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FAIRBANKS — With two new coaches coming in and many top players returning, the Greatland Hockey Conference appears to be up for grabs this season.

“I believe we’ll be in there,” fifth-year Tri-Valley coach Nick Evans said Friday at the small schools jamboree in North Pole. “Hutchison looks good, Glennallen will be good and Delta (Junction) will be good.”

Last season, Delta Junction topped Glennallen 2-1 in the Greatland Conference Tournament championship, which doubled as the 2008 small schools state high school championship. Tri-Valley and Kenny Lake placed third and fourth, respectively.

Four local small schools — Tri-Valley, Kenny Lake, Hutchison and Monroe Catholic — participated in the round-robin jamboree, which featured games of one 15-minute period. Delta Junction decided not to participate, so Class 4A North Pole filled in.

The small schools season officially starts tonight, as Delta Junction faces off against Hutchison at 6 at the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

Monroe coach Leo Faro says Hutchison is the team to beat this year.

“They’ve got great depth, a lot of Comp kids, and a good coach,” Faro said.

That coach is Dave Teets, the Fairbanks Hockey Hall of Fame 2008 Coach of the Year who is new to high school coaching. Among his players is son John, a freshman transfer from Monroe Catholic.

“When we went to sign him up, they (Hutchison’s administration) kind of gave me a call and said they were looking for a coach,” Teets said. “I actually had planned on taking a year or two off.”

Drew Baggen leads the Hawks, who have four seniors.

“Drew’s a smart hockey player. He’s going to be a good leader,” Teets said.

One key for Hutchison will be the goaltending duo of freshman Shayna Thomas and sophomore Hayden Nilson.

“They’re the youngest, probably least experienced part of our team right now,” Teets said.

Teets is happy with what he’s seen from the Hawks so far.

“I’ve got a great group of kids,” Teets said. “They all want to learn. A little bit of hard work, they’re going to be successful.”

Meanwhile, Tri-Valley, from the Healy area, has lost just two players and returns its three leading scorers in sophomore Kaz Cizmowski, junior Evan Venechuk and junior Parker Vacura.

Among its jamboree games was a scoreless tie against Kenny Lake.

“I thought we looked good for only skating a few times (in practice),” Evans said after that contest. “Fifteen minutes is not a lot of time to get your lines going.”

The Warriors practice outdoors and host games unless the temperature at the start is colder than 20 below.

“It gives us a good advantage when we have home games,” Evans said.

Kenny Lake is in a similar situation on an outdoor rink of its own.

“The kids have to be tough, because if it’s 20 below, 25 below, we’re gonna skate,” coach Shawn Friendshuh said. “Otherwise, we’d be sitting around a lot and doing dryland (training) inside. … You gotta deal with the elements — snow, wind, rain, cold weather.”

However, the Hawks weren’t complaining about moving indoors to the Polar Ice Arena.

“These kids love this indoor ice. They love to play on a nice, solid, consistent piece of ice,” Friendshuh said.

Kenny Lake, from Copper Center in the Copper River Valley, has three seniors, led by leading scorer Garrett Rosenkrans. Junior David Helkenn also returns as the starting goalie.

Among Kenny Lake’s 16 players are four girls. What’s also impressive is that the high school has only about 50 students.

“Almost a third of the school plays hockey,” said Friendshuh, who predicted that his team would likely finish in the middle of the Greatland Conference pack.

Monroe Catholic coach Faro said work ethic will be the key for the Rams this season.

“We’ve got a good group of kids that will work hard,” Faro said. “We need to outwork the other teams. If we can do that, we should have success.”

The Rams return Eric Ringstad, Tyler Holmes and Dan Bunten and have brought in Alex Nelson, a transfer from West Valley.

The biggest loss for Monroe Catholic is goalie Riley Jewkes-Leonard, who is now playing junior hockey in Texas.

“He could control games for us. I wish I had him,” Faro said.

Taking over between the pipes is Andy Bunten, a senior playing goalie for the first time.

“He’s a big boy and covers a lot of net,” Faro said.

As for Delta Junction, coach Mike Long said his team “absolutely” is capable of repeating as state small schools champion.

“We’re going to have a fairly balanced team — a couple of wily veterans, a few young kids and your hodgepodge in the middle,” said Long, an assistant for the Huskies the last two seasons who has replaced Chris Zachgo as head coach.

Three of those wily veterans are senior forwards Caleb Brown, Junior Joe and Trevor Gilbertson. Expected to anchor the defense are Mark Jackson, who battled injuries last year, and Robert Smith, who missed the championship game last year in Wasilla after breaking a leg in a semifinal victory over Tri-Valley.

Goaltending duties to start the season will be split between sophomore Justin Carpenter (the starter against Hutchison) and freshman Harold Probert.

Long knows the Huskies will have a target on their backs this season.

“Just work hard,” Long said of what’s necessary to contend for a repeat. “We’re not going to underestimate anybody this year.”

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.