The West Morris Central Boys’ Hockey Team was faced with a tragic loss following the end of last season when their head coach Dave Hanson, died. In honor of Hanson, the WMC boys hockey team wear “DH strong” on their helmets.

This season started as a challenge but no other team would have known as the boys ended January with an astonishing record of 12-5.

Greg Kreha, the assistant varsity hockey coach last year, graciously stepped up as the varsity coach. In addition to being the head varsity coach, he is also WMC’s girls softball junior varsity coach. The hockey and softball players refer to him as Coach Greg. 

To replace his assistant position, Coach Greg brought in Rob Stadtlander, a former WMC hockey player.  Hanson feels Stadtlander’s  coaching is “contagious to the players.”

Speaking on that note, Coach Greg is proud of what his team has accomplished so far, and whats how it’s been like stepping up as head coach. According to Coach Greg, “This year has been really good so far. We are 12 – 4 and undefeated (10 – 0) in our division. I took over with the plan to have the team set a goal for what they wanted to accomplish this year. They wanted to win the Halverson championship. We clinched the number 1 seed heading into the playoffs. This team has put in a lot of hard work to accomplish what we have so far.”

As the hockey season comes to a close, Coach Greg hopes his team can get to and win the Halverson championship, which he shared “will be the first win in the program’s history.”

The first playoff game is the Galveston semifinal on Wednesday, February 11th, and then the championship game on February 18th. 

The hockey players are so grateful that Coach Greg stepped up as head coach. WMC hockey senior Kevin Paustian stated that he  “wouldnt of want a better Coach than Coach Greg to end my senior season with.”