Media spoke with Miami RedHawks head coach Anthony Noreen and senior forward Blake Mesenburg on the second day of NCHC Media Days this past Wednesday. The season is now just eight days away, beginning Oct. 3 with a two-game home series against Ferris State at the Goggin Ice Center.
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Here’s what they had to say about the roster, offseason workouts, recruiting, schedule, and this season’s goals.
A Large Incoming Class
Noreen started off by discussing the 21-player recruiting class, including the most experienced player, 25-year-old defenseman Owen Lalonde, and how the group is balanced to build a foundation.
“As far as the recruiting class, I mean, time will tell if it works. We’re excited about it, but we got a long way to go and a lot of development to do. And obviously, it’s a tough conference to compete in. For Owen, when all these rule changes were kind of going on, one of the events that took place was the U Sports National Championship up in Ottawa. So, what they do for their national tournament is an eight-team tournament in one location over the course of four days. They play from Thursday to Sunday with a host team and then the seven winners of the different conferences up in U Sports, which is Canadian university hockey.
I went up there thinking that, hey, this could be something that’s potentially an avenue of players that may be eligible, and got to have a couple of guys play for Queen’s University. And then as the spring went on, I got to know him, and then got him through the eligibility center, and he applied for school, and he came back with one year of eligibility. So, he’s a guy that obviously has a lot of experience both at the junior level in the OHL, as a player that played a ton of hockey, won a championship, was a captain, and then led a great university at Queen’s and had a similar type of path.”
Noreen then spoke about how the staff staggered classes to ensure a balanced roster.
“Yeah, certainly. I mean, listen, with the amount of new guys, when you have 21 new guys, we couldn’t bring in 21 freshmen. We had to stagger some classes. We had to try and bring in some sophomores from juniors, and we had to try and bring in some seniors. Obviously, you want different classes to be filled, you want guys to be here for multiple years. So, with the new guys we brought in, we just wanted to balance things out a little bit. And Owen’s a guy who’s played a lot of hockey. He’s played a lot of meaningful hockey, and I certainly think just his life skills, school skills, hockey skills are something that could help what is an extremely young D-core.”
Noreen also spoke about the seven returners from last season and how impressed he was with their offseason growth. The returners consist of Blake Mesenburg, Brayden Morrison, David Grosek, Casper Nassen, John Emmons, Nick Donato, and Michael Quinn.
“Well, I know this about our returns. And Michael & Casper being part of that group. The spring that they had with Coach Carsey before, now, Gord Fardell came in as our new strength coach and is tremendous. They all got stronger. They all got bigger, they all got faster, and they were totally committed to the gym, and just a quick story. I mean, our first Friday night that we were off after our season ended, and those guys were in their first week of spring workouts. You would think you’re a student athlete. You haven’t really had a weekend off all season. On a Friday night, to have a weekend off and go be a normal college student, and we had a recruit on campus, and I was walking through the rink at about 9:30 at night, and every one of our returners was in the gym, blasting tunes, shirts off, working out, aside from their normal spring workouts.
And, you know, I kind of looked at the guy. We had a recruiting visit who wound up committing and is here now and being like, okay, we might have a chance with this. You know what I mean. This is why those guys were kept here. This is why we believed in that group coming back. You know, I think, you know, two guys specifically, you asked about, and the others had a great summer. Casper is bigger; he’s stronger. He played a lot of minutes, meaningful minutes last year. Same thing with Quinn. He’s bigger, he’s stronger. I mean, you talk about guys that totally committed their offseason to strength and conditioning, I thought they did a really good job. And I think so far, we’re only going against each other, and it’s only practice, but they’ve shown really well so far.”
A Competitive Young Goalie Trio
Noreen talked about the young goalie trio of freshmen Shika Gadzhiev and Benji Motew, and sophomore Matteo Drobac.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a position that we know we need to be better at. Obviously, it’s no different than if I were just taking over a Division 1 college football team. It is your quarterback and the most important position. So we did not take any of those three spots lightly when deciding who to bring in. Having said that, it was not just about ability. We were looking for guys with a really high ceiling and a ton of potential.
If you look at those guys, they are highly competitive, high-character players who have performed under pressure at different levels. Their compete level among the three of them, through our first few weeks of practice before the season really begins, has been extremely impressive. They are young, of course. They have not played a Division I college hockey game, and they certainly have not played an NCHC game. So, we have to continue building them up. It is no different than the rest of our players, though they are a little more in the spotlight because of the position they play. We love the combination of the three of them, and now we just need to continue working with them, building them mentally and physically, helping them improve in areas where they need growth, and emphasizing their strengths and the reasons they are here.”
Staff Roles & Responsibilities
He also spoke about the responsibilities broken down amongst the staff and how that affects player development.
