Karl Sundquist of Prospect is pumped up.
Sundquist, who coached boys’ hockey at Avon for 14 years, has been named the new boys’ hockey coach at Cheshire High. He replaces Jim Riccitelli who retired recently for personal reasons.
Cheshire athletic director Steve Trifone made the official announcement early this afternoon.
“I’ve been out of hockey for a year and I miss it,” Sundquist said. “I also live nearby in Prospect and the locale of the program drew me to it too. Cheshire has a winning tradition and Jim had a lot of success the short time he was there. Hopefully we will continue that success.”
Sundquist will also have to deal with some challenges as the Rams enter the 2011-12 season.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference moved Cheshire from Division II to Division I for the 2011-12 season. The Rams will compete on the Division I level in the post season for the first time since 1978. Also, key players from last season’s championship team have opted to move to prep school instead of staying at Cheshire – Owen Powers (Choate), Mike Muzyka (Salisbury) and Jack Cunningham (Pomfret).
“Moving to Division I will be a big challenge,” said Sundquist, who knows something about challenges. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in early 2009 and it was caught early enough where surgery successfully removed the cancer the same year. “I know some talented kids moved on to prep school and that will be a challenge as well.
“But the magic number in high school seems to be 35. If we can get more than 35 kids to try out for the hockey team, we can be competitive.”
Riccitelli coached six seasons at Cheshire and won a CIAC Division III championship in 2006 and Division II titles in 2009 and 2011.
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