AIDAN POLLARD
Sports Editor
“It’s hard to know,” said Fredonia Strength and Conditioning Coach Jon-Ryan Maloney.
The Blue Devils are 8-2-2 after their two-game weekend at SUNY Canton.
They are 5-1 in The SUNYAC conference, having suffered their only loss to the No. 2 ranked Geneseo.
“I think it starts with [head coach] Jeff Meredith. I think Jeff’s been around a long time, he knows what it’s like to be ranked, he knows what it’s like to win, he knows what it’s like to go to the NCAA finals. So he’s been there before. So it’s nothing new to him,” said Maloney.
The Devils’ style of play this season has led them to an upset victory over the No. 8 ranked Oswego as well as a No. 14 ranking themselves.
“It’s really nice,” said Meredith about being nationally ranked. “It’s great recognition for the program, for the hard work [by] the guys, and everything that they’ve put into it to get to this point. It’s nice for Fredonia and our athletic department.”
But Meredith does not want the team to rely, or even focus on the fact that they were ranked.
“At the same time, it’s just kind of window dressing,” said Meredith. “If we get too focused on that, it’ll disappear like that.”
The SUNYAC is becoming extremely competitive, and Fredonia has helped keep it that way throughout this season.
None of this is to say that Fredonia hasn’t been good before. On the contrary, the Blue Devils were the runner up to Geneseo in the SUNYAC finals after another upset win against Oswego.
Last season springboarded Fredonia into this one, and it’s looking like the culture that the team and Coach Meredith created has paid off.
“I think it’s coming from a couple of areas,” said Meredith. “It’s coming from our players, and it’s coming from their leadership and their culture.”
Meredith went on to say how the leaders of the current Blue Devil team were recruited to a four-win program, and how the fact that those players took a chance and bought into the program paved the way for the program to be what it has become.
The Fredonia hockey culture over the past couple of years hasn’t gone unnoticed, either.
Last year, a pre-game chant from the Blue Devils made its way onto ESPN.
The culture that Fredonia has developed lives off of the ice as well.
In February, Blue Devil forward Luke Rivera donated $20,000 to the Gates Vascular Institute Stroke Center.
The team also participates, alongside the rest of the athletic department, in “Celebrate Mondays,” which are days where teams greet students from Fredonia and Dunkirk elementary schools as they walk into school to start their weeks.
Even in seemingly small things like lifting practices with Maloney, Blue Devil culture reigns supreme.
“When I came into the program, they were at a low-point,” said Maloney. “They were at the bottom of the SUNYAC; they didn’t win a single SUNYAC game.”
“I often am wowed by the fact that they have no problem athletes on the team,” said Maloney. “They don’t have anybody who has an attitude, they don’t have anybody doesn’t work hard, they don’t have anybody who doesn’t want to be here. And I think things can always get better in that regard. But there’s not a single guy on the team who I wonder if they’re gonna come in and work hard or not today. There’s not a single kid who I wonder if they’re gonna be on time.”
In the case of Fredonia hockey, culture really is key.
The team has been doing things the right way for the past coupleof years, and it seems like the culture they’ve created has no intention ofdying anytime soon.