In five short days, the Upper Montgomery Lightning begin off ice practice sessions. My how time flies as the 2025 / 2026 high school ice hockey season is already upon us. It is exciting for the coaching staff to begin installing new systems, teaching the students defensive coverages, faceoff rotations, forechecking, and positioning for defensive zone breakouts. The off ice time is important as the team is just a few short weeks away from evaluation sessions commencing at Cabin John Ice Rink. The first evaluation session is scheduled for Monday evening, September 8.
This year’s squad will consist of 24 highly motivated student athletes, four of whom are goalies. Jerseys for new students are in production and should arrive in Mid-September in time for the junior varsity season opener in late September or early October. The Lightning junior varsity should be competitive once again this season with the team looking to return to the junior varsity playoff semifinals. The Lightning defense and goaltending will be solid. The coaching staff is hard at work installing a playing style that will accentuate the strengths of the students keeping the team competitive against the other programs in the county.
The Upper Montgomery varsity will look to be the surprise team in the county. Expectations outside the Lightning program are low with the team being selected to finish near the bottom of the league standings (11th place out of 12 teams). Inside the program, the team believes that it is much more talented. The team’s primary objective will remain looking to qualify for the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs for the first time in program history. Montgomery Hockey Conference divisions have been determined for the upcoming season with Upper Montgomery placed in a division with the DC Stars, Northwest / Quince Orchard, Richard Montgomery, Rockville / Magruder, and Silver Spring (new name for Blair’s coop team). The other division has BCC, Churchill, Sherwood, Walter Johnson, Whitman, and Wootton battling it out.
To gear up for the competition this season, Upper Montgomery has two scrimmages lined up for the middle of September against BCC and Richard Montgomery to acclimate the team to the new style of play and to get the younger students into the flow of high school hockey games before the conference schedule begins. The 2025 – 2026 season is anticipated to be one of development for the green and gold. The team will have only four seniors after graduating sixteen members of the program over the past two seasons. The younger students will be counted on to play larger roles sooner than would normally occur, but this early indoctrination will assist with their development down the road. It should be an exciting and rewarding season for the program as the younger students grow and develop.
#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!