"Is this the year?" is subjective. It means a championship for some, a playoff berth for others or just generally being competitive.
Phillips Exeter boys hockey is in an interesting spot. "Is this the year?" means multiple things.
Exeter is coming off an 11-win season in head coach Sean O'Brien's first season. Most of the team was full of seniors and other upperclassmen who he didn't recruit.
"I felt like it went great," O'Brien said of his first season. "I inherited the whole group of players I had, so it took time just getting to know everybody the best that I could — getting to know the families, too, getting to just understand the day-to-day of Exeter. It was a lot of firsts. At times, it felt like I was trying to accomplish multiple things at the same time."
In Year 2, O'Brien has a full new squad of mostly his recruits. He understands the day-to-day at Exeter better than he did this time last year. A small increase in wins would be a logical next step.
But Phillips Exeter is Phillips Exeter. It's a top prep school in New England that last made the Elite 8 in 2017-18.
There's a chance that the jump in Year 2 is bigger than most.
Zoomed-out view
Exeter is almost a full new team this winter. One could think it would take time for them to gel.
But O'Brien is adamant that's not the case. Along with the team playing together in the fall as the Neponset Valley River Rats, O'Brien started what may become a new tradition this season: a four-day camp in July.
"Coming out of that camp, they were already tight with great relationships," O'Brien said. "Once they started school, they were already friends. We eliminated that newness of starting the school year by having our team camp in July."
The goal is to create what feels like a full-season model.
"It creates a 12-month relationship among our group," O'Brien said. "If you think about the timeline, you go all school year with the guys together. Then you have the admission cycle and the recruiting cycle, where, by April 10, you know who's coming for the following year. So from April 10 to mid-July, you're building that group. When school ends in early June or late May, the camp is six weeks from that. And then it's exactly six weeks from the end of camp to the start of school.
"At the midway point of the summer, these guys have Exeter hockey on their mind and are developing as a group for 12 months a year. Even under NEPSAC rules, I now have a schedule and model in place where our guys are connecting and developing on and off the ice over the course of 12 months."
The last few years
Life hasn't been easy at Exeter since finishing as the No. 3 seed in the Large School tournament in 2021-22.
Over the next three seasons, Exeter went 12-15-1, 13-12-5 and 13-16-1, missing the postseason in all three years. The Big Red also missed the postseason this past March.
The coach
O'Brien enters his second season after arriving at Exeter from running the Pittsburgh Pens Elite program. Some other notable jobs he had before that were as head coach and assistant athletic director at The Hill School in Pennsylvania, an NHL scout with the Florida Panthers and serving as director of hockey operations at Harvard.
He played at New England College from 1993-97.
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Who will the stars be?
With all the newbies, Exeter is fortunate to return its top two point-getters from last season in Noah Poinsett-Yoshida and Joe Sasso (Wakefield, Mass.).
Poinsett-Yoshida, an '07, had 12 goals and 42 points last season. His speed and offensive IQ should have Division 3 schools looking at him throughout the winter.
"He's our captain," O'Brien said. "He's expected to be our go-to guy again."
Sasso led the team with 14 goals last season and chipped in 11 assists. The '08 will likely be back on the top line.
"I expect Sasso to have a big year in terms of the number of goals he can score," O'Brien said. "He could easily have 25 goals based on opportunities."
Newcomers
This section will make up most of the team.
Up front, O'Brien is fortunate to bring in Matthew Wallace. The former Hotchkiss forward, who had nine points in 25 games last season, will be a postgrad at Exeter. He's an '08.
Eli Herrington (Moretown, Vt.), who won the Burlington Free Press' Mr. Hockey award after dominating at Harwood High School (Vermont) over the last few years, will likely vie for top-six minutes at Exeter. He will also be a postgrad.
"They will both give us size and experience," O'Brien said of Wallace and Herrington.
Seamus Forespring arrives with some hype. The '09 was a key player on the Okanagan 16U team that won a national championship this past spring.
"He's going to be one of our top guys for sure," O'Brien said.
There are a plethora of other newcomers up front, too, who will give Exeter more depth than last year.
"I've got a handful of guys that are all new recruits that are going to be rounding out our top nine and battling for positions and playing time, which is a great spot to be in," O'Brien said. "The biggest difference that we have this year versus last year is depth."
On defense, O'Brien brought in two MIAA studs in Winchester's Axel Osborn and Reading's Nate Vitarisi. Both will be postgrads.
"Both those guys are coming in with leadership experience being captains with their teams in high school," O'Brien said. "They're coming in playing big minutes in impact roles."
Former North Jersey Avalanche defenseman Will Leahy should see big minutes. The '09 is a 6-foot-2, right-shot defenseman who also played at Iona Prep in New York the last two seasons. Former Berwick defenseman Tim Peracchi (Stratham, N.H.), a '10, was also added to the fray.
Will O'Brien (Portland, Maine), son of the head coach, should also see legitimate minutes. The '11 has had a strong fall with the River Rats and is a mobile, puck-moving defenseman.
"Those five defensemen, in addition to the three returners (Will Lefebvre, Jack Tucker and Luke Lang), will make up our eight defensemen," Sean O'Brien said.
Exeter sports two new goalies: James Bronson and Carter Heise (Concord, N.H.).
Bronson, an '09, was a standout for the North Jersey Avalanche and Montclair Kimberley Academy (N.J.) over the last two seasons, while Heise, a '10, has been a standout for the River Rats and Concord High School (N.H.).
"I think there's going to be times when they're going to split to begin with and I think there's going to be times like any season where one will catch some momentum," O'Brien said. "On paper last spring, I had a one-two mentality. Now I'm more confident in both guys as of today."
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Breakout prospects
Last season, Escher Briere worked his way up the lineup, finding a home next to Pointsett-Yoshida and Sasso.
The '09 finished the season with five goals and 15 points in 29 games. It just took him some time to acclimate to prep.
"He was a point-per-game guy the second half of last year," O'Brien said. "That came once he got his confidence going, and he started getting experience under his belt."
Of returning players, he's undoubtedly in the best spot to pop in his second year.
The ceiling
O'Brien is bold in what he wants, and isn't one to shy away from some expectations.
"I feel like if we don't make the Large School tournament at least it'll be a disappointing year," he said.
What about bigger?
"I don't know if we're quite there yet as an Elite 8 team," O'Brien said. "But my message to the group is that our goal is to make the Elite 8. That's our goal every day."
