The Cal State Fullerton ice hockey team recently wrapped up their tough fall slate with a record of 5-10 and high hopes for the upcoming spring portion of the season.
CSUF ice hockey is recognized as a club sport on campus, but they compete at the Division II level and function as their own entity, with a full roster, coaches and loyal fanbase. CSUF ice hockey is a part of the West Coast Hockey Conference. The Titans sit at third place in the Tier 2 South division.
The team is coached by CSUF ice hockey alumni Jesse Sczublewski, along with assistant coaches Eric Banpenchow and James Maloney.
Banpenchow said that the team has played against multiple Tier 1 schools this semester, which prepares them for the level of intensity that they will experience in the playoffs next semester.
Sczublewski said that their goal for the season is to rank as high as they can in their tier, which includes Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Cal Lutheran.
Offensively, the team is led by starting forward Ezra Gale, who has seven goals and four assists on the season.
Freshman goalie Landon Crawford said jumping straight from high school hockey to Division II hockey has not come easy.
“The guys we’re going up against are a little older, so the shot is more developed,” Crawford said. “The pace of play is a lot faster too.”
Crawford initially wanted to join CSUF’s ice hockey team because of the impact the sport itself has had on his life.
“Escaping, escaping everything. Whenever I put my mask on, whenever I’m on the ice, anything that’s in my mind just kind of disappears. I like to play the game that I love,” Crawford said.
CSUF ice hockey competes at Great Park Ice in Irvine, which is where the Anaheim Ducks practice.
Sczublewski said that this iteration of the team didn’t start until the mid-2000s, but interest for ice hockey on campus had existed for some time before that.
Sczublewski, who played for the CSUF ice hockey team from 2011 to 2016, went directly into coaching the team once he was done playing.
Both assistant coaches are former members of the team as well. Banpenchow played for CSUF ice hockey for two years from 2019-2020, while Maloney played from 2015-2020.
For team recruitment, they go to camps and events, and mainly rely on word of mouth. Currently, the team has 28 players, a good mix of…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at "ice hockey" – Google News…