Thunder JV and Varsity Look to Repeat Last Years’ Impressive Seasons

RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Rushmore Thunder brought home state championships last year in both the boys varsity and boys junior varsity categories. They hope they can have that kind of success again this year as they near the start of the 2014-2015 season.

The Thunder, despite losing a few key players such as Mark Petereit and Jack Olson, have an extremely strong line-up with great potential. Key players such as Brooks Mitzel, TJ Nolan, Owen Leberknight, Anthony Petrotto, Jack Oberg, and goaltender Taran Tucker will return for the 2014-15 campaign. The Thunder also have a number of new players moving up from the Bantam level that are sure to have a positive effect on the team. JV/Varsity head coach Dick Novak reflected on the success of the Thunder in a recent interview, “We won our first varsity championship in 2010 and then again last year. And in between there our Bantam teams have won, our Pee Wee teams have won again. Rushmore Hockey has done really well.”

Varsity Point-Leaders Return

Junior Brooks Mitzel and senior TJ Nolan will return to play this year for the Thunder. Last year they were tied for fourth in the state in points. They each had 21 goals and 18 assists for 39 points, which made them arguably the best duo in the state last season. This past summer, Nolan was drafted 139th overall in the 2014 NA3HL Entry Draft by the Billings Bulls, who he will most likely play for after he graduates here in Rapid City.

JV Players Must Step Up

Last years’ JV team won the state championship, but this year head coach Dick Novak will most likely play less of those returning leaders on that team, as there are many players coming up from Bantam A and B teams that will be frozen on the JV. The players that will play on both JV and varsity are going to have to have strong seasons if the JV wants a chance at another state championship.

Petrotto, Oberg among players of the U16 National Team

Thunder forwards Anthony Petrotto, Owen Leberknight and Jack Oberg were members of the 2014 Team South Dakota U16 National Team. They were joined by defensemen Jackson Armstrong and Zach Nesset and goaltenders Matt Habbe and Alex Robin. The U16 team was in Rapid a few weeks ago to scrimmage the rest of the Thunder varsity and JV, and Team South Dakota came up with wins in all three games.

Varsity starts of season with four wins in tourney win

The Thunder varsity won their preseason tournament in Rapid last weekend, as they won all of their four games. They won the championship game against Billings Sunday at the Thunderdome. The fans had a lot to cheer about, with Brooks Mitzel and TJ Nolan having outstanding performances as expected. It is likely that Coach Novak is going to mix the line-up a lot this season to see what potential all the players have and how the perform on both JV and varsity, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the same lineup for the varsity at opening night in Yankton as we saw last weekend for the tri-state tournament.

The varsity will travel to Casper the weekend of December 5th to participate in another pre-season tournament, and both the varsity and the JV will open their seasons December 13th in Yankton to play the Miracle, who last year had only a JV team, which finished 6th in the JV State Championship. It’s safe to say that the Miracle will have their work cut out for them as they face the fiery Thunder on opening night in December. This Saturday (10-29-14) the Thunder JV and varsity will play in an inter-squad scrimmage at 12:15 at the Rushmore Thunderdome.