WENATCHEE, Wash. - The Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy's 16-and-Under team will have another banner in the rafters when the 2025-26 season gets going in September.

Head coach Pat Norlin returned to the Wenatchee program this season and locked up another state title, earning a spot in the USA Hockey Pacific District tournament in southern California. Norlin's team finished 1-2 at the tournament, but closed out its run in style with a 4-3 overtime win against Team Alaska, the last of the team's 12 wins on the season. The team enjoyed tremendous growth during its 2024-25 campaign, its second as a full member of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.

"I always like to tell kids, we can win as many games as you want, I've just got to change the schedule," said Norlin. "Kids come here because of the quality of the CSSHL, as well as the coaching in our program and the connections to the Wenatchee Wild and how everything is a family atmosphere. We saw huge strides from a lot of our players - as a team, it came slow at times, and that's part of the challenge of the competition we play year-round. The growth process is immense, but overall it was great."

As Wenatchee's youngest CSSHL member team, many players on the roster also faced unique challenges for the first time, such as living away from home with billet families and attending a new high school. This year's team included players from four different West Coast states, and no local players from the Wenatchee Valley. Norlin says those challenges also factor into the growth process.

"We get some kids that have a decent amount of playing Tier 1 hockey, whether it be playing in the CSSHL or the Tier 1 Elite League, but a lot of kids we get are Pacific District kids, West Coast kids, or even Pacific Northwest kids," said Norlin. "They have talent, they have size. They can skate, stickhandle and shoot - all of the things that you see if you're scouting. The big thing is, they've been playing Tier 2 hockey, and the jump to not just Tier 1 but the CSSHL, it's almost as big a jump as going to juniors. The biggest thing we've seen is how hard you have to compete, your readiness to compete, and your attention to detail."

Sean Strasser led the team with 59 points and 28 goals this season, while Strasser and Aidan Yu notched 31 assists apiece to share the team lead. In net, Liam Rogers earned eight of the team's 12 wins, with an .881 save percentage. Four of this year's wins came in February alone, and this year's schedule wrapped up with six games over the final eight days as the team went right from the Pacific District tourney to the CSSHL Western Championships in Penticton. Norlin says he was able to gauge the growth of his team directly during the month of February, and his team played some of its best hockey at the end of the year.

"It was a great way to end the district tournament, that overtime win against Team Alaska," said Norlin. "Just two weeks prior, at our home tournament we had played them, and they beat us 9-0. To come back at the bigegst stage all year and beat them in overtime, it was a great win. We had a couple of wins at our home tournament and obviously played well late against the Kraken - our power play really won us the state series. We had it a lot more right than wrong later in the year, and you wish when you're playing like that, that the season could continue."

Most of this year's team will look to move on to the 18U level next season, with 18 2008-born players on the roster and two 2009-born players eligible to return. Norlin and assistant coach Tynan Peacock have also been confirmed to return to the Academy's 16U coaching staff for 2025-26.