“I think one of the things that I love about our staff is that we’re in lockstep about how we want to play and who we want to be and what our core values are. Everybody’s willing to help in different areas. Now, we’re very clear in what our roles and assignments are and who’s in charge of what. Obviously, David Nies is our GM. His responsibilities, first and foremost, are recruiting. That’s both in getting on the road, finding new players, evaluating what we’re looking for to bring into Miami, as well as staying in touch with and visiting our players that we already have committed. That’s something our whole staff does, but it’s something where he’s going to get out in the rinks. A lot of times, we’re playing on weekends and on the road, and he’s going to go see them. But he’s also here, and he’s also helping.
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David, in the past, has done a great job with the D and with the penalty kill, so he’s going to be a real asset to help when he’s around here at the rink as well. Troy is our associate coach, Troy Thibodeau. Again, we’re all hands-on deck as far as recruiting goes. All four of us recruit, all four of us talk to recruits, all four of us evaluate. We’re on the same page as far as what we’re looking for. Troy’s primary responsibilities: he’s going to work with the forwards and with the power play. So that’s his area day-to-day. And then Lio Mauron, who was elevated from our Director of Hockey Operations to a full-time assistant position. His primary responsibilities are going to be with our defensemen and with our penalty kill.”
Building a Culture With Leaders
Noreen also highlighted the importance of building a competitive, high-character culture.
“Again, we wanted to set the foundation for what Miami Hockey was going to be and the type of people it was going to be moving forward. We feel like this group is exactly that. Does that guarantee we’re going to win any certain amount of games? No. But we have every bit of confidence in the people sitting in that room that they’re the right people for the right reason. I’m a huge believer that a high tide raises all ships. You get a bunch of competitive guys in a room together, they’re going to bring even more out of each other because they don’t want to be out-competed by the guy next to them. That’s a lot of what we’ve seen so far. Do we have a ways to go? Absolutely. We have a long way to go because we have to bring in another class like this, and then another class like this and another class like this. But we believe the people in that room are the right people.”
He then spoke about the captain and leadership elements being critical to recruiting and development.
“Yeah, I mean, I think when you talk specifically about the captain element and the leader element, that was extremely important to us. That was something we set out to do in recruiting, with David taking the lead on it, but the rest of our staff was involved as well. We wanted guys who were tremendous teammates and who would represent this program well. Knowing how young we were, we could not rely on just being a young team. Wearing a letter in hockey says a lot about who you are. It shows what your teammates think of you, what your coaches think of you, and how you represent your program. That is not to say players who have not worn letters are not important, but for us, it was a critical piece given how many new faces we would have.
Going back to that high tide raises all ships mentality, having strong leaders helps others learn from different styles. We have seen a lot of that early on, in how guys take care of their bodies, how they communicate, and how they hold each other accountable. There have been some really impressive moments. You hope all of that prepares the team for when things get tough in game one, game two, or later in the season. We want players who can figure things out together and push each other to be better every day, not just on the ice, but in everything they do representing Miami. That leadership element was as important in recruiting as anything else.”
Noreen’s Season Goals
Noreen outlined the overarching goals for the team this season, but it was clear that he believes this team can be special and play an important role in turning this program around.
“Yeah, I mean, going into last year at the same time, what I was saying was, we need to evaluate who was potentially part of the solution moving forward, who maybe was part of the problem moving forward. We had to take our heart out of it at times and make some really tough decisions, and we had to get the culture moving in the right direction.
You know, and on top of that, we needed to recruit highly competitive, high-character players so that we could build a foundation. That was really what last year was about. And now, you know, this year, we, for the most part, have a lot of those things. They’re never set and it’s always, you know, continuing to grow and develop. But it is really getting that culture to be an everyday thing, right? We’ve got a foundation of players here, whether it was the guys that returned, who we felt were the right guys to keep here, or the guys that we brought in. Every guy was brought in for a specific reason.
So now it’s, how do we push each other? How do we grow? How do we continue to build on, like I said, this foundation? Because, you know, what’s interesting about our culture right now is, it’s not like, hey, guys, this is my culture and you guys got to live up to it. It’s like, no, we are building this thing together. So, like, when we’re building what our core values are as a program, this isn’t me saying like, hey, these are my core values. You guys have to adhere to them. This is like, what matters to us? We brought you guys in here for a reason. What matters to you guys? We kept you guys here for a reason. What matters to you guys? And then let’s, as a collective group, build this thing.
And to me, that’s what a lot of the players who came here and chose this university over other places really believed in what we were doing is they wanted to be part of that. They wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves. I think I could set up for every staff member, and I know that I could say that for every guy that chose this name, and we allowed to stay, as well as every single guy that we brought into our program. Like, this is a really special opportunity. We’ve got to build it. We’ve got to build a foundation; we’ve got to build a culture that’s what Miami hockey is.
