ON AIR

Greg Gutterman is the head coach at Beavercreek High School. The Beavers are the two-time defending champions of the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League and also host the "POD" Tournament along with Archbishop Alter. The POD Tournament ("POst-District") gives teams in the SWOHSHL - and "White" and 'Blue" teams from around the state - an opportunity to conclude their season in a competitive environment they do not experience in the OHSAA District Tournaments.

It's a landmark episode #50! We'll look back at some of our favorite clips from the podcast and just generally BS about The Year That Was in hockey

We check in with Seanna Conway (Gilmour Girls U16), Darryl Noren (Ohio AAA Blue Jackets U18) and Patrick Metzger (Team Ohio U16 & U18) before they depart for their respective USA Hockey National Tournaments.

Spencer Cox grew up in Westerville, OH and played for the AAA Ohio Blue Jackets before heading to Culver Military Academy. He talks to us about his COVID-impacted development path, which took him through several twists and turns through Tier I and II Junior Hockey this year before he landed with the Chippewa Steel of the North American Hockey League, where he was able to secure an NCAA commitment with the fledgling DI program at Long Island University.

Chris Bergeron has been a fixture in Ohio hockey going back to his time as the captain of the first Miami University team to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament. He played pro hockey in Toledo and Cincinnati then went on to play an important role in the "Golden Area" of Miami hockey as an assistant coach before breathing new life into a Bowling Green teetering on the edge of extinction. Now in his third stint in Oxford - this time as the head coach of the RedHawks - he has a clear picture of where Miami hockey belongs, but also provides a very candid assessment about where the program is two years into a rebuild.

Joe Battista is a Professional Speaker, Success Coach, Owner of Pragmatic Passion Consulting, and Author of “The Power of Pragmatic Passion: 7 Common Sense Principles For Achieving Personal and Professional Success.” Joe, a former ACHA coach at Penn State and VP of Hockey and Administration for the Buffalo Sabres, was instrumental in securing an NCAA Division I team and a new arena at PSU. He is also currently the Vice President of Business Development and an Executive Coach for the National Athletic and Professional Success Academy (www.napsacademy.org).

Rick Gotkin has been the head coach of the Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team for 33 seasons. He is the only coach in NCAA history to take a team to the NCAA Tournament at all three levels, and has guided the Lakers to over 500 wins, six NCAA tournament appearances and five league championships.

He is a member of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee, has coached several “USA Select” National Festival Teams, has been a featured speaker at many USA Hockey coaching clinics and symposiums, and has served on the Hobey Baker Award Committee, the American Hockey Coaches Association Division I Committee, the US College Hockey Online.com National Poll Committee, the Division I East region advisory committee, and the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine College Hockey Poll.

Ohio High School Athletic Association Executive Director Doug Ute tells us how he navigated a very eventful first six months in office and addresses some of the key issues relating to high school hockey in Ohio, including the state tournament venue and creating a second division of competition. Then we had an entertaining roundtable discussion with the four district champion coaches ahead of this weekend's Ohio "Frozen Four" in Columbus.

Ani FitzGerald was born in Shaker Heights and competed for five seasons at Gilmour Academy, leading the Lancers in scoring four times and leading them to a Mid-Am District Championship and the program's first-ever USA Hockey Nationals. She is a three-time USA Hockey National Development Camp attendee and is currently in her freshman season at Northeastern University.

Cole Bell joined the Ohio Bobcats for the 2019–2020 season as the head coach of the Division I team after spending the previous two seasons as the head coach at the University of Jamestown. In his two years at Jamestown, Coach Bell guided the Jimmies to two National Tournament appearances. As a player, Bell played for Lebanon Valley College at both the NCAA DIII and ACHA D1 levels. During his senior year at Lebanon Valley, he was selected to the ACHA All-Star game.