Juan Diego Catholic High School takes state

Intermountain Catholic

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Juan Diego Soaring Eagle hockey team captains display the 3A State Championship trophies following the game against Brighton. IC photo courtesy of Deb McLellan

DRAPER — The Juan Diego Catholic High School Soaring Eagle hockey team captured their second State Championship title in a row. The hockey team is only in its second year of existence in the 31-year-old Utah High School Hockey league. Their second victory came when they beat Brighton High School 3-1 in the West Valley Accord Ice Arena last March.

"This is twice as sweet," said Juan Diego coach Phil Jung. "This year’s team was great, even better than the team we had last year. We gained a couple of experienced players this year because they heard about our championship and wanted to come to our school to play for our team. They more than made up for the seniors we lost last year. We were undefeated in the regular season, and only lost one playoff game. Our overall record was 17 wins and one loss. We have only lost five out of about 60 games since we started playing three years ago.

"Michael Vrtis was a team captain and a strong leader," said Jung. "Alex Wee and Christian Walker were assistant team captains and also great players who contributed to the leadership role. Vrtis was always asking what he could do to help the team, or giving me suggestions on how he thought we should match up our players defensively against other teams. He was a very intelligent player. He and others on the team would go watch other teams play to see how fast they were. It was nice to see them take an extra interest in our team."

Jung said Alex Halloran and Alex Dunning were also team leaders. "Halloran scored a lot of goals for us. Dunning was the overall league leader in goals for the year, but he is moving to Phoenix, Ariz., and will be sorely missed.

"Our goal is to win a third championship in a row," said Jung. "But at the same time we had seven seniors graduate and Todd Potempa, who made some instrumental goals for us during the playoffs, is also moving. We will be rebuilding, but we still have a lot of talented players on the team. We also have had some calls from some students who are experienced players moving in from out of state."

Following the championship game, Sean Cushing’s father, Kevin, suggested the Juan Diego high school team play against the senior recreational league team on which Jung and some other fathers play.

"I told him I thought it would be a lot of fun, and I am sure my players would like to show me up, and as they say on the ice, school me," said Jung. "So we received permission to play and it turned into a fun father-son competition. The students were taunting the me and having a good time.

"We turned the game into a fund raiser for the Juan Diego Chapter of Amnesty International and the work they are doing for the invisible children in Uganda," said Jung. "Claire Cushing, a Juan Diego graduating senior and member of Amnesty International was in charge of the fund raising. As a result of the game and some side-line competitions such as pitch the puck, they were able to raise $1,300. It felt good to be able to help."

"Invisible Children: The Rough Cut," was a film the Juan Diego Amnesty Chapter shared with the entire student body to raise awareness about the toll two decades of war has taken on the children in Uganda.

Following the State Championship game, the hockey team qualified to participate in the Western Region Tournament Championship games against teams from Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming, and New Mexico.