TAMPA, FL — The speed and pace of Jesuit’s hockey practice is intense.

The skill level, impressive.

If you didn’t know this was a high school team, you may think otherwise.

After all, their head coach is a former Lightning player, and Stanley Cup champion.

“He won a Stanley Cup, and I think that the biggest thing is that in key moments, he knows what to tell us to keep our nerves in check,” said senior Matthew Doland.

Former Lightning defenseman Jassen Cullimore has a hockey resume that spans two decades. He’s now in his eighth season as Jesuit’s hockey head coach.

“Something that has improved in the time I’ve been here is the skill level of the players. That’s something that we focus on,” Cullimore said.

Under his leadership, the program has become dominant, with many players going on to compete in college.

“He completely revolutionized the program, taking us from just a pretty nonchalant program to a fully competitive in the state honestly,” Doland reflected.

Every year, Cullimore has seen the increase in participation, not just on his team, but across the Tampa Bay area. It’s led to higher quality and more competition across the entire high school league. Something he credits to the Lightning.

“We’re growing the game here in the Tampa Bay Area, and now, we’re seeing the fruits of that labor, we’ve doubled the amount of kids signed up for high school hockey, and it’s improved the game, it’s improved the skill level of the player and the competitiveness of every game.”

His players have seen the difference too.

“My brother played, and he’s eight years older than me, so I’ve seen it for a long time now. It started as a very casual event every Friday, to a new league with 20 something teams, and a whole Lightning Cup just for the Bay Area. And that’s really due to the Lightning’s support and their influence,” Doland said.

In 2011, the high school hockey league had 385 players. This season it had over 700 players across 21 varsity teams and 16 JV.

“They were asking who the good teams are, I said, “really there are a lot of really good teams,” it used to be that there were really only one or two,” Cullimore said.

Cullimore has been involved in the Lightning’s development programs. Now, it’s coming full circle.

“The two players you interviewed they were at the Lightning Camps when they were young, 6 or 7 years old. I remember seeing them there and now, they’re seniors,” Cullimore said.

Jesuit has big expectations once again this year, aiming for the state championship.

“We’ve made it every year, we’ve gone to nationals once, we were second in states that year, we’ve never won the Lightning Cup, which is something that I’d like to do. And that’s something I brought up at the beginning of the season.”

But more than that, Cullimore hopes his players take away life lessons.

“It’s more of the experience, the learning experience. If they learn to do something properly, stay committed, stay positive. It translates not only in the game, but in life and hopefully they can take that.”