Highland product Korte thriving in second season with Twin Bridges 18U Elite team
A year ago, Highland’s Lucas Korte thrived while playing for the Bulldogs club team and the Twin Bridges Lightning 18U club.
This winter in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Korte, a 2020 HHS graduate, is still playing hockey and is now thriving in his second season with the Twin Bridges Elite 18U squad.
The Lightning junior level club, based out of Troy, is out to a strong 7-1 start and Korte is enjoying the team’s early success.
“It’s been good so far,” Korte said of the season.
In 2019, Korte, a winger by trade, was one of the top three goal scorers in the American Development Model Association and, in the early going of the 2020-21 season, he has excelled offensively with 10 goals and 15 assists through 12 games.
Korte credits his overall improvement on offense and defense for his stronger scoring numbers in the first half of this season.
“I feel like I have improved my all-around game,” Korte said. “I started at wing this year and I got moved to center, and I think like I’ve really improved my all-around game in the offensive zone. And my defense in the neutral zone has also gotten better.”
After playing both prep and club hockey the past four years, Korte has been strictly focused on playing with the Lightning the past season. He admitted the level of play is definitely more challenging in terms of skills and pace of the game with Twin Bridges compared to high school hockey at HHS.
“Most likely (the biggest change) has been the speed of the game and how much quicker everything happens,” Korte said. “You have to make decisions much quicker (in the game) compared to high school and make plays much quicker.”
Adjustments due to COVID-19
By far the biggest challenge adjustment for Korte and his Lightning teammates has been practicing and playing games during the COVID-19 pandemic this year.
In addition to wearing masks and social distancing in game and practice situations, Korte and the Lightning have had to deal with unique and unusual game preparation situations in rinks in places such as Nashville, Tennessee, and Muskegon, Michigan.
During a Dec. 13 game in Nashville, Korte and his teammates encountered one such situation.
“We were just in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and hadn’t had this any other place except Nashville. But in this particular rink we had to get dressed in the parking lot at the hotel and we could only enter the rink 10 minutes before our game and basically we had to throw on our skates and then immediately play,” Korte said. “It’s a lot different (this year with COVID) and it’s everything from having to wear a mask to going over to the rink to get dressed.”
Highland star enjoying campaign
Despite all the COVID-related challenges, Korte is enjoying his second season with the Lightning and looking forward to what the second half of the campaign brings.
“We have games we will do with some St. Louis teams and a couple of tournaments we are doing (after January starts) and then we will look to work toward the qualifier (tournaments) in Afton and Chesterfield in March, and then the Nationals are in April in California,” Korte said.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 1:23 AM.