MENDHAM – When you’ve won more than a handful of division titles, a 10-9-2 season is, as
Mendham High School head hockey coach John Kovacs puts it, “a nice year.” So in 2023-24, the goal is clear for the Minutemen and the only head coach they’ve ever had.
“We had a lot of highlights last year,” says Kovacs, “but we’re a program that’s accustomed to
winning it all, and very few years have we not been a contender for the Halvorsen Cup. So a
division title—that’s always the goal.”
One of the highlights of 2022-23 was now-sophomore goaltender Brendan Eigner, the Rookie of the Year in the MCSSIHL’s Halvorsen Division. And he’s backed up by junior Gavin Thrun. All
Thrun did was star in goal as a freshman as Mendham won the Halvorsen Cup in 2021-22.
“You’re only as good as the player in net,” says Kovacs. “And we’ve got two good ones.”
Mendham is also experienced and deep on the back line, led by senior co-captains Zach Naval
and Freddie Nunan. The two captains are joined on defense by an experienced junior, Hayden
Bogart, sophomore Brandon Eigner (Brandon’s twin brother) and junior Will Manchester, a
transfer from Wisconsin.
Up front, the Minutemen are young, especially having lost first-team all-Halvorsen players Mac
Goggin and Ian Tamboowalla to graduation. But they’re not untested.
“We’ll have only two senior forwards, Connor Knorr and Andrew Osso, with Osso most likely
centering a pair of very skilled freshman—Denis Nunan (Freddie’s younger brother) and David
Kalis—on the third line,” Kovacs said. “But we’ll still be experienced, with most of our forwards
having a year or two under the belts.”
Sophomore Ian Aikenhead, for one, returns and will have big skates to fill—those of his brother,
Tristan, who won three division titles with Mendham. He’ll be joined by host of juniors,
including Eddie and Jake Fox (not related), Cameron Smith and Will Andrews, plus sophomore
Max Szpakowski.
But no matter what position is beside their name on the roster, each Minutemen will be
expected to play all 200 feet of ice.
“We’ll be a defense-first type of team, and that goes for the forwards, too,” explains Kovacs. “It’s
what we teach and preach: If you’re going to play for us, you’ve got to be a two-way player. And
we’ve got a lot of them.”
Once again the Minutemen will play a competitive schedule, and although Kovacs predicts that
early on his team will be “a work in progress,” he expects the team will improve with every
passing game.
“We’ve already seen that type of improvement from the first day of tryouts to today,” the coach
says. “Our schedule includes an NHL-like nine games in December, so we won’t be able to take
any night off. And all of our division games will be intense, high-pace matchups. But we’re
expecting good things from this group, and we’re excited to get going.”
Mendham opens its season Saturday evening against Bernards, at Mennen Arena in Morris
Township. Faceoff is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. The Mountaineers won the Haas Division’s regular-
season title last season and, as a result, elected to move up to the Halvorsen.