Tight-knit AAA Blue Jackets team has its sights set on a title

When Cole Miller moved to Columbus from the Denver area in the summer of 2017, it didn't take the young hockey player long to realize he had joined a special group with the AAA Blue Jackets.
"Coming in, I was really nervous," said Miller, the captain of the Under-18 AAA team and the son of Ohio State hockey assistant coach Steve Miller. "The team I played on in Colorado was really close. I was really worried it wasn't going to be as close, but we had tryouts in May, so I came here, tried out, made the team and two days later, I had five guys asking me, 'What's your number? What's your Snapchat?'
"I was like, 'This is gonna be really cool.' It definitely made it a lot easier and helped out. Just the group of guys that have been here since the beginning, it's been really good. I wouldn't change anything for the world."

Cody Brekke, meanwhile, grew up in the AAA Blue Jackets program, even skating with the 2014-15 squad that competed in the prestigious annual Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament at age 12. He could have followed his father, Brent, to upstate New York in 2018 when the then-Miami (Ohio) coach was named an assistant at Clarkson, then the head coach at St. Lawrence University a year later.
Instead, Cody decided to stay in Ohio to continue his hockey career, a decision he hasn't regretted.
"This is my seventh year on the team," Brekke said. "I love it. I'm just trying to stay loyal, and it's been awesome. A bunch of kids have been here a while too, and it's awesome to be able to share it with them. The AAA program here has helped me develop so much. It's a great program. I've had so much fun through all the years. I didn't want to go anywhere else because of the people that are here."
Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that Miller and Brekke, who wears an 'A' for the junior Blue Jackets, are part of the leadership group for a team that is on the cusp of big things. The Under-18 team won the Mid-Am district title last month and will begin play Wednesday at 2021 Chipotle-USA Hockey Nationals, being held in Maryland Heights, Mo., just outside of St. Louis.
This will be the third time the AAA Blue Jackets U-18 team has played at nationals, and the hope is the Jackets can put it all together on a run to a title.
"We have a scary team. Going into nationals, I wouldn't want to play us," said head coach Darryl Noren, the ECHL Hall of Famer who is in his first year with the program. "I tell the guys, 'Now, everybody is 0-0.' To me, we have as good a chance as anybody if we do what we do."
So what do the young Blue Jackets do? The short answer is "work hard." In fact, the team's mantra is "Dig In," something Noren borrowed from the Carolina Hurricanes as they've built their recent success. While U-18 Blue Jackets admit they might not have the most talented team at Nationals, they do believe they have a squad that will work harder than anyone else.
"Since the beginning of the year, Coach Noren has put that on us to dig in, and we will always be the hardest working team," Miller said. "We'll always dig the deepest. We'll win more battles in the corner.
"This is one of the closest teams I've ever played on. Everyone plays for each other. We may not have the most talent, but we can outwork some teams and find a way to win that way."
Of course, for any team to make it this far, there's talent on hand, led by a pair of 20-goal scorers on the season in David Levkus (26-17-43) and Kori DiPonio (22-11-33). Noah Holt is also one of the key members of the leadership core along with Miller and Brekke and is the team leader with 25 assists among his 40 points, while Graham Broadfoot (12-22-34), Brekke (14-19-33) and Miller (7-23-30) all have at least 30 points.
Ashton Ericksen (15 goals) and Joey Chaykowski (12) also are in double digits in goals, and in all, 12 players have at least 20 points in the 57-game campaign played against similar junior programs from across the district and the country.
In net, the pipes have been split between Michael Sochan (2.02 GAA, .920 save percentage), who moved from Los Angeles to join the team and has fit in nicely, and local product Matthew Zazon (2.26/.908), who has been with the program for his entire junior career.
"We've got a really hard-working crew," said Noren, a Michigan native who joined the program after spending last year helping create the Columbus Mavericks USPHL junior team. "We're built a lot like the Blue Jackets. It's a different guy every night. We didn't have a guy run away with the scoring lead or anything of that nature. Everybody is bunched up. We only had two guys with over 20 goals.
"It's a tight-knit group, really. I got lucky stepping into this spot this year with the guys playing together for a while, and we had some kids come from out of town that are familiar with the guys here that played with each other growing up, so that part was pretty good."
The Blue Jackets are scheduled to begin pool play Wednesday against a team from Rochester, N.Y., then play the Maine Nordiques on Thursday and the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders out of Colorado on Friday. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals, which will be held Saturday, with semifinals to follow a day later and the championship on Monday.
Many around the country might be surprised to see the AAA Blue Jackets make it this far, but those in the program are excited to see what might happen as the competition steps up.
"It's like a family, I truly believe," Noren said. "Top to bottom, these kids really care about each other, and they take on the mentality of the world against us. They really thrive on it."
"We're all pretty pumped," Brekke said. "Winning districts was huge, but now if we can get the national title too, that would be even bigger."