In March of 2021, the Warrior ice hockey team amazed many fans when they competed in the Frozen Four State Championship Tournament in Columbus. They unfortunately fell to Saint Francis De Sales 7-2 but still proudly placed 4^th in the state of Ohio.

The phenomenal post-season came to a halt earlier than the Warriors (16-14) hoped. Then-sophomore forward Josh Weiner noted, “Yeah, there may have been a few bumps in the road, but we still did what nobody thought we could do.”

After their spectacular year, the Warriors lost a devastating 8 seniors from their varsity lineup and, as senior captain Colton Ziehm said, “Yeah, it’s for sure a devastating loss, but it happens, and you just have to deal with it. We are looking for some of the younger guys to step up and fill some bigger roles this year.”

Among those young talents are sophomore winger Dominic Calleri and freshman forwards Jagger Dalton, Andrew Holcomb, and Nate Kuhns.

The skaters opened this season on Friday, November 19, against Shaker Heights. The Warriors went down 0-2 after the first two periods, but Dominick Calleri and Joshua Weiner put some pucks in the net in the third period and took Shaker Heights to overtime, ending the game in a tie. The Pioneer talked to Coach Calleri after the game, and he said, “We started off slow but for sure played one of our best periods of hockey in that third period.” After a hard-fought game against Shaker Heights, WJ took on St. Edward’s the next day, when they suffered a loss to their fellow 2020 Frozen Four contender.

The next week the Warriors hosted the annual Thanksgiving Tournament at OBM Arena, where they took on Holy Name in the first round. The team played a great fundamental game and got their skates back under them in order to defeat Holy Name 6-1. They then played a very good and fundamentally sound Moller High School in one of their best games of the year, which ended in a tie. The Warriors placed 2^nd in the tournament.

The team traveled to Toledo for their first away trip on December 2, when they played Findlay, Bowling Green, and Perrysburg. Senior captain Aiden Cook said, “This weekend was a great opportunity to play some fun games and build our team bonding which will really help us out here in the long run.”

The Warriors participated in the 50^th Annual Shaker Heights Tournament on December 10-12 with hopes to earn the championship trophy. They did just that be defeating Shaker Heights (5-1) to bring home the coveted prize.