This season was about growing. For the Central Indiana Knights, the growing accelerated quickly as the season neared its end. That meant the 2024-2025 season set the tone for what could be a bright future. “It ended up maybe better than we expected it to,” Rob Pozzebon said. The Knights, a high school hockey team made up of players from Cathedral and other Central Indiana schools, finished strong in ’24-’25 after a difficult start. The young Knights advanced through the Class A state tournament and played well in the state final before losing to the Vipers, 4-1 – a score perhaps not indicative of game play. “We outplayed the other team and lost, which sometimes happens,” Pozzebon said. The Knights advanced to the final with victories over LSJ B (6-0), Penn Black (4-1) and St. Joe White (6-2). They outshot the Vipers 38-13 in the title game and allowed a late-game, empty-net goal. “We really outplayed them,” Pozzebon said. “We just came up short.” The Knights typically compete around the Class 3A level in the Indiana State High School Hockey Association, which sets postseason classes based on regular-season results. The Knights in 2024-2025 started slowly and improved defensively overall to peak at season’s end. “The hardest part for young players and players that are new to varsity hockey is playing defense,” Pozzebon said. “It's much tougher than playing offense. It’s much tougher than playing youth or even junior varsity. Playing defense at the varsity level is extremely difficult and I think that's the part that made a big improvement.” Pozzebon said that was particularly true of the program’s six freshmen. “Not just individual defense, but the team defense was much improved,” Pozzebon said. “You get tired of losing by a lot of goals.” The Knights in 2024-2025 featured four Cathedral players: *Senior center Charles McCormick. He played in 25 of 49 games in his final season with the program. “He did a good job as a leader for the team this year,” Pozzebon said. “He was kind of in and out a little bit which made it a bit difficult, but he did a fine job.” *Junior forward Daniel Michael, who Pozzebon said improved significantly in his first varsity season. “Daniel did a great job overall,” Pozzebon said. “He was really important to us during the state playdowns. He centered out the third line. You rely on your first two lines to score goals. You rely on your third line to not get scored on and to continue momentum. Daniel did a great job with that.” Pozzebon said Michael has been named assistant captain for the 2025-2026 season. “He’s a great kid, good leader,” Pozzebon said. “It's a pretty big accomplishment to be on the team for one year and be one of the captains.” *Freshman defender Quinn Ridgeway. “Quinn came along pretty well,” Pozzebon said. “He played more minutes during the end of the season than he had earlier. He improved quite a bit. He fit in nicely and did a good job.” *Freshman forward Noah Hiott, who finished second on the team in scoring and earned the Knight’s underclassman of the year award. “I don't know that the Knights have ever had a freshman be in the top two in scoring at the end of the season,” Pozzebon said. “That says a little bit about Noah says a little bit about our team as well. He did a nice job.” “The coaches were talking at the end of the year about how much improvement the kids had made,” Pozzebon said. “Sometime in February we watched a video of the team playing in mid-November. They were horrified at how they played versus how they were playing now so they recognized how much they've improved as a group. “We knew all along this was going to be a year for improvement, so we were pretty happy about the whole thing.” The Knights are expected to return 18 of 21 players next season – six defensemen, 11 forwards and one goaltender. “We chatted a little bit about that at the end of the year, how we will start a little bit ahead of the curve because everybody understands the expectations,” Pozzebon said. “We won't necessarily have to teach all that stuff again. You kind of have to relearn a few things before you can move onto the next stuff and I think we'll have a little bit of an advantage that way. “But we will start the season with likely 18 returning players, so it looks pretty good.”