Previewing WLU's Hawkey Hawks
Jamie Lambier

Are they ready to take the next step? That's the question many Golden Hawk hockey fans are asking after their team has missed the play-offs for three consecutive years.

The future looks bright as the Hawks enter this season ranked number 10 in Canada after a 5-2-0 preseason record.

Enter a new era in the form of head coach Tony Martindale. Martindale takes over for Wayne Gowing, who has moved on to be Manager of Intercollegiate Athletics and Student Athletic Development.

Martindale, who played for the Golden Hawks in the mid-80's was the assistant coach to Gowing for eight years before taking on the head coaching duties of Conestoga College in 1995. Martindale returned to the Hawks last season under Gowing and is ready to lead the Hawks into a new and successful era.

Martindale will be backed by an experienced and intelligent supporting cast of assistant coaches, Rob Hooper, Bryce Kipfer and Mark Pedersen.

Martindale faces some tough issues as the season gets underway. There are a lot of new faces on the bench this year. Under the guise of Hooper's expert recruiting eye the Hawks will introduce 13 new and skilled rookies, many with championship and major junior experience already under their belt. Martindale emphasizes that the Hawks, though talented still are "learning about each other and what it takes to win."

The primary focus for the team this year is conditioning and discipline. With the addition new talent to an established nucleus of veteran experience, the Hawks will be able to ice three solid lines and provide solid goaltending.

Martindale stresses the importance of competitiveness within the team as well as on the ice.

"It's the players that compete hard in practice as well as in the games that will get the ice time. Every time you're on the ice you should be striving to be better, to earn or keep the top spots on the team."

The Hawks will probably ice one of the most talented and deep teams in a number of years. Martindale stresses that conditioning will be the key to the Hawks success this year.

"We play on Olympic size ice, our game is fast and we hope to wear teams out by being consistent and staying disciplined".

The Golden hawks are placed in probably the toughest division in Canada with three other teams, Western, Windsor and Guelph, all finishing last year ranked in the top 10 in Canada.

"We play a few teams four or five times this season (Western, Guelph, Windsor)" quoted Martindale, "and we have to win the games in our division if we are going to be successful."

The Hawks will expect the addition of OHL alumni Larry Paleczny (Owen Sound Platers), Craig Jalbert (Windsor Spitfires), Trevor Tokarczyk (Soo Greyhounds) help veterans Dave Kliene, Chad Brezynskie and Jeff Ambrosio put some numbers on the board. Martindale feels very comfortable between the pipes with Franc Ivankovic (London Knights), Trevor Francis and Darryl White.

Under the leadership of veteran captain Martin Kerns, and top OUAA defenseman Rob McQuat, Martindale hopes the team will gel and reach its full potential.

The big question is: can this team graduate to the next level?

Laurier has many important pieces of the puzzle in place--scoring up front, a young and capable defense corps and good goaltending.

It will be up to Martindale to help fill in the few remaining pieces to lift this team to new heights.

Jamie Lambier is Michael Kostoff's roomate.