Judge hockey players headed to nationals
SALT LAKE CITY — Four Judge Memorial Catholic High School hockey players will travel to Minnesota next week to play in the USA Hockey high school national championship as part of the Salt Lake Stars hockey team.
JMCHS juniors Carter Causse, James Colling, Branigan Roy and Zane St. Martin each contributed to the team’s Utah High School Hockey Division 1(Unaffiliated) state 9-2 victory over Wasatch Back on Feb. 22 at the Salt Lake Sports Complex.
In that game, St. Martin scored a goal and made one assist. Causse also scored a goal, while Roy and St. Martin were part of the same defensive pairing line.
“Once we were up a couple of goals, we just had to play strong defense the rest of the game,” Roy said. “It was nice to win the game pretty soundly.”
Last year the Stars also earned a berth at the state championship, coming out of the losers’ bracket to defeat Uintah, the eventual winners, in their first game. They lost to Uintah the second time around. That defeat hung over them all year long.
“We kind of had a chip on our shoulder all season,” Colling said. “Throughout the season this team only lost two games. … We kind of became a family. We knew we had the talent, knew we had the skill, so it was all about the execution.”
The state win culminated a great season, according to coach Matt Brickley, who said the team greatly benefitted from the Judge Memorial CHS influence.
“James did a great job this year switching from forward to defense,” he said of Colling. “We had a need, and James stepped up and made the transition smoothly.”
At the same time, “Zane St. Martin and Branigan Roy were my most consistent and dependable forces on defense,” Brickley said. “I could rely on Branigan to give me an honest effort game in and game out. Zane’s positive attitude and extreme hustle was always paying dividends.”
In addition, “Carter has been a steady force on the wing all year. His quiet demeanor and consistent work ethic was a great asset to the team,” Brickley said.
On their way to the state title, the Stars narrowly defeated UCI-North 3-2 at the Feb. 12 semifinal game at the Salt Lake Sports Complex.
“That was probably the most challenging game for us this season,” Brickley said. “We were happy to get beyond that game and stay undefeated.”
Along with the usual desire to win that most athletes have, team members were determined to take state this year for another reason: Brickley was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer early in the season. (The coach keeps people updated about his condition through a blog, Brickley-strong.com.)
“It definitely was on everyone’s mind,” Roy said. “We knew we had to just go out there and do it for him, to brighten his day during this hard time. We had to give it our all for him.”
The team is now headed to Plymouth, Minn. for the national championship, which will be played March 21-25. Brickley said the teams will be grouped according to the size of the hockey population in their state. While a tournament schedule was not yet available, it’s likely the Stars will play teams from states like Oklahoma, Maryland and New Mexico, he said.
Along with the experience, competing at nationals will “buy the team a few more weeks together,” Colling said. “They’re just a great group of guys.”
The Salt Lake Stars players are drawn from Cottonwood, Highland, Hillcrest, Jordan, Judge, Olympus, Waterford, West and all east-side charter schools.
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