By: Ryan Allgeyer, Brock Stotler, and Taylor Zabrocki
As the hockey season finally came to the end for the Bradley Braves, the team went out in style. The team held their annual End of the Year Banquet on April 26th at the Fieldhouse in Campustown. Members from the division 2 and the division 3 team gathered for a night of awards, food, and a speech by the head coach. The Braves celebrated their successful season and had their final goodbye to the seniors and coach JP Fitzgerald who will be starting a new job in Houston, Texas and will be dearly missed.
Most of the awards that were given out were voted on by the members of the team. The notable winners from the D2 team were David Tuttle who was the recipient of the Kevin Schmaltz Most Improved Player Award. Cole Harris took home two awards; the Pete Bardezbanian Most Valuable Player Award and the Leading Scorer award after contributing 24 total points this past season. The winner of the Jack Thorpe Newcomer of the Year Award was given to Ryan Spence who chipped in 7 points in his first season on the Bradley Hockey Team. Cody Esposito was the biggest winner at the banquet, he won 3 awards; the Mark Olson Best Defenseman Award, the Leadership Award, and also received All-Conference Second Team Defense.
There were two other D2 awards given out at the banquet. Logan Nigg, who is the president of the program, won the Dedication Award because the team wanted to recognize all that he has done for the Bradley Hockey team behind the scenes. The last one was given to head coach JP Fitzgerald, who as mentioned before will leave the program to take a job in Texas, and was honored with All-Conference Second Team Coach.
Not only did the division 2 team give out awards, but also the division 3 team also was given awards for there season as well. The division 3 team also said goodbye to a few seniors, Ethan Herman, Jesse Nusbaum, Eugene Vitvitskiy, and Nicholas Marselle. The awards giving out were very similar to the division 2 team. The Pete Bardezbanian Most Valuable Player Award was awarded to senior and goalkeeper Jesse Nusbaum. Nusbaum leads the team in starts and had a team-leading 4.74 goals-against average and .859 save percentage on the season. Nusbaum was also All-Conference Second Team Goalie.
The team welcomed newcomer Seth Bishop who also saw some time on the division 2 team as well this year. Bishop was the recipient of the Jack Thorpe Newcomer of the Year Award. As well as the first two awards the team recognized the most improved player. The Kevin Schmaltz Most Improved Award went to Jack Riendeau. Riendeau tallied 11 points with five goals and six assists on the year.
Defensemen Jarrod Earnest was a recipient for two awards. The Mark Olson Best Defenseman Award and All-Conference First Team Defense. Earnest was a top three scorer on the team tallying 15 points. Captain Ethan Herman was giving a dedication award in his final season. And the final award was to senior Eugene “Geno” Vitvitskiy. Vitvitskiy was giving a leadership award for his leadership serving as an alternate captain for the past few years.
It was great to see those seniors get some final recognition for all that they have done during their time at Bradley and for the program as a whole. Best of luck to JP Fitzgerald next year at his job in Houston and good luck to the Bradley Hockey team next year.