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Crimson Bears hockey team skates as one family
JDHS opens season with high expectations, solid foundation
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
One of the fastest, nonstop high school sports relies on the solid foundation of playing as a family to stay grounded, and to build.
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé hockey team returns 25 players from last season, 17 of whom skated in varsity action.
“We want to be a tough team to play against,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said. “We want to be the hardest working team on the ice every game, and we want everyone else to want what we are cooking on and off the ice. We will be a team that lives up to our team commitments to be the best teammates always. Having the foundation of a solid team culture is invaluable. With the right guardrails, the older players lead and pull everyone else with them.”
Those commitments and foundations were taught to Boline many years ago.
“I have had many coaches in multiple sports over the years, some great, and some that could have benefited from the coaching education programs that are in place now with USA Hockey,” Boline said. “The great coaches always motivated me to give back. My grandfather is my biggest coaching role model, though. He played a huge role in getting organized hockey started in my hometown. He coached my father, uncles and many more along the way. He was always generous with his time, worked hard to be better at his craft and cared deeply about the players he coached.”
Boline’s grandfather Mike Leeseberg never played hockey, but his children and future in-laws needed someone to carry the hockey torch in the early 1970s in Wadena, Minnesota. Leeseberg became a coach and organizer and grandmother Adelle Leeseberg became the treasurer. As the torch began to ignite more interest, it spread the beginnings of organized hockey in Wadena and the Wadena Hockey Club. That blossomed into Wadena getting high school hockey in the early 1990s. When Boline was a Wadena-Deer Creek High School sophomore, the Wolverines celebrated 10 years of high school hockey.
Boline remembers his first formative hockey experience.
“I started playing in Bloomington, Minnesota,” he said. “Grandpa Mike would drive three-plus hours each way from Wadena to take me to practice whenever my parents could not. The other coaches would beg him to hop on the ice to help, but at that stage he had already hung up his whistle and just wanted to be there for his grandson.”
Now Boline and his coaching staff are there for the Crimson Bears.
“The 2026-27 Bears are picking up right where they left off last season,” Boline said. “So we have been able to expand the scope of what we have been doing on the ice right along with the team culture off ice. We spend a lot of time working together to build up a positive and productive team environment, but it never really feels like work. The togetherness is the most important part of what we do.”
The coaching staff set their expectations in early practices to build the foundation of their playing style. Refreshers, conditioning and strategy help the coaches learn about their charges.
“It is usually difficult to know what type of team we will be and what buttons to press until we have had a chance to really see the group train,” Boline said. “Nothing is given, everything is earned. Everyone in the lineup has a role to play in the on-ice production. Every player has the same opportunity for ice time, and it is up to the players to make our jobs difficult as coaches when we decide who goes and when.”
The Crimson Bears’ goal is always the 1st National Cup State Championship, the GPA Award and the Team Sportsmanship Award.
“This year is no different,” Boline said. “This year’s seniors have been a part of some really great Crimson Bears hockey teams with great accomplishments in their previous three years. They are humble and hungry to return this season with something to prove.”
Senior forwards Caden Morris, Drew Cadigan-McAdoo and Tricen Headings and senior defenseman Bryden Roberts have the most returning varsity ice time.
“This season means a lot,” Morris said. “I have been playing hockey a while and started varsity on my freshman year so I am really excited to push everyone on this team to hopefully win state this season. We really try and emphasize bringing the team together so we work well together. Just really build a community within our team, rather than being so focused on individuals. We are trying to build a community that plays well, rather than just trying to win. The team playing well will help us win. Last season, our captain, Elliott Welch, had a huge emphasis on family. Anytime it was a close game in the third period, the cheer would always be ‘family on three, family on three.’ What I am going to try and bring to this season is to try and get this team together as much as possible to create that great community.”
Headings said, “Family on this team means sticking together at all times no matter what we are going through. Just going through everything together. I think one thing we all bring to the ice is grit. We all work hard. And I think this year if we all work hard we will do well. We are all about getting through everything as a family. We are all one. We are all in.”
The JDHS roster includes senior goalies Jed Davis and Taylor Petrie, senior forwards Morris, Cadigan-McAdoo, Headings, Brandon Cruz, Elle Schulgen, Ole Gifford and Stahly Sheehan, and defenseman Roberts.
“I think I am hopefully bringing back a lot of defensive experience,” Roberts said. “I got to play a lot with captain Elliott Welch last year and he had a lot of good habits that I feel rubbed off on me. I am hoping I can turn that favor over to the younger kids this year. I am liking the work the team is putting in right now. I don’t think I have ever seen a group of kids skate harder and put in more work than this group right here.”
Roberts said the JDHS hockey family means “We are more committed to the team side of hockey rather than just focusing on scoring goals and winning games. We also focus on the off-ice kind of stuff and getting closer to one another to improve our on ice communication and teamwork. We also try to get out into the community and just improve the overall vibes out there.”
Juniors include forwards Braxton Jenkins, Larkyn Wohltring, Ryker Nelson, Sidney Boline, Summit Bos, Theresa Weighardt and Zachary Lagerquist and defensemen Austin Roberts and Dylan Miller. Nelson and Bos were all-conference selections last season.
