Northtowns Center on January 12 and then at Nike on January 13.
It’s Anna Maria College coming in for a doubleheader. They will play at Northtowns Center on January 19 and at Nike on January 20. The Hawks will return to play Buffalo State a second time this season on January 30 at Buffalo State.
Hilbert closes out the season against Wilkes College on February 2 and 3 at Wilkes’ Toyota SportsPlex.
