The beginning of March is big in the world of sports for two reasons.
The first is of course the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, but also it’s when the youth hockey state tournaments get underway.
The Manitowoc Youth Hockey Association has two teams that qualified this year, one of them being the Squirt A team.
We spoke with their coach, Rick Skarven, who said his team has improved drastically over the season, especially with the fundamentals.
“A couple kids came in and needed some improvement skating. They are pushing the limits,” he said. “We had some really good puck movement this year. Some of the best puck movement I have seen out of a Manitowoc program over the nine years I have been doing it.”
Skarven went on to say that he is very impressed with his squad, and noted that they have a lot of talent.
“There’s a hockey ranking system, and my Squirt team beat the 7th ranked team in the state,” he revealed. “That’s pretty impressive.”
Trevor Pinkerton tells us that he and his teammates have had to bounce back from some dry spells throughout the season.
“At the beginning of the season we lost a couple of games,” he explained. “Then we got together as a team and we won…about 10. Then we lost three games, and then we went back to a winning streak of about 17.”
The Breakers are actually hosting the State tournament this year, the second year in a row a tournament was held in Manitowoc.
The Breakers have the 3rd seed and will take on the Ice Wolves at 9:45 a.m. Saturday.
