WILLISTON, N.D. (May 4, 2020) – The Williston State College men’s hockey team finished the 2019-2020 season with a flurry of wins and good momentum.

How do the Tetons head into the offseason now? With the same energy and excitement that helped them to a 4-1 finish to the season. Including recruiting and offseason training for their players, the Tetons will look for an improvement on their 13-26 and 13-19 in league play.

WSC coach John Bowkus said his team finished the season with energy and excitement for the future.

“We played very good defensively toward the end of the year,” he said. “We were able to play a complete game with all the players getting valuable playing time during the second half of the season.  We were really good on the power play, ending up with over 26 percent average on them, ranking fourth in the ACHA D2 division.”

With the success of last season in mind, one area the Tetons can certainly improve is the players who will be returning on the roster. With several impressive freshman returning, Bowkus said the program will need to focus on overall skill development over the offseason.

“We will keep working in the weight room until end of summer and then send each player home with a summer workout to get stronger,” he said. “Having an opportunity to bring 11 players back is a huge plus for us next season.”

One of the primary offseason goals for any program, besides training its current players, is recruiting strong players to join the program’s future. For that part, Bowkus said his coaching staff has clearly defined areas it’s looking to improve in for this upcoming season.

“We are looking at bringing in some bigger and stronger players,” he said. “This season, we were a much younger, smaller and faster team, but had a hard time matching up against most of the four-year schools, which had men playing against us boys. It will be a hard task, but it has already started and hopefully in the next few weeks, we will announce some of our early recruits.”