Before George Gwozdecky morphed Valor Christian into a hockey powerhouse that won its third state title in four years late Tuesday night, first he had to learn how to become a high school coach.
“I thought I knew what I was doing, but I was completely (out of my element),” Gwozdecky recalled. “It wasn’t the X’s and O’s I’m talking about, but about the running of the program at the high school level on an everyday basis and learning how to deal with knucklehead high school boys. I wasn’t prepared for that at all.
“All of a sudden I’ve got guys who can’t make practice because they have a job, or have a dentist appointment, or had Boy Scouts. I was like, ‘What?’ Those sort of things were hard for me to fathom.”
Gwozdecky’s first season in 2016 ended in a 10-1 blowout to Ralston Valley in the first round of the unclassified state tournament. The Eagles only had 14 players.
Fast forward eight seasons, and the former DU head coach and NHL assistant has built Valor Christian into the state’s top program. The Eagles blasted Ralston Valley 7-3 to win the Class 5A crown. Valor Christian’s fifth consecutive title game appearance was punctuated by the fact it was the highest-scoring championship since 1992.
It marked Gwozdecky’s first championship win at Magness Arena, where he spent 19 years building the Pioneers into a Division I powerhouse. The Thunder Bay, Ontario, native led DU to two national titles and was tabbed national coach of the year in 1993 and 2005.
And Gwozdecky, 69, said he has no intention of going anywhere as the likes of Ralston Valley, Regis Jesuit, Monarch, Cherry Creek and Denver East all attempt to match the recent momentum that Valor Christian has bottled.
“It’s nice to be back here (at Magness), and winning a game,” Gwozdecky said. “And I’m having a blast with what I’m doing, and I’m really involved in high school hockey — not just with Valor, but with the rules committee for NFHS and helping run Team Colorado’s high school evaluation camp. As long as they’ll have me, I want to keep doing this.”
In Tuesday’s championship, the Eagles went up 2-0 in the first period with goals from seniors Garrett Covney and Alec Alfieri. It looked like they might run away with it early, but Ralston Valley senior Cole Francque responded with a goal with under a minute left in the period to get the Mustangs back in the game at 2-1.
That trend would hold most of the night, as Valor Christian went up multiple goals only to have Ralston Valley claw back. Along the way, the Eagles killed five penalties, scored twice on the power play and had six different scorers overall.
“It was one of those strange games where at times I thought we had complete control, and then Ralston Valley would take advantage of a miscue,” Gwozdecky said.
Valor Christian senior Aiden Owen made it 3-1 with a power-play lamp-lighter early in the second period, but then Mustangs senior Tsavo Cole pull RVHS back to 3-2 with a short-handed goal. Valor Christian senior Nicholas Maronna netted another power play goal, making it 4-2, and again the Mustangs responded with a goal from senior Devin Strong.
“I don’t think we gave up a short-handed goal all year long,” Gwozdecky said. “A lot of credit goes to our opponent, and it was anybody’s game going into the third period.”
The Eagles owned the final period. Senior Noah Fekete made it 5-3 a few minutes in, then freshman Maddux Charles put the title on ice with his goal to stretch the lead to 6-3 with 12:04 to play. Fekete added a seventh goal with 3:09 to play.
While Valor Christian graduates a dozen seniors from this year’s team, the Eagles believe their dynasty is just getting started.
“It’s not going to end for a while,” Garrett Covney said. “One of our freshmen scored tonight. That’s just a preview of more to come. This team will be back here next year, 100 percent.”
