Girls hockey: Ravens ready for second season

WASILLA — Mat-Su Ravens girls hockey coach Dudley Boehm knows building a hockey team from scratch isn’t easy.

“It’s a big uphill battle,” Bohem said of his second-year program.

Made up of athletes from all four area high schools, the Ravens are still learning to fly after an inaugural season that saw the team go winless against more established programs from Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Bohem said this year’s team, which began practice Oct. 15, will likely include a roster of around 17 players — a slight improvement from last season.

“I’m kinda optimistic,” he said.

Of that group, Bohem said he’s got a couple promising freshmen, as well as a solid group of returning players from last season.

“There’s a core group of girls that have been playing together,” he said.

Unfortunately for the Ravens, the Colony Knights will benefit from the Ravens’ biggest success story from last season.

“The star player of that team is playing with the boys at Colony,” Bohem said.

That player is junior Rosie Fujimoto, a speedy forward who led the Ravens in scoring last season.

Replacing the team’s top offensive player won’t be easy, Bohem said.

“That’s gonna hurt.”

Bohem knows not to take Fujimoto’s departure personally. Several of the area’s top female skaters already compete with varsity hockey programs, and he said he believes the kids should play at the highest level possible.

“It’s whatever works best for the kids,” he said.

During the course of last season, Bohem said the Ravens went from getting blown away by Anchorage teams to making things competitive. Showing continued, gradual success, the coach said, will be the key to building the program.

He’s not promising anything, but Bohem said a good result this year would be for his squad to continue making small improvements from the beginning of the season to the end.

“I think we’re improving, but we’re still in the infant stage as far as hockey goes,” he said.

The Ravens’ first game is scheduled for Oct. 30 against Dimond/West at the Ben Boeke Ice Rink in Anchorage.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

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