I walk into the arena, and I see them. It doesn’t mean they’re the most skilled team; it doesn’t mean they win or lose that night. It means I know what I can expect when I see someone put that jersey on or I interact with outside of the arena, someone who’s got that logo every single time. And that’s something, again, we’re going to continue to supplement and bring in players, but we’ve got a really special opportunity, you know, here with, I can’t imagine there’s another team in college hockey with 21 new players. And the opportunity we have is at this unbelievable university. It’s why we all came here.”
Excitement for Friendship Four
Noreen also spoke about being the first NCHC team to participate in the Friendship Four in Belfast, Ireland, set for Nov. 28-29.
“Yeah, our whole program and university is excited. When it first came up, the Friendship Four said they wanted an NCHC representative. They came into our room at the convention in Florida and presented to all NCHC coaches. David Sayler immediately said, Hey, let’s do this. This is something our university and president would get behind. Being a multi-semester sport, our student-athletes don’t get a chance to study abroad. This is the closest we could get from the hockey team as a two-sport experience. Thankfully, our university got behind it. It gives us an opportunity to play a team we haven’t played much, or any collegiate playoff hockey games. It puts us in a tournament atmosphere with high stakes, best-of-one. Two really good teams, meaningful games, high pressure, great crowd. Should be an unbelievable experience for our guys.”
Mesenburg’s Thoughts Ahead of Senior Season
Senior forward Blake Mesenburg started by mentioning what coach Noreen has meant to him over the past year and a half.
“Yeah, it’s been incredible so far for him to step in and trust me as a guy who’s been here through two tough years when he came in. I think it’s been incredible that he’s given me the shot and believed in me over the last year and whatever, two months, three months so far. I can’t thank him enough for that, and I think it’s meant a lot that he’s found the guys that maybe aren’t his highest-end skill level, but he knows guys that are going to right the ship and represent Miami Hockey in the best way possible.”
Mesenburg then reflected on the difference between this season’s team and last season’s.
“Yeah, I think the one thing I’ve noticed especially is like, obviously, with so many new guys coming in, there’s kind of a different buzz around the rink. I mean, with this many new guys, it almost makes it easier to kind of come in and set a standard as returners, the seven returners all on the same page. With 21 new guys, it allows guys to get comfortable and kind of show their true colors earlier on, and it just makes it easier for everyone to set a standard. But essentially, when it comes to the culture, I think that’s really not going to be fully sought out until we experience games and kind of go through hardship and see what guys are really made of.”
He also spoke about the unique opportunities on the schedule this season, including the Friendship Four in Belfast, Ireland, and the Great Lakes Invitational set for Dec. 29-30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“Well, yeah, I guess I’d, first off, by saying this is a very unique experience that we’re going to experience in the next two and a half months or so until Christmas break, and it’s, I guess, after Christmas break as well. But it’s something that no one has experienced for the first time, but I think it’s going to be a lot of time together as a team, and new experiences for everyone, a lot that guys can learn from.
I mean, the Ireland trip alone, that’ll be a great week leading up to the games, but then also experiencing those games, in Ireland, are obviously very important games for us, but getting ready for that throughout the week, having everyone there, and obviously with the Europeans we have on our team. Hopefully, their family members can come up to that, but as well as a lot of the Americans and Canadians having their family, getting everyone together, I think, will be really helpful, and getting everyone to know each other and building a real team.”
On the spring workouts and preparation, Mesenburg praised the small group of returners and the team’s conditioning.
“Yeah, that was definitely a unique experience for me in the years that I’ve been at Miami in terms of the small group that we had in spring training, but the way coach Carsey stepped in with his experience and the wisdom that he was able to provide us in that short time in the spring, it was incredible. I mean, I learned a lot from him. And with that small group that we had, it was a lot easier for him and the guys to focus on themselves and really expand and make the most of those five weeks that we had together in the spring to build strength and kind of start to build the standards that we wanted to have put in place.
And I think when it comes from the new guys, I mean, we step in the first few weeks as we start training in the gym here. I mean, it didn’t matter. I mean, the youngest guy in our team, Ilia Morozov, is one of the strongest kids on our team. I mean, it’s incredible. The time that you can tell the guys that have been focusing on their strength and conditioning, coming into the season, and they’re truly prepared to get going here.”
Finally, he shared his personal and team goals heading into his senior season.
“I guess, for me, personally, it’s like it has been the last four years, leaving this place better than I found it, but I know I might not get to experience this program when it is fully at its peak and fully moving. But I know I want to be a part of building that foundation and want to be able to come back here 12 months from now or whatever it is and say I was able to make a difference on this program and see this program when it’s truly shining. And I think from a team perspective, it’s establishing that culture. I mean, I know, like, people sometimes like to put figures or put numbers on goals, but I think that’s not something we’re focusing on this year. It’s just building a culture that we know we can make strides in the standings and make strides as a winning culture.”
With seven returning players making big strides this offseason and a talented, competitive 21-player incoming class, the RedHawks have a real chance this season to prove themselves and start bringing the program back to where it once was in its heyday.
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