Changing the entire coaching staff might put some teams on ice, but the hockey team is ready to skate to success with new head coach, Dan Mergens, 2002 LZ graduate.

The Lake Zurich Bears Hockey Club hired new head coach Dan Mergens, LZ hockey club alumni, to replace the previous head coach, Tom Paulson. Mergens left his position as head coach of the PREP JV team (Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Elk Grove, and Prospect high schools’ combined team), to join the Bears after receiving recognition for his coaching, including winning the Blackhawks’ Harris Bank Coach of the Month award for his work with the PREP JV team.

Mergens knows the team’s problems from an insider’s perspective, as he played for the team while Paulson was head coach.

“My coaching style is very different from the previous coach. When I played for Lake Zurich, I played under him, and he’s a man that I respect greatly,” said Mergens, “I list him as a reference on my resume.”

Despite his respect for Paulson, Mergens instituted changes on the team, such as responsibility for tardiness, and more involvement in the community.

“I tell my players, ‘This is what I expect, if you don’t meet these expectations; this is what will happen.’ I tell them cut and dry,” Mergens said. “I demand accountability and responsibility from my players.”

According to the players, these responsibilities have improved the program.

“There’s not really a choice anymore, it’s not just show up whenever,” Adam Vander Weit, sophomore and right wing said.

Mergens also expects players to maintain good standing with the community and the school.

“I’d like to see our perception change; back when I played for Lake Zurich, the hockey players were seen as the trouble makers,” Mergens said. “I’d like our players [to be] viewed as good students and people.”

Mergens’ new players agree with his ideas about community acknowledgement.

“We had more team involvement with the community this year. We really like how we got more involved with the school,” Joe Pizzicato, junior and forward said.

To aid in that goal, the team took part in a Juvenile Diabetes Walk-a-thon on September 17, and is playing in a sled hockey tournament on November 11. Sled Hockey is a game played by physically challenged people who are otherwise unable to walk, according to Mergens.

Being a part of the community is a small part of Mergens overall goal, which is team recognition for Lake Zurich bears Hockey Club.

 “I’d like to see us achieve the same success, in terms of our recognition at the school, as other clubs within the school have,” Mergens said. “I still hear people say, ‘We have a hockey team?’”

A roadblock in the way of this goal is that the team practices and plays their home games out of Rolling Meadows, because there are no local ice hockey rinks.  This makes getting students to come to games much harder, Mergens said.

“We don’t play on campus or even in Lake Zurich, like football” Mergens said. “With football, everybody knows where the games are, when they are, and who they’re playing.”

The players have taken the changes in stride, according to Mergens, and are responding positively.

“[The new coaches] made the club a lot more organized; it’s a complete turnaround,” Niko Kakos, sophomore center, said.

For example, a playbook was a major change, according to Mergens, as many of the players had never dealt with one before.

“I came in after our first practice and gave each player a binder with an abridged version of our playbook and that was something many of them had never seen before.  So that was kind of an eye opener for them,” Mergens said. “But overall they’ve committed themselves to learning our new systems and then being able to execute those systems on the ice.”

Competitively, the players are working towards improving their standings in conference, against teams such as Barrington, Crystal Lake South, and Fremd according to Mergens.

“Our biggest challenge, as far as hockey on the ice goes, is our competition from other teams. We need to get to that next level to be able to compete with the top teams in our conference,” Mergens said.

The team is working towards the next level with both on and off ice workouts during the summer. The off-ice workouts are held at BG Fast Fitness and Sports Training in Buffalo Grove.

Overall the team is acclimating to the changes and they are working things out, according to Mergens.

“I think [this] will be an adjustment for them,” Mergens said. “The players are getting used to new coaches, new systems, and new x’s and o’s.”