Club team to hit ice for Tigers

Sidner Ice Arena is home to the Fremont Flyers youth hockey program, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln club team and now a high school team.

The black and gold colors of Fremont High School will for the first time don the sweaters of a hockey team.

The team will play under club status as hockey is not sanctioned by the Nebraska Schools Athletic Association.

The idea of a high school hockey team has been talked about since Sidner opened in May of 2004.

“The thought was there four or five years ago when the rink opened,” head coach James Vukonich said. “Unfortunately you can’t do that expecting kids to one, just show up; two, be good enough; and three, have all the support they need, so even early attempts failed.”

To finally get a high school hockey team up and running, Vukonich had to remember and learn from earlier struggles.

He took the approach of finding a team last.

“I didn’t want this attempt to fall short,” he said. “If we were going to do it we were gong to do it right.”

Vukonich said he spoke with FHS athletic director Bill Fitzgerald, Fremont Family YMCA Executive Director Jerry Rinne, Sidner Director of Hockey and Ice Activities Evan Schinasi, and the Fremont Ice Association. He said he needed the support from each entity to make a high school club hockey team work. All, he said, were more than happy to offer whatever support they could.

Because hockey isn’t sanctioned by the NSAA, the hockey team is not allowed to use school funds. They only things they are allowed to use are the school’s colors and logo.

That’s all Vukonich wanted.

“That didn’t matter as long as we had the representation and as long as we could letter the kids and give them the black and gold and say they were Fremont Tigers,” he said. “Just saying to kids that they could be Fremont Tigers alone piqued a lot of interest.”

After Vukonich got the support he needed, he then had to find a team. He didn’t have to advertise as 19 kids showed up at the first dry-land tryout session.

“It blew me away,” he said. “I thought we’d have about nine so I’m not worried about numbers now, we’ve got plenty.”

Being nonsanctioned, the team is allowed to use players from outside the Fremont district as well as players in junior high. The team is home to players from Arlington, Mead and even Millard West High School. Most Vukonich said came up through the Fremont Flyers youth hockey program.

The team will play around 20 games this season as a member of the Nebraska Hockey League which has upwards of 15 teams from Lincoln, Kearney and other areas.

While there are other leagues in the Midwest, Vukonich said the NHL is right on par with the Tigers’ level.

“That was a bid decision: Where are we going to find games,” Vukonich said. “We’re young and if we go 0-20 we aren’t learning anything and the teams we’re playing aren’t learning anything either.”

The team isn’t totally void of talent. Senior goalie Katlyn Kaiser from Millard West played select hockey for a team in Atlanta last year and Grant Swanson, Andrew Nelson and Lance Vukonich have some experience on the ice as well.

“We’ve got someone to lead that’s a little older and some kids with a little more experience,” Vukonich said. “The others are going to look up to them and that will help us for the future.”

Vukonich isn’t blind to the struggles of a upstart program. He said with several seventh graders on the team he just wants retention and participation. He said that will help build up the program.

“Starting at the bottom with our young team, the vision is right in front of us,” Vukonich said.

The team opens its innagural season Sunday when they host Kearney at 12:15 p.m. at Sidner.