Horvath providing an opportunity to hockey players

By: 
J. Patrick Eaken

        Lake finished the season 23-2 overall and 11-1 in the Northwest Hockey Conference White Division, sharing the regular division title with Sylvania Southview, but winning the playoff championship. Clay was 6-21 and 5-7.              
        Clay is a varsity program with all players attending Oregon City Schools. Lake Schools gave up its varsity status over a decade ago, but Horvath keeps the club program going, and it seems to be gaining strength.
        Not only are there Lake players who attend Lake, Northwood, Cardinal Stritch, Genoa and Woodmore, there are others who attend Bowsher, Whiteford, Tinora, Wauseon, Clay, Patrick Henry and Archbold. Lake coach Craig Horvath works hard to keep the program going, even though much of it is on his own time and money.
        “We’ve got a good group of kids who are really from everywhere. They all show up,” Horvath said. “You would think since they are from all over the place that they wouldn’t get along, but they are a great group of kids. They know there is no other place, you know. We just want them to have a place to play — that is all this is about. I’m OK with a .500 season as long as we have a place to play.”
        Horvath’s assistant coach, Genoa resident Ron Kenney added, “A lot of people say that, but they don’t really mean that. It’s about attitude.”
        Horvath took over the program 13 years ago when Lake dropped its varsity program. Horvath says it is about providing high school hockey players an opportunity because so few schools have varsity programs.
        “You never know what you are going to get. We do not know because we are a club team,” Horvath said. “We attract all kinds of kids. The word is getting out that we have done this for the last 13 years so people are starting to talk and come to us, and we try to make it fun for all the kids.
        “It’s almost to the point now where we can’t ask anybody else now because we have two that are coming and we have five that are leaving (graduating), so we only need three spots,” Horvath continued.
        Take for instance Lake player Noah Smith (Bowsher), who was voted the White Division Cos Sportsman of the Year award, named for former NHC commissioner Cosimo Figliomeni, who passed away in 2014.
        “I play hockey for Lake because I have nowhere else to play hockey and getting an opportunity to play for a high school team this is my best bet,” Smith said. “The coaches are amazing you know what the team’s for. It’s my last year of high school hockey and you know it’s sad but being able to play somewhere where you feel accepted and not worry is the best feeling.”
        Smith finished his senior season with two goals and 11 assists, but the coaches say it was his character that made him special.
        “Noah goes to Bowsher. He had no place to play and he’s one of the best kids ever, but as soon as he graduates, he’s off to (basic training in the military),” Horvath said. “He’s our leader, does it quietly, and does everything right. He’s a teenage kid who goes to Bowsher and he has every reason to go the other way. We’re going to miss him. He’s an adult and shows more character than me and him (Kenney) sometimes.”
        Many of these players have been on the ice since they were young, so getting an opportunity to play high school hockey is important to them.
        “I started young — I was 4 when I started, played travel all my life up until high school,” said Michael Tolles, a Lake High School sophomore.
        Tolles says Lake practices are just as intense as any program, and he credits Horvath for that.
        “Coach Horvath is a great guy, good coach,” Tolles said. “I mean, there’s nothing to complain about. Just make sure you come to practice to work.”
        Besides the loss to Southview, Lake lost to Anthony Wayne, 7-0. However, the Generals finished 23-8-3 and had a 4-2 win over New Albany, which qualified for the state final four and was to play St. Francis in the state semifinal at Nationwide Arena, but it was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. AW also had wins over then-state ranked Shaker Heights and Dublin Jerome and the Generals finished 4-6 in the Red Division, losing two games in overtime. Horvath was glad to get AW on the schedule.
        “We counted on Perrysburg, but they moved up (to the Red Division) so they wouldn’t play us. I thought it was great that AW stepped up, and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll play you,’” Horvath said.
        “It was cool to get my butt whipped, but I think we played well. They’re not looking for us, they are looking to get better like we should do, but we were glad that he (AW coach Stephen Boehme) did that for us. I would have liked to have played them two or three more times. It’s not about us, or about having this 23-2 record, we want to get better. We want to play competitive games and a lot of our games were lopsided. I don’t like doing that.”
        Horvath and Kenney also have noticed that the number of varsity teams in the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Northwest District is dropping almost every year, with some going to club programs and other schools dropping hockey altogether. If it continues, and the number of hockey programs continues to grow like they are in the Northeast and Central districts, the Northwest District winner could have to play a team from another district just to qualify for state.
        “It’s sad. It’s like hockey is disappearing, and in Columbus it’s picking up,” Horvath said.
        Kenney and Horvath admit there is a demand for more ice in the Toledo area, but say studies have shown that it would not be profitable because of the high maintenance costs, so it would probably have to be a public-private partnership, which they would like to see happen.
 
 

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