Icing the competition

ELLENTON — Braden River High junior defender Zach McCoy took the puck and shot it up the ice to Lakewood Ranch High junior Sean Hanlon.

Hanlon secured the puck with his stick, slid back and forth across the ice and fired off a shot that left McCoy and the rest of his teammates staring at each other in awe.

A relative newcomer to the sport, the former Lakewood football kicker put together his best game of the season, notching three goals and an assist, to lead the Manatee Admirals to a 15-1 victory against Berkeley, in Tampa, on Jan. 17.

“It was awesome,” McCoy says of seeing Hanlon score his first goals of the season. “We just kept feeding him passes. Defensively, we couldn’t have asked for a better game.”

Braden River senior defender Ashton Frick agrees.

“Sean hasn’t been playing as long as the rest of us,” Frick says. “He’s a great sport even though he doesn’t get the ice time that some of the other players get.”

McCoy, Frick and Hanlon came together for the first time back in September, at the start of the Admirals’ regular season.

Several of the players, including McCoy and Frick, were familiar with one another after having played together on the same Gulf Coast Flames travel hockey team, while others, such as Hanlon, were just picking up the sport.

After failing to generate enough interest to field its own team last season and having to join forces with rival Sarasota County, the Manatee County high school hockey team was finally able to create its own team this season.

The Admirals consist of players from Braden River, Lakewood Ranch, Manatee and Palmetto high schools and now find themselves in the same conference as Sarasota County.

“I like having it more spread out throughout the whole county than just one school,” Frick says. “We have fans of four different schools, and they each bring their own unique way of celebrating.”

The Admirals opened the season 5-0 before suffering their first lost of the season Nov. 1. The team went on to win 11 of its final 12 games to finish the regular season 16-1-1.

“We have a great team,” Frick says. “We manage the puck well and really gel together whenever we play the game.”

With its 3-2 victory over East Lake Jan. 24, the Admirals captured the No. 1 seed in the Lightning Conference tournament, which begins Feb. 7.

During the regular season, Manatee scored 143 goals while only allowing 45 goals in 18 games.

Six players scored more than 10 goals over the course of the season, including David Tmej (24), Rhett Rampinelli (17), Brett Wessel (14), Ian Deckard (130), Chase Bafia (12) and Charlie Schukay (10). Raven Woodring led the team in assists with 19. Goalies Dominik Tmej and Matthew Richard combined for three shutouts.

“We’ve played with each other before, so we have really good team chemistry,” McCoy says. “We know how each other plays and moves on the ice, so it makes it a lot more fun.”

Wessel agrees.

“We’re an all-around team,” Wessel says. “We’re strong defensively and offensively.”

The Admirals will open the Lightning Conference tournament Feb. 7 with the quarterfinals in Brandon.

The winners will advance to the semifinals Feb. 14 in Brandon, with the Lightning Conference championship scheduled for Feb. 23 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

“It’s about creating tradition,” Wessel says. “It’s a new team and a new season, and we just want to establish a tradition for the rest of the time this team exists.”

Frick agrees.

“We just want to go out there and play our game,” Frick says. “Everyone is a really good sport and we love the game.”

For more information on the Manatee Admirals, visit manateeadmirals.com.

BY THE NUMBERS
17 — The number of teams in the Lightning Conference

143 — The number of goals the Manatee Admirals scored this season

45 — The number of goals the Manatee Admirals allowed this season

3 — The number of shutouts the Manatee Admirals posted this season

21 — The number of players on the Manatee Admirals roster

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].