High school hockey season lasts until the championship is decided next March 10, so the opening weekend is only the starting point, but for the Talawanda Braves the start seems daunting.

Talawanda lost all four games in the George DiPaolo Memorial Thanksgiving Tournament, getting outscored 35-3 in those four games while facing teams ranked in the top 12 in the state at the close of last season.

It’s that last fact that gives coach Steve McGrinder as much of a positive outlook as the final scores would allow.

Talawanda fell to Olentangy Liberty (No. 12 last year) on Friday 9-2 and to St. John’s (No. 6) that same day 11-0. The Braves lost to St. Ignatius (No. 1) on Saturday 7-1 and to Lake Catholic (No. 8) 8-0 on Sunday.

Scoring goals for Talawanda on the weekend were Kyle Tafelski, Brandon Tafelski and Andrew Marks. Tallying assists were Sam Poetter, Taylor Hamilton, Wade McQueen and Brandon Tafelski (two).

“Expectations for the tournament were not high,” McGrinder said. “We are lucky to be able to play teams of this caliber. It makes us better.”

Other teams in the tournament have strong feeder programs and kids committed to hockey at an early age. “Captain’s practices” start in early September so that when coaches are allowed to work with the players, they already have a big head start, McGrinder said. Entering the tournament last Friday, he’d had only three practices with his team.

Compared to the talent level of other teams in the tournament, he said his team is probably at a JV talent level, but player losses after last season leave him with a young squad.

St. Ignatius won both the varsity and JV levels of the tournament and McGrinder said it had an exciting conclusion Sunday afternoon when it faced St. John’s, a team he thought might actually be the better team.

He said he wanted to see his team up against that level of competition and was happy they had the chance to play the teams they did.

“Our league is not the caliber of those teams,” he said. “We will struggle to score. We need to keep out of the penalty box and reduce mistakes. We need to do the little things right against this level of competition. We need to work in time and space to do the little things and I’m confident we will be good.”

McGrinder said his Braves, who have only five seniors, will improve over the season and expects them to be in the hunt for the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League championship come February but a lot of work lies ahead for his team.

“Nobody in our league could play with them,” McGrinder said.

One of the promising new players for the Braves this year is junior Taylor Hamilton, who transferred from the Lakota district. McGrinder said Hamilton till is adjusting to playing with the Braves but shows plenty of promise.

“Taylor has to make an adjustment once he gets acclimated to the team,” the coach said. “This weekend showed his different skills.”

Hamilton wanted to play hockey at Talawanda after playing at the club level in the past. The outcome of the weekend’s tournament was anticipated but the junior echoed his coach in seeing a brighter future.

“We expected it. We knew were going to lose. This will be a good thing for our team. It showed us how hard we’ve got to work to get better,” Hamilton said. “Only two practices a week are not enough. We only had three practices before the tournament.”

Hamilton said he could have played better but admitted he was a bit intimidated by the size of the players on the other teams.

Younger players will be seeing more ice time than might otherwise be expected. McGrinder said he has three talented freshman players who need to be given a chance to develop, his son, Jacob McGrinder, and Brennen Prince and Kyle Tafelski. “They need to play to progress,” the coach said.

The Braves open their league season at home tonight with league foe St. Xavier at the Goggin at 7 p.m. The Braves will host Findlay at 5 p.m. on Saturday.