After their second state championship in as many seasons, the Owensboro Rampage are heading to nationals after missing out on last year’s due to Covid.
The Rampage will take up shop on Omaha, where they’ll play three games over the next three days as they vie for a spot in the Elite Eight. There are four pods, and the top two in each pod will advance.
Owensboro is in a pod with the UCI-N Warriors (Utah), Dubuque Saints (Iowa) and Capistrano Coyotes (California).
The Rampage will play their first game against the Coyotes at 6 p.m. then take on the Warriors Friday and the Saints on Saturday to wrap up pool play.
Owensboro isn’t the only area team in the tournament, as the Evansville Thunder are in another pod also competing for a spot in the Elite Eight.
Rampage coach Jason Link said it’s been great to bounce ideas off of each other going into this week.
If the Rampage can advance to the Elite Eight, they’ll be the second Kentucky team to make it, as a team from Oldham made it through pool play in 2018.
Like most teams around the country, the Rampage had to have their heads on a swivel when it came to scheduling changes this season, but when asking what he thinks about the most when it comes to this year, Link didn’t hesitate.
“Family,” he said. “We have absolutely become a family unit. We’ve got the ability to feed each other positive energy and really be there for one another.”
Link said the emphasis has been building on their strengths this season it’s paid dividends.
Despite winning multiple state championships, this is the first trip to nationals for the Rampage.
Link said he didn’t discuss the trip with his team much this year after the way last season ended.
“We set a goal to win state and we worked toward that to make it to nationals but we never really talked about nationals,” he said. “But we were preparing for it before the season ever started. We got all our paperwork together. We’ve got a binder built to put all our score sheets in so when we got the opportunity to go back to nationals, we were ready. We wouldn’t have to be scrambling and have anything else to worry about. We were prepared and ready.”
Players left on Wednesday with their families but they’ve been preparing a lot the last few weeks.
For Link, he’s been watching film of their upcoming opponents.
“I am watching film on those teams and trying to learn as much as I can about those teams but they’re playing teams I don’t know,” he said. “If they dominate, I don’t know who they dominate. I can get an idea of some of their go-to moves, their tools in their toolbox and then try to prepare for that the best we can.”
In practice, Link said it’s been all about staying conditioned as they’ve had a long layoff since the state finals.
“We’re still working on our speed and agility,” he said. “We’re just trying to get the boys in shape. Most of the time, nationals is 10 days after state. With it being almost a month, we have to worry about staying conditioned. We’re really worrying and focusing on conditioning to make sure we keep our stamina.”
The Rampage will be lead by their 10 seniors this week as they’ll be playing their final hockey tournament together.
Legends on 54 will be live streaming today’s and Friday’s game.
