By: Invoice Beckner Jr.

Saturday, October 19, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Familiarity is not going to be an issue for Denny Zeravica, the brand new hockey coach at Norwin.

He has been across the program for near twenty years, so he is aware of the important thing names and faces on and off the ice.

Again for a second stint as head coach of the Knights, Zeravica wish to velocity up the sport.

“I’m a coach that likes to play quick, stress the opposing staff, whereas nonetheless enjoying essentially sound,” he mentioned.

Zeravica replaces Mike Robinson, who resigned and is now an assistant on the Penn-Trafford employees. Zeravica was Robinson’s assistant for the previous three years and so they gained a PIHL Penguins Cup collectively.

Zeravica, in his twenty seventh 12 months of teaching general, has a laundry listing of stops, from faculty hockey to youth ranges.

He started teaching at Penn State West, a Division III program, in 1997 and, after he left there in 2006, grew to become Norwin’s head coach from 2006-11.

He additionally was the pinnacle coach at Hempfield from 2012-19, so his notion of the PIHL just isn’t fully from a Norwin viewpoint.

A coach within the Westmoreland Hockey Affiliation for the previous 13 years, Zeravica has labored with gamers at Norwin within the developmental, center faculty and junior varsity ranges.

When he isn’t teaching hockey, he’s working as a district operations supervisor for Agiliti, a medical tools firm. He heads up districts in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Erie and Altoona.

Norwin moved as much as Class 2A final season and completed 11-7, third within the standings. The Knights misplaced to Penn-Trafford within the semifinals, 6-3.

“What we discovered was that there have been no so-called ‘straightforward’ video games,” Zeravica mentioned of the transfer up in school. “The staff needed to be ready and prepared each recreation, and we weren’t going to only win simply on having higher expertise. We additionally discovered that you just want depth at each place.”

Norwin has loads of expertise returning to make one other postseason push. Zeravica thinks the Knights will be capable of match ability and depth with opponents.

Key returnees embody senior ahead Dom Cerilli, the staff captain; senior forwards Cade Zeravica, Joey Vecchio, Colin Czekaj and Mitch Soltysiak; defensemen in junior Parker Toth, sophomore Cal Costantino, senior Preston Stoner; and junior ahead Zayn Zeravica.

Cade Zeravica and Vecchio are alternate captains.

“Our expectations are to enhance all season lengthy,” coach Zeravica mentioned, “and put ourselves in a superb place to win the division and safe a excessive seed for the playoffs.”

Backups and newcomers seeking to affect the staff embody sophomore goaltender Connor Lovinfosse, junior defenseman Josh Toth, sophomore ahead Mason Hohman, junior defenseman Zack Katona, senior ahead Cody Barrett, senior defenseman Tyler Barrett and sophomore goalie Damien Flore.

Denny Zeravica expects Penn-Trafford, Armstrong and Fox Chapel to be potential frontrunners within the division.

“I believe the division as an entire goes to be very aggressive once more,” he mentioned.

Invoice Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter masking native sports activities in Westmoreland County. He could be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Norwin