That process has included more loss than wins so far this season as the Raiders stood at 4-10-1 through last weekend. But Ramapo has been in just about every game it has played this season with a rebuilt and effective defense and, judging by the mood at practice on Wednesday night, there is more to this group of players that the win/loss record.

“Obviously nobody likes losing and I hate losing, but you have to take the good with the bad,” said Steve Schick, who is in his fifth season as the Raiders’ head coach. “We have a great bunch of kids here and that makes it a lot easier to come in and work with them. The program is in good shape and it is either going to turn around for us this year or it will definitely turn around for us next year.”

This year’s team is an eclectic group. There is Chris Martin, the senior captain and leading scorer who likes to spend his time on the water whether it be frozen or otherwise. Martin has already been accepted to the US Merchant Marine Academy and the US Coast Guard Academy and just received a nomination to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

“We definitely had higher expectations for this season, but despite our record we haven’t really had any blowout losses. Pretty much every game has been close,” said Martin. “We only have four seniors, we are a really young team and we just had to learn how to win. We’ve been playing better lately and we have a couple of games left to try to make something happen.”

Then there is the freshman goalie with the marquee name, Carl Boomhower, who skated right in and took the starting job right off the bat. He has been an anchor in net since Day 1 of the season.

“I played for an 18-U team and faced a lot of shots to get ready for high school and that helped, but high school is a different kind of game. It is faster moving in some spots, there is more hitting, but it is more inconsistent in a lot of ways. It’s a fun game,” said Boomhower. “I was nervous in the beginning, but I had good game against Randolph right out of the gate, I think I had 35 saves, and that gave me the confidence to keep going.”

Directly in front of Boomhower is where the Raiders have had the most turnover as captain Bill Griffith is the lone returning member of last year’s top four defensive rotation. The pleasant surprise has been the emergence of players like Dennis Polizzi, Chris Caulfield and Neal Addison, who all saw limited action last year but now take regular shifts on defense. In NBIL play, the Green Raiders have given up more than three goals (not including situations with the goalie pulled) just once all season.

Another key piece to the defense this season has been Luke Menken, but his story is much deeper than high school hockey. Menken was gravely ill at this time last year, stricken with meningitis. Now he is back on the ice making a contribution to his team and he is, most importantly, healthy.

“What happened last year taught me to take advantage of every minute that I get to play. It makes you realize that every time you go out there it could be your last time,” said Menken. “Everything is back to normal now and, going through what I went through last year, it just makes it that much more fun.”

The rest of the season would be more fun for Ramapo if it could turn some of those close losses into wins and, according to Schick that is what the Raiders plan on doing.

“This season is still not over. We still have a chance to make it to states,” said Schick. “We still have a really good chance of going to the championship game of the NBIL or even winning it, so there is no limitation on us as of yet.”