|
Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
|
As captain and president of the Metro Club Hockey Team, Turner Bahn is everything from a liaison between players, coaches and school to paper pusher and mediator. In addition to the team, he has a five-year-old son, a girlfriend, a job at Diesel and multiple classes. Junior Turner Bahn is a busy man. Bahn's love of hockey goes back to when he first hit the puck at the age of five, and he has kept playing ever since. Now, at 23, the captain and business management major has been trying to make a young and inexperienced hockey team work. "As captain, I try to be a leader and a role model. I try to be mature by setting a good example," explained Bahn. "At the same time though, I don't think of myself as different from the other players." Bahn sees leadership as important this year because the young team lacks veterans this season. "Last year, about 20 players said they'd come back, but when tryouts came around only eight players came back. Last year the average age of our players was 22, but this year it's 19. Honestly though, we've never seen that many returning players." Bahn has seen a lot in his four years on Metro's hockey team and sees a lot of reasons to be optimistic. He hopes that the team focuses more on being better long-term hockey players than rebuilding. "It's difficult rebuilding every year with so few returning players, but this year a lot of our players are younger. Most Metro students work and have other things. Hopefully though, as we get younger, these guys can focus more on school and hockey." Though Bahn is one of the elder statesmen on the team, he is quick to point out that he is the second oldest on the team, next to defenseman Erik Smiley, who is a year older. Nevertheless, Bahn's big goal is to build some chemistry and bonding with his team. "With us going on the road this weekend, we can get to know each other better. Everyone is pretty new. Going from two weeks of practice to facing one of the best teams is really tough, but we can be good. I am actually surprised how much we are moving along." Time will tell if Turner can build the camaraderie to create a successful team this year.
|
|
|
