After a season ending with a trip to playoffs, Bradley Club Hockeyis preparing to say goodbye to their seniors who will be graduating this May. The Division II team will say goodbye to seven seniors and the Division III team will be say goodbye to four seniors.
Joe Norton is a Chicago native, a Criminal Justice major, and a senior leader for the Braves Hockey Division 2 Team. He played Left Wing for Bradley, scored 10 goals and added 7 assists while appearing in 31 games.
Joe Norton said his favorite memory while playing at Bradley was, “beating Iowa State during the regular season.” “We struggle with them every year and it felt really good to finally get a win against them.”
Losing a senior leader on any team is hard and that leaves it up to next year’s seniors to take advice and fill the leadership roles. Norton said the advice he would give to the juniors would be, “to work hard every time you are on the ice.” “The four years you are here go by so fast so embrace every opportunity you get to play and compete.”
Bradley recently made the jump to Division 2 hockey and went 18-12-1 this year (ACHA Hockey Standings) Norton said, “I thought this was one of our better years.” “Since we have jumped to D-2 we have really made a name for ourselves, beat some highly ranked schools, and really match up well in terms of skill.”
Logan Nigg is a sophomore marketing student at Bradley and as well is president of the hockey club. Logan had a good year this year notiching 14 points, with six goals and eight assists. When talking to Logan he had many things to say about the team and were he thinks the team will be going in the next few years.
When asked about how the teams performance overall this year, he said, “Overall we had one of our best seasons as club and our best season at the ACHA division 2 level since moving up two seasons ago.” “We were able to beat big schools like Iowa state, Iowa, Illinois, Illinois state, Missouri. We really have a special talented group of guys.”
He added, “Many of us have played together for many years and have gained a lot of chemistry. It really was a fun season and we battled all the the way to the semifinals where we lost to Iowa State.”
Logan had nothing but good things to say about the seniors. He said, “With over 10 seniors through the club graduating we are saying goodbye to one of our largest senior classes. The seniors were really a special group of guys that were easy to look up to.”
Next year Logan has a big step of becoming an upperclassmen and role model. He said, “As an upperclassmen I want to be someone that the freshman look up to. I hope to set a good example so that the younger generation can and will succeed both on and off the ice.”
In speaking with Head Coach, James Fitzgerald, this group of seniors means a lot to him. They were the first class that he recruited at Bradley. He said, “Having the opportunity to watch them grow from high school seniors to soon-to-be college graduate; battle through the challenges of hockey, school, internships, and other college priorities; and seeing the men they’ve become today has been unbelievable.”
These seniors have also had a great impact on the team on the ice. Coach Fitzgerald said, “These seniors will be missed for their passion, work ethic, and willingness to play any role asked of them to help the team succeed.” He also praised the seniors for their dedication to playing team defense and how that dedication gave the team a chance to win each night they played (bradley hockey stats).
In the coming season, this year’s juniors will be the next leaders of the team heading into their last season with the Braves. When asked about what he hopes to see from them next year Coach Fitzgerald said, “Both teams [D2 and D3] have juniors who have playoff experience and know what it takes to win. I’m hoping that they’ll come to the rink hungry to work every day, and hopefully each team can build off of last year’s success.” He also said he hopes they continue to take pride in the team’s strong team defense.
To Coach Fitzgerald, these seniors are a special group. He expressed how they led by example both on and off the ice which pushed every member of the team to best they could be.