South Lyon Unified men’s hockey starts season off strong, continuing program history of dominance

Brandon Marinkovich ‘22, Sport Editor

With the winter sports seasons starting up for SLHS athletes, this also means students from both SLHS and SLEHS will have the opportunity to support a consistently successful hockey team once again. This team is a unique opportunity for the town of South Lyon to unify and cheer on classmates and their high school peers. The team is currently 7-2, with their losses coming to the hands of University of Detroit Jesuit High School with a score of 2-1 and Rockford High School 4-3. 

The South Lyon Unified team has historically been a dominant hockey team, as they have won the Lakes Valley Conference (LVC) three out of the last four years. Senior Ryan Savanyu said, “Last year was obviously a hard year with everything going on, but we feel that we have the right pieces and are trending in the right direction to win another league championship.” Savanyu is sure that the team’s prior veteran presence will be the key to lifting yet another league championship trophy. “We have a lot of returners from last year that know what the feeling of defeat feels like and what it takes to win. Everyone has one goal in mind and that’s winning our fourth league championship in five years,” he continued. The team is confident in their abilities, and it seems that their second place finish in the LVC standings last year will fuel their dominance on the ice this winter.

Senior Brenden Olesuk feels that there is still a lot of untapped potential on the roster this year that may have not been able to shine last year. Olesuk said, “We got a really good start to the season. We have a really good group of guys and I’m already enjoying the team a ton. We didn’t get the best season last year and we had a lot of talent we didn’t get to show.” Olesuk is confident that the team is able to step up following the graduation of the 2021 class. Continuing, Olesuk said, “This year is very big for us seniors, as we are leaving it all out there.”

At the time of publishing, the hockey team is currently tied for first in the LVC Standings, with two games left of conference play. The team has a tradition of winning, and the seniors on the team will be leaving everything out on the ice before they hang up their skates for the final time.