IceHounds Blue prepare to play a double-header on Saturday, Jan. 28, at Swonder Ice Arena in Evansville against Owensboro at 4:30 p.m. and Evansville Thunder at 7:30 p.m. In his second year as Head Coach, Mike Christie has led the IceHounds Blue to the 2A Championship in 2016 and led IceHounds Gold to the 4A State Championship in 2016.

“I have been a part of the Carmel Hockey program since 2012 and I am very excited to be coaching the Blue team this year. We are looking to win the 2A State Championship title again this year. I think that we will play well at Evansville this weekend because we have defeated them consistently in the past and we have been playing well so far this season,” Christie said.

Trent “Beef” Franklin, winger and senior, has been on the Blue team ever since his sophomore year.

“I went from being the weird kid on the team freshman year to the captain my senior year. As a team, it changes so much because we have new players every single year. My freshman year was the best team I was on so far. Sophomore year sucked. Junior year was decent, this year looks pretty good though.” Franklin said.

Ali Sinnett, left winger and senior, is the only girl on the Blue team. She started playing on the team under Coach Adam Norris last season.

“The coaches were pretty cool about having me on the team because they were more worried about whether or not I would be able to keep up rather than about the fact that I was the only girl. I was just another player, it didn’t really have anything to do with gender. I did talk to Dan Desmond, the Gold team’s Head Coach, last year before trying out. The guys have been helpful this year about integrating me into the team, especially more than last year. I like Coach Christie because he is very straightforward in what he wants and he doesn’t step back and hoping that you will fix your problems without him telling you. He is very straightforward and knows what he wants from his team and knows how to coach his team to get them to do that. A lot more skills stuff than just running the system.” Sinnett said.