Mercyhurst Athletics

On the horizon is the upcoming 2010-2011 season for the men's ACHA D1 hockey team at Mercyhurst College. The ACHA Lakers are returning all but two players due to graduation and are looking to improve upon last season's sub-par record. The 2009-2010 season proved to be a valuable learning experience for a young hockey team. Many lessons were learned throughout and optimism and excitement awaits a returning squad steeped in battle tested experience along with a great core of incoming recruits.

The team returns 14 upperclassman players who will be looked upon to provide appropriate and sustained leadership through the experiences they have learned within the league over the last 2-3 seasons. The team also returns 5 key sophomores who had immediate success within the league and on the team. Among the 19 players returning for training camp are 12 forwards, 5 defenseman and 2 goalies.

Moreover, Coach McKinnon was very active in the off-season securing 8 newcomers with Junior A experience, 1 with Junior B experience and 1 player from an elite AAA level. "This recruiting class has been chosen for specific needs our hockey team had", commented McKinnon who is thrilled to add the size, strength and depth that his hockey team was lacking in certain areas. "This year's incoming class will help fill the type of roles we needed within our locker room and on the ice", said McKinnon.  Among the 10 newcomers are 5 forwards, 3 defenseman and 2 goalies. In addition to these players are several walk-on commitments from various hockey backgrounds. McKinnon added, "this year's tryout and training camp will be ultra competitive because of the number of returning players, recruits and walk-on prospects that we have coming to camp. The coaching staff is thrilled to have this type of depth and is excited by the elevated commitment levels of all the players reporting to camp".

Last season proved to be a big disappointment for the ACHA D1 Lakers, but the upcoming 2010-2011 season is much anticipated with renewed optimism and commitment levels. "Our team experienced many disappointments last season, but we believe we learned how to fail forward...we became much more focused on the process and less concerned about outcomes due to our lack of winning percentage success. Those lessons have prepared us well for this upcoming season and I truly believe in the players we have returning and coming in. We return a quality team with plenty of experience. We will need to improve upon our overall team defense and have some of our guys step up to give us that added depth that is increasingly needed in our much stronger ECHL conference, but I truly believe we have the opportunity to be a very good team this year", explained McKinnon.

The ACHA hockey program will be holding open tryouts for all returning, recruited and prospective walk-on players beginning on Monday August 30th. More details will follow.