Titans hockey slides into 2023/24 season

Home game in Crested Butte?

By Than Acuff 

hile the Crested Butte Titans hockey team lost head coach Billy Watson, their new coach is not entirely new. Joey Otsuka last coached the Titans high school team in the 2016/17 season and is now back at the helm with returning assistant coach Shane McGuinness.

“I learned the head coaching position was open, so I applied,” says Otsuka.

Otsuka grew up in San Jose, California and played junior hockey in Canada and on the East Coast, played some collegiate hockey at Cal State Northridge, worked in the Dallas Stars organization and helped coach a Texas high school team to a handful of state hockey titles.

Otsuka first coached the local high school hockey team in 2014 when West Elk Hockey Association (WEHA) formed, bringing the Gunnison Blades and the Crested Butte Wolfpack together as one team at the high school age. He eventually left the valley in 2017 after finishing the first season for the local high school hockey program playing as an official CHSAA high school team under the Crested Butte Titans name with players from both Gunnison High School and Crested Butte High School on the same team.

While he was away, the Titans spent a season under Jake Johnstone and then assistant coach Billy Watson took the helm in 2018, eventually leading the team to the 4A state finals and other successful seasons.

Now Otsuka is back.

“A lot has changed since I left,” says Otsuka.

WEHA has always been the avenue for the high school hockey team to prepare for the upcoming winter season by offering a fall club season, and this year was a bit disjointed as the usual slate of tournaments fell at inopportune times. Two of the tournaments happened during the school’s October Break and the third a week following making it hard for Otsuka to get full participation from players. Meanwhile, workouts were limited to finding ice time throughout the state with players and coaches having to travel to Grand Junction and Breckenridge to practice until Jorgensen Ice Arena opened on October 2.

“It was a tough season, we had limited numbers at the tournaments,” says Otsuka.

The Titans finished last year with an overall record of 12-7-1 and third in their league, but fell in the 4A state tournament quarterfinals to Colorado Academy.

They officially opened their winter season this year on Monday, November 13 and have 23 players out this year including four seniors.

While Otsuka is not necessarily new, it’s been a while and there is a learning curve during the preseason.

“It’s a coaching change so it’s a bit of a different style to what they did last year,” says Otsuka. “They just need to relearn some of the systems I run.”

Otsuka points out that he does have a fairly young squad this year, but sees a lot of talent among the older players who gained extensive varsity experience last year. In addition, he has a unique situation in net.

“We’re so deep with goalies that we don’t know what to do with all of them,” says Otsuka.

One benefit he has noticed is that with so many goalies working for the starting varsity spot, workouts have a whole new edge to them.

“I’ve seen our goalies turn up the level of competition and intensity in practices,” says Otsuka.

While it remains early in their season, Otsuka and McGuinness have noticed a few things of their team as they spent a lot of time taking stock of what they have for talent and where players work best.

“We’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to be successful offensively, but our defense can contain a lot,” says Otsuka. “We are pretty well-balanced throughout though and Colorado high school hockey is like the NFL, anyone can win on any given night.”

Otsuka and McGuinness are trying to instill one overreaching theme in their players. Pace is pivotal and that doesn’t necessarily mean run-and-gun for all three periods.

“The big message is that we can’t always play the game at 120 miles per hour with our hair on fire,” says Otsuka. “It’s important to have quickness and intensity but equally important to have proper timing and posture. We got to have variation so we’re not just one-dimensional.”

The Titans open the season on the road with Pueblo County on Friday, December 8 and stay on the road the next week to face Kent Denver. While the state activities governing board requires all games to be played indoors, there are hints that the Titans may be able to host one of their games right here in Crested Butte at Big Mine Ice Arena sometime during the holiday break.

Stay tuned.