The Brandeis club hockey team is relatively unknown, despite their incredible late-season run of success last year. After being crowned NESHL league champions last season, the Judges have kept a solid core of the team, including Captains Josh Levine 06, David Sagaser 07, and Rob Friedman 05.
Off to a 2-1 start as of press time, the Judges are doing well in avoiding an early slump that almost doomed their playoff hopes last year. After a rough start, the team rebounded to not only make the playoffs, but also defeat the rest of the competition throughout the playoffs.
The Judges have eighteen players and no head coach, but the players manage themselves very well.
Starting goalie Jeff Wieskopf 08 commented, this year, were looking for a more consistent winning season capped off by another championship. [The team] can get a little unorganized at times, but the captains do a great job of leading the team [without the presence of a head coach].
Josh Levine, regarding the state of the team, said that its going to take some time to gel as a team with the addition of eight or nine freshmen, but if we keep working hard and the commitment level stays as high as it has been so far, all we can hope is that the bounces go our way again and that we come out on top.
On the subject of having two female players on the team, Levine also added, Meredith Ives 09 and Emma Spielman 09 have obviously played organized hockey in the past. Just like everyone else, they need to just get used to the speed of the type of teams we play against and theyll be fine. We have had girls play on the team in the past, [but] Ives and Spielman are far and away the best I have played with at Brandeis.
Wieskopf is starting for the time in place of graduate student Mike Cohen, who has been out with a cracked vertebra, and recurring ankle problems stemming from last season. If all goes well, Cohen may be able to return to the ice during the spring semester and share time with Wieskopf.
Despite the excitement of a new season, however, the team is at risk of having to pay out of their own pockets to play games as a result of a cut in funding from Brandeis F-Board this year. Thanks to a private donation, the team was fortunately able to avoid having to pay for participation in league play, but the donation only covered the teams league costs and enough for two games against other colleges.
The team is still in search of more funding from private donors and corporations, and is currently running a 50/50 raffle ticket draw. For more information, contact Josh Levine at levine11@brandeis.edu. The teams next game is October 27 at Babson College.
