Last year, New Trier Green Hockey took down York Community High School at the United Center in Chicago to win its second state championship in two years. Now, the team hopes to continue its dominance and complete the three-peat at state in March, despite losing 12 seniors, many of whom were on the 2023 state championship-winning team.

“They set a good precedent,” head coach Adam Cheris said of 2023’s team. “They won state, they won the SHL [Suburban Hockey League], and these guys want to do the same thing.”

The Trevs have started the season well, winning their fourth preseason championship in a row and taking down Glenbrook South High School 6-2 on Sept. 8. The team also started undefeated in regular season games, even with a rematch of last year’s state championship against York High School that ended with a 2-1 win. 

“We’re pretty hot right now, [starting off] 11-0,” junior forward Jack Hirschtritt said. “We’re bonding pretty fast here. I feel like we have a lot of good connections on this team, and things have been going really well.”

Cheris stresses that having strong team chemistry and connections is key to the team’s success.

“It’s humongous–having a good bond on the team is what defines how we’re going to do this season,” Cheris said. “The teams that we’ve had that are bonded do great. The teams that don’t have guys going in different directions, and they struggle a little longer.”

Outside of winning the state championship, Cheris has broader goals for this year’s program.

“Our big thing is building the culture of the program,” Cheris said. “We want this type of energy where the whole club comes out to support each team.”

After Green had its first Friday Night Lights Game against Glenbrook North High School on Sept. 27, the team assessed what it needed to work on most. The game included a raffle in support of the program, shoot and puck at halftime, and huge crowds from both schools. Unfortunately, the game was cut short due to a glass pane shattering in the student section, and is set to be resumed at a later date.

Despite the postponement, the team has been analyzing its playstyle to determine how to improve.

“[We need to work on] fore-checking, and getting the puck in deep when we need to. We’re getting a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone that cause a three on two,” junior defenseman Nolan Naggatz said. 

In hockey, when a team turns the puck over in the neutral zone, it allows the other team to quickly transition onto defense, and you can get caught in a situation where there’s only two defenseman versus three forwards. This mistake, especially when it happens commonly, can be detrimental for a team. But, the team knows what it needs to prevent this.

“We need to be able to connect on these breakouts, and then our neutral zone will move much smoother, and we’ll score a lot more goals,” Hirschtritt said.

In the end, there’s one goal: to come into the United Center in March and take home the state championship. But, the team knows it definitely won’t be handed to them.

“We have a lot of depth this year. We need guys to step up and get the puck in the net. Recently a lot of these games have been one-goal games,” Cheris said. “We have a lot more talent than that, so hopefully we start seeing some more offense.”

The will is there, but the rest?

“It’s all grit,” Hirschtritt and Naggatz said.