Spiders get ready for the 2020–21 Winter Season #1
Oct. 31, 2020
The AHA 2020–21 winter season, the league’s 20th year and the Spiders’ 17th, gets underway this weekend. It’s a bit different than any other season the league has held, with the winter split into two seasons, and a drastically reduced C3 tier, just 16 teams participating thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Spiders are featured on DST opening night against the Troopers. It’s your first chance to see (not that spectators are encouraged...) the Spiders’ 2020–21 roster, with a few changes since last season. But unlike last season, this isn’t a farewell. With players not participating, for a host of reasons, we’ll hope to see all our teammates back on the ice soon.
Sitting out this season:
The only farewell is Bill McCormick. Though we know we’ll hear him behind us throughout the season.
Joining the Spiders as full-time are:
- Goaltender Josh Gesch, from the D1 Moose
- Shawn Campbell also from the D1 Moose
- Kevin Ronneberg
And as subs:
- Todd Krough and Mike Mettee from the Gold Rush (and plenty of summer Gold+Wing+Ders teams)
- Dylan Prosen from the C1 Lakers (goaltender skating out)
- Andy Moses from the C1 Leafs
The B2 Spiders also ended up not fielding a team this first winter season, which means only the C3 Spiders will be wearing the Red and White this fall.
Despite leading the team to its sixth consecutive losing season, it was a vast improvement over the 2018–19 worst-in-entire-AHA record, and first playoff appearance 6 years, the team captaincy remains unchanged following the usual unanimous single vote by Dave Schuster: Jeremy Litton as captain, and Eric Grotbeck and Michael Schroeder as alternates.
The rest of the Spiders’ roster remains the same (albeit another year closer to the AARP league eligibility) and is ready to hit the ice to kick off the Spiders’ 17th season in the AHA (16th winter season; 17th including Beginner School), and will look to earn their spot in the AHA post-season rather than get bracketed in.
Check out the full 2020–21 C3 Spiders roster.