“This season means a lot,” Nelson said. “We were disappointed last year with our first-round exit at state and are hoping to build off that this season and hopefully make it all the way. Our team is everything. Without family you are not going to play well on and off the ice. You have to support each other and help them through if someone is having a hard time. The seniors last year were very supportive and helped guide me through my first big year of varsity, and I am hoping to do the same for these younger kids coming in.”
Sophomores include goalie Murphy Sheehan, forwards Adeline Janson, Mason Catrett, Oscar Lamb, Paxton Willoughby, Santiago Hoff and Victoria Petrie and defensemen Brook Taintor, Manu Adams and Winter Osterhout.
“The team is about building together,” Willoughby said. “We are having a lot of team stuff. Team bonding, getting together, getting to know everyone personally. It really helps our on-ice and off-ice experience. Last year, as a freshman it was really great to play with all the older people, and now you are teaching everyone that iron sharpens iron and always be nice and kind to everyone.”
Freshmen include goalie Max Hayes, forwards Eden Borden-Collison, Porter Love and Vadim Zimmerman, and defensemen Calen Sooter and Emilia Boghosian.
“I see a lot of timidness in the younger players,” Cadigan-McAdoo said. “Much like my first season. When you go on the varsity practices with the varsity players, everything seems a lot more rushed, it comes at you pretty quick and you feel a little bit panicked. So you try to find your way to fit in. But as we get more practices they start to get more used to it and more comfortable. I am just trying to help bring intensity, that is what everyone is trying to do because that is the best way we all get better. That is the best way they can get caught up to speed. Already we have games next weekend so it is coming up pretty fast.”
Cadigan-McAdoo noted hockey family means “a togetherness. A lot closer than other sports, from our all-conference players through our beginners on JV. Everything is woven together and that starts with what Matt (Boline), Dave (Kovach) and Luke (Adams) had built for a while. Teaching family and staying close. Those early morning practices definitely help bring everyone together, having to be up at the rink pretty early. Sometimes I have definitely had to have been called by teammates to wake up. It helps build that accountability and that reliance on each other to make sure that you are there.”
Assistant varsity coaches are Adams and Kovach. Junior varsity coaches are Jason Kohlhase and Crimson Bears’ alumni Chris Klawonn. Goaltending coach is Clayton Jernigan.
The Crimson Bears style of play is hockey-centric.
“We are always adapting on the fly to counter the opposition,” Boline said. “Hockey is so fast and dynamic so it is difficult to stick with any one structure for very long. We work hard in the defensive zone, play fast in the neutral zone and we have fun in the offensive zone.”
That all makes the season enjoyable for players and fans alike.
“We love hockey. The game itself forces players to have strong character and work ethic,” Boline said. “The same player who will forecheck with reckless abandon, backcheck even harder and take a hit to make a play is the community member who shovels their neighbor's driveway, helps a stranger and picks up trash when nobody is looking. We emphasize these character traits and use hockey as the vessel that delivers these valuable life lessons while giving players the freedom to fail and learn from mistakes. These expectations apply in the classroom, on the ice and in the community.”
The JDHS team has 13 girls on the ice this season, with senior Stahley Sheehan and freshman Porter Love expected to earn varsity playing time.
“This is the most girls we have ever had,” he said. “The last time we were nearly at a critical mass was eight years ago. With more future Crimson Bears in the youth hockey pipeline we have an opportunity now to grow something new that will open up doorways for future girls high school hockey players. We will have girls-specific games this year and we are very excited to see them in action.”
The girls will play at least six road games against all-girls teams this season as well as finding playing time on the boys varsity or junior varsity teams. Six of the girls are expected to crack the varsity practice roster this season. The Crimson Bears can only dress 20 varsity players per game, but by the end of the season 20 to 30 are expected to earn varsity letters. JDHS opens their season at the Palmer Stars and Stripes Tournament, Nov. 6-7.
“It is really exciting,” Sheehan said. “And it is really a great new opportunity that all the girls have to play a completely different style of hockey, and just see how girls play together. It is really cool and really uplifting and uniting.”
Sheehan is in her second varsity boys season.
“Hopefully I am bringing that same hustle from last season,” she said. “I have to remember to stay with the play and keep moving the whole time. The biggest thing I do on the ice is I try to be strong out there and, honestly, just keep our goalie safe. The team is always helping each other and being there for each other, in every aspect of life we are always there for each other.”
When the Crimson Bears finished practice Thursday, a rare late afternoon departure from their usual 6 a.m. gatherings, the Juneau Douglas Ice Association under-8 team was next on the sheet.
The youth skaters had watched wide-eyed and now briefly mingled with their heroes, trying to steal a puck or balancing on a stick before careening to the ice passionately.
It was a torch much like the flame of memories that first led Boline to the rinks.
Grandpa Mike passed away three years ago and grandma Adelle a year later.
“He was buried with a hockey stick by his side,” Boline said. “He was an incredibly patient man. He had high expectations while leaving me room to fail so I could learn from my mistakes.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at sports@juneauindependent.com
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