Photo Credit: Charlotte Rush

For the Columbia Infantry, despite the record of the last weekend, Jacob Smulevitch, their Head Coach, had some good insight on the progression of his group and some things to watch at a team and individual level.

Smulevitch said of the need to improve on defense that “I think for us improvement defensively just needs to come from intensity and attention to detail. This week we will do a lot of video to make sure we have the details down and focus a lot on the intensity during competition drills in practice.”

The progression for the team is clear and Smulevitch sees it , he said “I think the habits of our team have drastically improved. You look at some of our players and the way they play I truly believe the individual habits of each player have improved now it is putting it all together in a way that works.”

On where the team is going Smulevitch said “we still have a lot of room to grow in the sense of learning how to win. We are a new organization and there is no history of winning so I think that is still something we need to learn how to do as a team.”

For his goalie Cade Corbin, Smulevitch got him some work with the elite group to help him develop a bit more. He said

“ I think cade has struggled with confidence lately and having him play at the elite level was an opportunity for him to just get himself going a little. We didn’t play great in front of him but I’m happy with his compete.”

Moving forward Smulevitch said

“We have a lot to work on but I firmly believe we are improving and will get to where we want to be. Our premier group is 3-1-1 in their last 5 games and we want to keep building that momentum.”

He talked about some standouts for each team, saying “ at the elite level I believe forward Eli Reaves has grown a lot. He is consistently creating offense for our group and I believe once the first goal goes in then plenty more will come.At the premier level I’ve been thrilled with the development of forward Blake Hasenauer. He is one of the hardest workers on our team and leads our team in ice time for forwards. He has begun to find an identity as a player and create more offense as well.”

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