Sports photo by Steve Jakubcin The Alpena High School varsity hockey team poses for its team picture at the beginning of the 2025-26 season. The team finished the year 21-7, but was knocked out of tournament play in its first playoff game.

ALPENA – It has been a week to the day since the Alpena Wildcats hockey team lost a heartbreaker to Traverse City Central in overtime, ending their season in the regional semi-finals.

It certainly was not the end the players, coaches, and fans expected for the Wildcats, as the team came off a final-four appearance last season. But, the unexpected elimination from the payoffs doesn’t take away from the solid season the team had overall.

Now that Alpena Head Coach Ben Henry has had a few days to absorb the abrupt end to the season, he admitted the loss was tough to swallow, but he believes the future of Wildcat hockey is still bright.

“The game itself was not our strongest game, it seemed like we were fighting ourselves, and the nerves got the best of us,” Henry said. “We were not mentally ready to go to battle.”

Despite the tough ending to their season, overall, the Wildcats had another outstanding year clinching their second Big North Conference title in the last three years.

“I think we had a really strong regular season, winning 21 games against the schedule we had was pretty impressive, we were ranked in the top 12 for the majority of the year,” Henry said.

Losing seniors is always tough, the Wildcats are losing several key contributors to the team next season.

“It’s tough to lose your senior class especially our big dogs, Clark Weir, Gavin Winterstein, those are two big guys that put a lot of points up for me the last two years,” Henry said. “Losing our goalie Parker Schuldt obviously hurts as well, along with three key defensemen from this year’s team.”

With several key contributors graduating there will be plenty of opportunities to step up and fill those holes in next year’s roster.

“There will be opportunities for younger guys and new guys to make our team and be impact players right away,” Henry said. “Overall, I think we have a good foundation for Alpena hockey.”

Despite the bitter ending there is still plenty of hockey left to be played this year as Alpena gears up for another season.

“As soon as school is out for the year, we have summer skates, and we skate between two to four days a week for about four months,” Henry said. “We usually do between three and four summer high school hockey tournaments, two in Alpena at the end of June and July, and then we go downstate.”

Losing is never easy, especially as a high school student. Overall, Henry is proud of what his team accomplished this season.

“I’m proud of our kids, for the schedule they have kept, it’s been one of, if not the hardest schedule we have had in the last 10 years,” Henry said. “To play all those top teams and have the record we did, I am proud of my guys.”