The J. Peltier Construction 8U Plus team poses after winning the state championship during the weekend of March 22-24 in Frazier. The roster included Will Peltier, Vance Viola, Brennan Baril, Thomas Brueggeman, Knon Kunnen, Liam Harris, Miles Roy, Clark Larson, Evie Kuntze, Ryder Flachs, Eli Mayo and Nolan Latendresse. Coaches included Jeff Baril, Tim Viola and Brady Flachs. (Provided photo)

HOUGHTON — For many Copper Country area hockey players, the dream of winning a state title at some point of their career is the ultimate goal. In reality, players might get a chance or two over the course of their career to compete for one, but winning it is an entirely different story.

However, an extraordinary group of 8 year olds did just that. The J. Peltier Construction 8U Plus hockey team earned a state championship by rolling their way through their competition in Frazier the weekend of March 22-24.

The concept of the 8U Plus level is new this season for the Michigan Amateaur Hockey Association. It is meant to help players transition from 8U, where players play half ice, to 10U, where they are expected to play full ice.

“It’s new this year from MAHA,” said 8U coordinator and Peltier Construction coach Jeff Baril. “They labeled it 8U Plus. It was for second-year, 8U players only.

“The kids continued to play their regular half ice 8U all year with their regular local teams. But, our CCJHA had one 8U Plus team that we put together. It started in January.

“They play full ice. The reason the MAHA put it together was to help with the transition to 10U hockey, so the kids can start to learn offside, start to learn positioning, and so they’re better prepared for next year when they move up to the full ice.”

For Jeff and a group of parents of second-year 8U players, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“It was just a good opportunity for our local kids to get some more ice time, and the opportunity to develop our local hockey players,” Jeff said. “I just took that opportunity to put a team together, (and) had some great support from the other coaches and parents as well.”

The team featured 12 players, 11 boys and one girl. The roster included Will Peltier, Vance Viola, Brennan Baril, Thomas Brueggeman, Knon Kunnen, Liam Harris, Miles Roy, Clark Larson, Evie Kuntze, Ryder Flachs, Eli Mayo and Nolan Latendresse.

Peltier Construction faced two other Upper Peninsula teams during the season out of Marquette and Dickinson four times, playing each team twice at home and twice on the road. The team went 7-0-1 in those eight games.

Considering that the team formed in January, and only had eight games to get used to playing with each other, there was not a lot of time for kinks to be ironed out, as far as team building goes, however, Jeff was proud of how well everything came together for the team.

“Team bonding came together awesome,” he said. “The kids are very competitive, but they’re great teammates, and they gelled really well together. They had a blast at practice and games.”

When they arrived at the state tournament, Peltier Construction was one of four teams competing for the title. On Friday, March 22, they topped Rockford in the tournament opener. On Saturday, they defeated Trenton and Bay County to earn a spot in the championship game on Sunday. In the title game, they beat Rockford for a second time to earn the championship.

At any age, playing four games in three days can be tough, but Jeff felt his team handled all of that hockey quite well.

“Those 8 year olds, they have a lot of energy,” he said. “So, I didn’t see any issue with their energy levels throughout any of the games.

“I think the tournament went really well. The kids played really well together. There was a lot of great passing, great teamwork. They really understood the rules. The reason for the 8U Plus was to learn offsides, learn icing, learn how to play positional hockey, and our kids did really well with that.”

The first several practices were a bit slower as Jeff and his staff, which included Tim Viola and Brady Flachs, had to work through the rule changes with the players, but as they caught on quickly, the players showed improvement with each session on the ice.

“The CCJHA was gracious to give us some full-ice practices,” said Jeff. “So we utilized that time to really break everything down for the kids. It didn’t take long for them to catch on. They started realizing what offsides was immediately. We would blow the play dead when there was an offsides, and make sure everybody understood, and we explained it to them. Going forward, each practice we saw less and less of that until in the end, all the kids really had a great understanding.”

Games in 8U Plus are three 12-minute periods, and the rules are exactly like in 10U play, so the teams have to deal with everything from line changes to offsides to using the traditional black puck, instead of the lighter blue puck traditionally used for 8U play.

In all four games, Peltier Construction showed that they are ready for that transition, as they beat every team by multiple goals. Jeff said that his focus was on continuing to teach his players throughout the games.

“Our goal was to continue to teach,” he said. So, every game, whether we were winning or not, we were focusing on teaching the kids fundamentals and making sure we were spending the time on the bench to explain how to improve. The kids really soaked that in and went out there each shift and just tried to get better.”

Jeff felt that he really had a special group of kids who were always willing to learn.

“The whole group is a group of kids that are willing to learn, (and were) great teammates to each other,” he said. “They’re always looking to help each other out. So I can’t say enough about how well they gel together and had fun playing together.”

That team chemistry was very important to this group.

“It’s a team sport, and as coaches, we try to make sure that our players realize that,” Jeff said. “The more they play as a team, the better they come out in the end.”