Team Ohio Keeps Growing, Evolving and Winning
16U and 18U teams play for USA Hockey National Titles
What started almost 30 years ago as a showcase team to introduce Ohio’s best high school hockey players to junior and college scouts has morphed into one of the premier full-season and pre-post youth hockey programs in the region.
Former Team Ohio player Patrick Metzger now leads the organization that has been a competitive pre-post program for some time but, in the last few years, has secured a dual-sheet home at Serpentini Winterhurst Arena in Lakewood, added full-season youth and high school teams, started a spring high school league, and won an 18U national title in 2019.
“We are always trying to make Team Ohio a better place for the players,” Metzger told the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast. “The tryouts for the youth program have exceeded expectations. We used to be the second or third option in the youth hockey scene but we’re getting stronger every year.”
Next year, Team Ohio will add a 2013 birth year full-ice (Mite) team for the first time, extending the full-season offerings to cover six birth years.
The aggressive growth plan is working. Not only are the full-season youth ranks growing, both the U16 and U18 teams are heading to USA Hockey Nationals this week.
PUTTING OHIO ON THE MAP NATIONALLY
The U18s have already arrived in Green Bay to defend their 2019 Tier II national championship (the 2020 was a casualty of COVID) while the U16s, coached by Matthew Geib, head to Grand Rapids, MI for the Tier II 16U AAA Nationals.
Metzger, also the head coach of the 18U squad, prides himself on planning the trip and ensuring that it a memorable experience for the players.
This year’s team will enjoy a steak dinner when they arrive in Milwaukee, get a tour of historic Lambeau Field, the home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, and get their competitive juices flowing with some putt-putt or bowling Thursday morning prior to their first game Thursday afternoon. Meetings rooms have been secured at the hotel for the duration of their stay to go over game plans and preparation with the coaches and players.
Luckily, Team Ohio avoided any significant COVID issues this year. That, combined with more strict regulations in neighboring states, allowed the 18U team to play 29 home games at Winterhurst in the “pre-” portion of the schedule alone. In all, the players have had an opportunity to play 40+ games this year in addition to their high school schedule.
With USA Hockey extending the season due to COVID, some student-athletes have had to balance spring sports at their respective high schools with their commitment to Team Ohio.
“I still don’t know how good we are,” Metzger said. “We’ve been missing kids for things like lacrosse and baseball practice because I didn’t want to take that away after they missed out on that last year.”
Team Ohio 18U heads to Green Bay ranked #2 in the nation but games won in the fall – or the national championship in 2019 – won’t factor into their success at Nationals.
“We haven’t had a ton of practices with all 20 guys,” Metzger added. “But the last few weeks things have started to get more focused.”
A pair of losses at a tournament in Pittsburgh last weekend helped to get the players’ attention.
“We weren’t ready to play, and they took it to us,” Metzger said. “But that think that was actually a blessing.”
You need to not only be very good to win a national title you need to get some bounces somewhere along the way. A loaded 2015 team lost in overtime in the championship game after an apparent game-winning goal was waved off. In 2016, Team Ohio was ranked the #1 team in the country but lost in the quarterfinals. Another close call followed in 2017 before everything came together two years ago in San Jose, CA.
Metzger grew up in North Olmsted playing in the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League and made a stop in Toledo for junior hockey before moving on to Kent State University. He does not like to compare one team to another when the roster is almost completely turned over, but he does see some parallels with this year’s group to the 2019 team.
“The biggest thing I see is that they are a team,” he said. “We don’t have that one star player like we had in the past with Aidan Spellacy or Evan Krueger but they’ll do anything for each other and they are a team and maybe a kid that is a third- or fourth-liner steps up with a big goal. That’s what you need to win a national tournament.”
Metzger knows the opponents Team Ohio will be facing in their three preliminary round games but scouting has been difficult. The other teams in the group have played far fewer games and TO has not played them head-to-head. That leaves HockeyTV or LiveBarn which is something, but is not ideal.
The goal is finishing in the top two spots in the four-team group. That earns a berth in the quarterfinals.
The same goes for Geib’s 16U team.
“I expect them to do extremely well,” Metzger said. “They’ve been working hard and have talent. They have a really good core group.
Click the image above to follow the 18U tournament at www.usahockey.com
Click the image above to follow the 16U tournament at www.usahockey.com
INTEGRATING HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY
Also beginning next season, the North Royalton Bears Hockey Association will become the Team Ohio Hockey High School full-season team and play their home games at Winterhurst. They will have varsity and JV USA Hockey (club) teams.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Team Ohio Hockey organization for the upcoming season and beyond,” said North Royalton Program Director Jeff McCarthy. “Part of building a championship-caliber team at the high school level is finding players that can make the leap quickly from the youth level to the high school game. Team Ohio has a longstanding track record of program success and top-notch reputation for developing their players both on and off the ice. This is truly the perfect situation for both organizations.”
Players will not have to attend North Royalton High School to join the team.
JOIN TEAM OHIO
The national tournaments are certainly a high point of the season, but not the end of Team Ohio’s calendar. It is a year-round operation at this point and Metzger returns from Green Bay and goes right into another round of tryouts.
Players can compete for a spot on Team Ohio’s 14U full-season team, as well as 15U, 16U and 18U pre-post teams May 5-7 at Winterhurst.
Click here to register for Team Ohio tryouts
On episode 22 of the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast, Team Ohio general manager and U18 head coach Patrick Metzger goes back into the history of the program and details its evolution from a showcase tournament team to split-season, and now a program that offers full-season AA youth teams. He talks about some of the great players who have come through the program over the years and re-lives the near misses at the national tournament that eventually led to a national championship in 2019.
