Every team begins every season with expectations.
Some are said out loud. Coaches will often opt for typical ones like "Let's get better every game" or "Let's be the hardest team to play against." That all makes sense and those are great goals to set.
But in the back of everyone's mind, every team has a place it wants to get to. In boys NEPSAC hockey this past season, for a young team like Rivers or Thayer, it was about getting players used to the prep school level and building for winning teams in the future. Some teams had lots of new faces, like Salisbury, which meant it took some time for the squad to come together to find wins.
And then there were the ones at the top like Cushing, Avon Old Farms and Kimball Union, which all entered this season with talented rosters and lofty goals.
This story is all about the teams that exceeded expectations, whether it be their own or the ones put on them from the outside (cough, cough: us).
Let's dive in. These are organized in alphabetical order.
