In another “Secret Conversation,” Impact Sports reporter, Romero Hardy, sits downs with MSU men’s club ice hockey players Jacob Bolyard and Darek Kalisz to find out about their summer training and their preparation for the upcoming season.

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Introduce yourself to the readers. What is your full name, year, major, and position on the team?

Jacob: “Jacob Bolyard, junior, human biology and nutrition minor, and defense.”

Darek: “Darek Kalisz, sophomore, medical laboratory sciences, defense.

Since the season ended, have you guys been doing any activities or workouts to get yourself better for this upcoming season?

Jacob: “Most of the offseason is time to do things on your own and to workout and have fun and kind of have some off time. I know I, like most guys, play in drop-in leagues and workout a lot during the summer. We actually just had our hockey camp last week though. It was a two day thing and we had off-ice conditioning on the second day. It’s nice to see all the guys and get to hangout and to also see the new prospective players before tryouts which are the first week of school.”

Darek: “We have had one summer conditioning camp over the summer, but other than that we are expected to just do our own thing for practice and working out.”

Jake and I had a conversation a few months back about the season, and he mentioned that during his freshman year that the team went all the way and won the championship. This past season was different, how do you feel about the outcome of the previous season?

Jacob: “No one is happy about last season’s outcome. Like I said before, we hold ourselves to a high standard and feel that anything less than a championship isn’t good enough. That being said, I think that the way we ended last season will only fuel us this season with so many returning players we know what we did wrong and what to improve upon.”

Darek: “Last season as a whole for us was great, but the outcome of our season was slightly disappointing with how we lost in regionals, but I feel like there are a lot of things that we learned last season that we can build off of for next season.”

What will you guys do differently this season to make sure that a championship will happen this year?

Jacob: “I think we just needed more time to play together and grow as a team together. We had a lot of new guys last year but now we have a whole year under our belt. I think leadership on and off the ice will play a huge role this year.”

Darek: “This season we will be more focused on the goal to win a national championship by showing up to the rink ready to go, whether it’s a game or practice, we have to make sure we are giving it our all every second and doing all the little things right.”

How do you feel going into this season?

Jacob: “I feel extremely excited about playing again and just hanging out with the team. We have a lot of talented players so it really should be an exciting season.”

Darek: “I feel good going into next season because although we ended with a loss last season I feel like we can pick up where we left off and and win a lot of games.”

Next season each one of you will be a year older and will have a little more experience, what will you tell the younger guys on the team?

Jacob: “I will tell the guys to have fun but also to realize the opportunity we have with such a great team. College flies by so fast and our hockey careers are not going to last forever, so don’t leave anything out on ice.”

Darek: “To the younger guys, one thing I would tell them is to never give up and keep working hard.”

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Stay tuned for more secret conversations from Secret Society and Impact Sports.

Romero Hardy is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports.

Photo: Jacob Bolyard