MAY 1, 2025 | SPORTS | By Celeste Hammer
In the months after the Colorado College Tigers concluded their final game against the University of Denver with a 2-9 loss, six rostered players entered the NCAA transfer portal. The portal is open from March 30 to May 13, and players commit to schools before and after the portal closes.
“I think the challenge that the transfer portal brings is that it’s hard to get to know somebody on that level in a couple of weeks, and sometimes a couple of days… the sport of college athletics in general is becoming more transactional,” said Kris Mayotte, head coach of the CC Tigers. “But those aren’t our values. That’s not the program we’re trying to build. You know, we want players who are coming here thinking about getting a CC degree, and if you’re not getting a CC degree, hopefully you’re leaving to sign a pro contract. You know, we don’t want to be very conscious that we’re not bringing in a transactional mindset.”
He added that recruiting incoming freshmen remained a priority, especially finding recruits that are interested in the Block Plan and academics at CC.
The Tigers have lost many players this offseason. Noah Laba ‘26 and Gleb Veremyev ‘26 have entered their entry-level contracts with pro teams, and six other team members have entered the transfer portal and signed with other colleges. With an additional six graduating, 14 rostered players – more than half of the team – will not return for next season.
The Tigers will lose all the players who held leadership positions this season, including captain Stanley Cooley ‘25, and assistant captains Ethan Straky ‘26 and Laba.
This comes after a gain in momentum in the program after hiring Kris Mayotte as head coach, who led the Tigers to their best record in a decade in the 2023-24 season, where the Tigers hosted their first playoff series since 2012 and recorded a four-game season sweep of North Dakota for the first time in program history.
The 2024-25 season was not as successful. The Tigers began this year with an impressive string of wins, but then hit a lull and followed it with a string of losses.
“One of the things that I think the characteristics of this year’s team was that our good was really good, but our bad was bad…” said Mayotte. “I think ultimately, if you have to rely on your best performance to win, you’re just not going to have that consistency that you need to be successful in the second half in our league.”
The momentum was hard to regain after many losses in the mid-season, and their season ended early with two losses at Denver during the first round of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) playoffs.
The six players who entered the portal: forward Zaccharya Wisdom ‘27, forward Ryan Beck ‘26, forward Straky, defender Brady Cleveland ‘27, defender Tyler Dunbar ‘27, and goaltender Carsen Musser ‘28 have all already committed to other college programs.
Wisdom has been an impact player for the Tigers in his two years with the program. He had a career-high of 21 points this past season with 13 assists and scored the game-winning goal in an overtime win against Arizona State. He was also named a Distinguished Scholar-Athlete by the NCHC and a member of the all-academic team for the second consecutive year. Wisdom, who was drafted in 2023 by the Seattle Kraken in the seventh round, has committed to conference rival and 2025 NCAA Champion Western Michigan University.
Beck has been with the Tigers hockey program for three years, and in his freshman year, he was one of two freshmen to play all 38 games. In the 2023-24 season, he tied for the team lead with a career-high 17 assists and was third with a career-best 20 points in the season. This most recent season, he collected seven assists and was named a member of the NCHC all-academic team for the second consecutive year. Beck will be playing with Lake Superior State University next year, which is a part of the Central Collegiate Hockey Conference (CCHC).
This year’s assistant captain, Straky, had an impressive three seasons with the Tigers. This year, he was named assistant captain and played his 100th career game versus Miami. He was fourth on the team with 33 blocked shots and was named a Distinguished Scholar-Athlete by the NCHC for the second consecutive year and a member of the all-academic team for the third consecutive year. Straky has signed with Ohio State University in the Big Ten Conference.
Straky entered the transfer portal in search of a new dynamic.
“I think going through the whole process, I wanted to play for a coach that cared about his players and had family as a core value in the locker room, and I feel that I found that with Ohio State,” he said.
Straky started considering transferring a few weeks after their season ended.
“It’s kind of hectic. It happened pretty fast. I got into the portal and within a couple of days, I talked to a lot of schools and kind of narrowed it down over the following week,” said Straky. “It was kinda, like, a whirlwind, to be honest.”
After transferring from the University of Wisconsin last year, Cleveland scored his first career goal, a game-winner against Denver in the NCHC playoffs. He also collected his first career point with an assist at Alaska Anchorage. Cleveland, a second-round draft pick for the Detroit Red Wings, will be transferring to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, another one of CC’s NCHC rivals.
Dunbar played 17 games during his freshman year and collected his first career goal in a victory against Long Island University. He was named a Distinguished Scholar-Athlete by the NCHC and a member of the all-academic team for the second consecutive year. Dunbar will be transferring to Union College in New York.
Rookie goaltender Musser appeared in nine games this season and started in six. He compiled 42 saves against the Vikings, which tied for the most by a Tiger this season. His first career win was in the come-from-behind 5-4 win at Arizona State. Musser finished the season with a 0.879 save percentage. He was selected in the sixth round for the Utah Hockey Club in the 2023 Draft and has signed to play with the University of St. Thomas.
“There were talks in November about [transferring] because I wasn’t playing, so it was frustrating, but then it settled down, and I started playing, and I felt good about the situation. A week after the season ended, I was home for spring break, and I heard from my advisor that [Kaidan] Mbereko was going to be back so then we talked as a family with my advisor, ‘it would probably be best to maybe look somewhere else’ if the rumor of him coming back was true and it ended up being true.”
Kaiden Mbereko ‘26 is left as the sole goalkeeper on the depth chart.
Colorado College was immediately a school that Musser felt fit him.
“I kind of felt it throughout the visit, and then what the coaches were saying at the time, it was something I wanted to be a part of,” Musser said. “With the culture they were building and the team that year was doing a good job…I ended up committing maybe a week later.”
When asked why he chose Saint Thomas, Musser said, “Their plan they had for me and the opportunity to play was the biggest [factor]. There were a lot of pros to it; it’s a good academic school, and they are getting a new rink for this upcoming season, which will be pretty cool. They are joining the NCHC in two years, so that kind of shows the up-and-coming of the program and the culture that they have going on there.”
However, all athletes will transfer into much larger schools than CC. Straky, especially, will miss CC’s environment.
“I’m going to miss all of my teammates, and I really hope they do well,” said Straky. “Beyond that, the community and the people you meet at a small school, that’s the toughest part to leave behind, the relationships. I’m just grateful I had three years here.”
When asked if he would like to add any thoughts or comments on the six players transferring, Mayotte responded, “No.”
Following this year’s season, Peter Mannino, associate head coach, reportedly left the program on March 29. There have not been any reports or information about this occurrence. On May 1, the University of Notre Dame announced that Andrew Oglevie would join their team as assistant coach. Oglevie joined the Tigers in July 2023 as an assistant coach.
This next season will bring change as the Tigers have to figure out how to win without some of their top players from the past few seasons.
“It’s a group that I think has a chip on their shoulder, in terms of how this past season went, but also, I think they get the sense that there are some people doubting what they can be next year,” said Mayotte. “And I think so far it’s proven to be a really good motivator.”
The transfer portal goes both ways. Mayotte is excited to see what incoming transfers will be able to accomplish in this program.
“We lost a lot of upperclassmen, whether it’s graduation, signing pro contracts or the transfer portal,” he said. “So the fact that we can bring in two guys who come in as seniors was important for us.”
As of right now, the Tigers have signed three new players – forward Ryan Alexander, a junior from Arizona State; defender Travis Shoudy, a junior from Ferris State; and defender Seth Constance, a freshman from Northeastern.