On Monday, November 11th, 123 high school teams will begin practice on sheets of ice around the state to begin pursuit of the 2014 state hockey championship. Ninety boys' teams and 33 girls' teams will strap on the gear to begin another year of high school puck in the Badger State.

For teams like Eau Claire Memorial and Hayward (last year's state champions), the job will be a little tougher because every team wants to be able to put a black mark on the champ's ledger and will play just a wee bit harder while trying to do so.

The Verona's and Onalaska's of the hockey world (state runner-ups) will be working just that much more in an attempt to make it their year this year, maybe even culminating in the hoisting of the gold trophy at center ice at the Alliant Energy Center in early March.

Forgotten will be the injuries, poor play, and bad luck of the 2012-13 season. Everybody gets a chance to start over from scratch and turn things around. The player that had a great year wants to prove to everyone that their performance was no fluke. The player that struggled wants to show everyone what kind of player he can really be.

Behind the bench, there will be many new faces. On the girls' side, there was a 25% turnover in the coaching ranks, while the boys' teams saw a new coach take over for one out of every five teams, a rate of about 20%.

Gone are coaches like Cal Roadhouse and Steve Hanrahan, both stepping down after many years as bench bosses at University School and Sun Prairie, respectively. We wish them and all the other coaches best wishes in their future endeavors.

As with every year, a new team steps up and performs well during the season, perhaps even earning some love from the staff of WiPH and the coaches that vote in the Top 10 balloting. Last year, Whitefish Bay (under Maco Balkovec) had a great year and made their first trip to Madison. West Salem, RMB, and Waukesha came oh-so-close to making their first trips to state, losing in their respective sectional final match-ups.

Who will be the surprise team(s) this year? Stick around, pay attention, and visit WiPH often to find out!

Drop the puck!