Former RoadRunner forward Cody Omilusik (Traverse City, MI), playing in his first year for the Division I Army Black Knights (Atlantic Hockey Assoc.) was honored with the Heinmiller Award as the team’s Outstanding Freshman of the Year. Omilusik (pronouned “oh-muh-LOO-sik”) was the top point-producing freshman on the team, netting nine goals and seven assists and tying for the team lead with two short-handed goals. He scored three game-winning goals and one power play tally. The award is named after John Heinmiller, a former hockey player who worked his way from the junior varsity to varsity. Following the competition of his freshman varsity season, he was tragically killed in a train accident in April, 2001.

Omilusik receiving Heinmiller Award from Second Lieutenant Mike Picone. 

            Moving from junior hockey to the collegiate ranks is not without its challenges. “I'd say the biggest challenge in coming to West Point is being able to manage my time between hockey and school”, Omilusik said. “The amount of school work here is overwhelming on it's own.  Being able to put as much time in to hockey and still be able to do well in school is a skill I am learning and working on.”  The demanding schedule and regimen of junior hockey, though, was the right training ground to prepare him for school. “Junior hockey was a great stepping stone into college hockey and West Point especially, because it allows you to get the feel of living away from home and having a good time with your best friends and teammates before having to knuckle down and get serious about school work and making something of yourself.”

            Omilusik came to the RoadRunners as a free agent after the Bozeman ICEDOGS withdrew from the NAHL, and the experience is one he continues to treasure. “My time with the RoadRunners holds some of the best stories and times of my life thus far.  While I was there I started to write a book to keep track of some of the memories, so hopefully someday I'll be able to put that together and give people a little more insight to what being a Junior A Hockey player is like.  In general though, living in a new city where the only people you know are your new teammates, you form friendships that will last a lifetime.  That is what junior hockey is all about.”

  RIT's Anton Kharin dumped by Omilusik in open ice.  

          Omilusik has been a productive member of every team he’s been on since high school, when he played two years for the Marquette Electricians, putting up 45 points his first year and 86 in his second. He then went the NAHL’s Bozeman ICEDOGS where he posted 16 goals and 14 assists on a team that set a record for regular season points en route to a Robertson Cup Final. He rounded out his junior career with the RoadRunners in Santa Fe where the team went a franchise best 41-17-4, posting 22 goals and 24 assists, including a team leading 12 power play goals. An every night player, Cody played in 116 of 120 regular season games in juniors. In his first season at West Point, he tallied 9 goals and 7 assists for 16 points including two shorthanded goals. His success as a freshman at Army comes as no surprise to Omilusik’s former head coach Scott Langer. “Cody was a grinder, and despite his success, he was one of the most snakebit kids I’d ever seen. If half the posts he hit turned into goals, he’d have broken every record we have.” Langer continued in his praise, “Omilusik only knows one way to play the game, and that’s full speed. His energy is contagious, and that’s part of what makes him a great teammate and a pleasure to coach”.

Flying through the air, Army's Cody Omilusik scores the game winning goal as the Black Knights defeat Air Force, 2-1.

            Omilusik is entering his sophomore year and and figures to be a big part of the Army program, which won it’s first regular seaon title in history last season.