Squirt B Lightning Captures Motown Cup

The city of Trenton now has another hockey team to add to its list of champions–the Trenton Lightning.

The Squirt B squad of 9-10 year old boys and girls captured the prestigious Motown Cup title Feb. 20. The triumph capped off an incredible regular season, according to Lightning Coach Matt Kane.

“That was it for us, that tournament was the last hurrah, so we came in there and wanted to do well,” Kane said. “The kids talked about ending the season with a trophy–and that’s what they did.”

The tourney, which was held at both Ice Box Sports Center in Brownstown Township and the Southgate Civic Center, consisted of some of the top squads from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, Canada.

In the end, however, the Lightning were the champions.

“These kids just went out there and played hard, really hard,” Kane said. “They skated hard and, most important, we had a lot of fun. It was a blast.”

The squad, which consists of Joseph Weise, Trevor Bonham, Justin Severinski, Noah Louria, Tiffany Sanderson, Tanner Rook, Timmy Kane, Cameron Magryta, Elizabeth Cesarz, Melanie Hulslander, Seth Beneteau, Nicholas Abernathy, Lucas Ott, Erik Frey and Marisa Frey, had to win four games to be able to hoist the trophy, and that’s what they did.

“This was our third tournament of the season,” Kane said. “We made the semifinals at a tournament in Cleveland (Ohio), and we came into this one thinking we could do better this time. We played well during the regular season, but we got knocked out of our playoffs and districts. This tournament was it for us.”

Success in any sport, at any level, is much more than just playing well–it’s about support and encouragement.

The parents, Kane says, were an incredible group this season.

“The parents are so important,” the coach said. “I mean, they get the kids to practice, to games, to tournaments. The pay the ice time and make all of it possible for these kids. This was such a great group of parents, too. On some teams, it’s not like that at all. This one though, they were an incredible group of parents, the best.”

Along with getting their child to and from games, practices and tournaments, the parents also helped in a variety of other ways, ranging from being the team manager to making sure the cheers were loud and supportive.

“Everyone contributed in such a great way,” Kane said. “As a coach, I try to get the parents involved, but this group really did that and then some. It’s just a group of really great parents.”

The coaches, (Kane, head coach; Jordon Petravicius, assistant coach; Gerry Frey, assistant coach; Bryan Huslander, assistant coach and team manager, Michelle Frey) the players and the parents are all necessary ingredients to winning something like the Motown Cup. As accomplishment would prove, the Lightning had the best of all of these things.