U16 Protec Jr Ducks- Turning heads early and often. 

The U16 Protec Jr Ducks were built as a feeder system for Protec’s new Junior A team that competes in the Eastern Hockey League (EHL). The Eastern league is North Americas number #1 league for NCAA D2 and D3 college placements. In their first season, the (EHL) Jr Ducks placed thirteen players into college hockey for the 2021-2022 season just ahead of us. Development and skills training is the main focus for the new u16 Jr Ducks team, they will be pushed and treated like they are already at the Junior level.  

The u16 Jr Ducks development team is led by head coach Barry Dreger, a former professional player of eleven years. Dreger, born and raised in Manitoba, Canada has played hockey in some of the best leagues around the world. “His experience, attention to detail and gift to be able to teach the game made him an obvious choice for me to lead this new u16 Jr Ducks development team. We make our u16 players train harder and the right way, with our qualified mentors and coaches in place. Only three months in and our team and families are already seeing the results”  - Terry Watt GM/Head Coach, Protec Jr Ducks (EHL)

With a couple of early statement games before heading into the 2021 Chowder cup, the u16 Jr Ducks beat some top u16 New Jersey teams (Montclair Blues once and Union Thunder twice) to start off the year 3-0-0. The new challenge in sight was to head to Boston as the team was accepted into the prestigious annual Chowder Cup, in attendance were 60 different u16 teams from across North America with some of the top 2005 birth year players. 

The u16 Jr Ducks didn’t disappoint, as they finished at the top of their bracket after round robin play with a 2-1-0 record and advancing to the playoffs. The next morning the Jr Ducks won their first round of playoffs with a 2-1 win over the South Shore Kings from Massachusetts, which means the first year u16 Jr Ducks team made it to the final 10 teams of the tournament. The quarterfinals matchup was against Team Maryland, who were ranked in the top 20 AAA 2005 birth years teams from last season. Team Maryland would go on to beat the Jr Ducks in the quarterfinals 3-2, but the team no doubt made a statement and turned a lot of heads as they competed in the 2005 division with six different 2006 birth year players on their roster and still managing to compete with some of the best 2005’ birth year teams and making it to the final 10 teams out of 60 in the tournament. 

“It was great to see everyone improve over the weekend. As the competition got tougher our team played better. The Chowder Cup was the first opportunity for most of our players to compete against top end AAA talent. We have a lot of work ahead of us still, but this was certainly a good start for our team” – Head Coach Barry Dreger U16 Jr Ducks

Other Notables: 

On forward, Nick Schneider and Ben Meyer led the way for point totals at weekends end, backed by Logan Martel and Hudson Gorski for points by led by defenseman. 

Chowder Cup Record and Results 3W-2L

7-4 Win over St. Francis Prep

3-0 Win over Florida Els 

4-3 Loss to Roc City Futures Elite 

 

Playoffs Round 1

2-1 Win over South Shore Kings 

Playoffs Round 2

3-2 Loss to Team Maryland  

 

U16 Jr Ducks Roster 

Forwards:

2005 Ben Meyer

2005 Nick Schneider

2006 R.J Mortek

2005 Darin Larsen

2005 Sonny Lawson

2005 Anthony Jacobs

2005 Joe Marks

2005 Oscar Paradysz

2005 Andrew Barrasso

2005 Adrian Kurylko

2005 John Good

2005 Michael Good

 

Defense:

2005 Hudson Gorski 

2006 Preston Wurzel

2006 Logan Martel

2005 John Rusen

2006 Sam Soboler

2006 Miles Bronson

2006 Ryan Rutkowski

 

Goalies 

2005 Noemi Sofia Martinez

2005 Sam Schupak

 

- Protec the Nest -

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(The Protec Jr. Ducks can be followed on Twitter @ProtecJrDucks)