Beyond the Playbook: Hibbing/Chisholm boy’s record first winning season under Coach Rewertz

The Hibbing/Chisholm boy’s hockey team has already won 15 games this season, marking two more than a year ago, with still a pair of games left.

Eric Rewertz, head coach of the boy’s hockey team is in his third season behind the bench.

As a former Bluejacket player who also played in the 1994 state tournament for the team, he has coached this year’s squad to their first winning season under his tenure.

“The big difference this year is having 11 seniors who’ve been here, been through the playoff run and been through the grind of a high school season. They’ve just been able to make that next step and play with a little more sense of urgency,” claimed Rewertz.

One of those 11 seniors is Beau Frider, a forward that currently leads the team in goals (16) and assist (28) for a total of 44 points.

“I feel like since we are seniors now one of the things is we don’t have time, so we can’t just be like, we have next year, we have to go now,” said Frider.

The team has had consistent offensive but also defensive success this season boasting a 4.77 goals a game average, while only surrendering 2.23 a game. Hoping to turn defense, too offence, too a state run.

“It all starts in practice. We work on goal scoring every day to get the puck to the net. Defensive wise we do a lot in the d-zone. We just want to get to state. That’s the goal right now and we think we have a good chance, we’re working hard every day for that goal,” added senior defenseman Tristen Babich.

State being a goal for not only Hibbing/Chisholm, but for all prep teams that call the Iron Range home.

“We have a tremendous amount of pride up here. Greenway, Rock Ridge, Hibbing, we’ve been rivals for many years, but we all respect each other and our programs,” continued Rewertz.

“Iron Range hockey has always been tough grind it out. You’re going to come into our building, you’re going to know you’re here and we’re going to play a physical brand of hockey. We’ve also had a lot of skill. This year we’ve been able to kind of combine the two and that’s been a huge part of our success,” Rewertz concluded.

The team finishes out the regular season next Tuesday with an Iron Range clash against Rock Ridge.