Duluth East Hockey Team Shrugs Off “Rebuilding” Expectations

The Greyhounds will look to stay unbeaten as they host Superior on Thursday night.

DULUTH, Minn. – In the era of COVID-19, prep teams across the country have to be ready to make changes on the fly if players are out and schedules have to be adjusted. But at this time last year, the Duluth East boys hockey team was hit with a bug few teams have ever seen in recent memory with nearly 20 players out sick. Head coach Mike Randolph says he’s pretty sure it can’t get worse than that.

“Some people feel it was COVID because they didn’t know what COVID was at that time. You just appreciate every day a lot more and I remind, because we have a number of players who were sick during that time and were part of that team, and just remind them that we don’t want to go through that again,” Randolph said.

The Greyhounds are off to a great start with a win and a tie through two games. This comes as some believed it would be a rebuilding year for a team that featured a large sophomore class with little varsity experience.

“Yeah I think that makes us be like we’re kind of the underdogs and we want to be able to prove everyone wrong. It’s really important that our younger guys are stepping it up and contributing. It’s something that will really help us,” senior defenseman Garrett Johnson said.

“It’s outstanding for them, as well as us. It gives them confidence. It gives us confidence that maybe they can play at this level. Obviously there’s still a lot of hockey ahead and we’ll see whether they can continue to grow as a player because that’s what teams do. They get better,” said Randolph.

The Greyhounds will look to stay unbeaten as they host Superior on Thursday night.