Quite often when a sports reporter does season previews, there’s an overwhelming flow of optimism.

Things are on the rise, players have improved over the offseason and the conference title is up for grabs.

When I did the preview for the Austin boys hockey team this year, I’m not going to say their wasn’t optimism, but it was definitely buried with some humility.

The Packers were coming off an 0-19-1 season and they had even seen some of their players transfer to play at other schools.

A couple of Austin’s players said they were hoping to get some wins but they were also keeping it realistic — like at around five or so.

Things are looking quite a bit different right now. The Packers won their first Big Nine game in two years last week, a 5-4 win over Mankato East and their record stands at 8-12 overall. While much of their games have been played against non-hockey powers, Austin has a start towards making boys hockey a solid sport again.

“That win against Mankato East was a big deal,” Austin head coach Tim Peterson said. “We had a big crowd and it got the kids going. We’d also like to pull off another upset against Owatonna or Mankato West and get a home game in the playoffs, which a lot of people don’t think we should get.”

The fact that the Packers can even talk about hosting a playoff game shows that the team’s confidence is on the rise.

“The first win of the season over Fairmont was the biggest thing in changing our mindset,” Peterson said. “The attitude this year is a complete 180 from last year. Kids are supportive each other and they’ve worked very hard.”

Besides adding some wins on the ice, the Packers have also made some minor adjustments to keep the contests exciting. They’ve added music for timeouts and they’ve added a horn sound for whenever a Packer scores a goal.

“It’s a small thing, but it helps,” Peterson said.

And while some will scoff at the Packers’ wins being against sub-.500 teams (East is the only team that is .500 that Austin has beaten), I would point to the scores against the better teams Austin has played. The Packers have only allowed double-digit goals twice this season and that was something that happened all too often last season.

Even in their losses, they’ve shown fight and a no-quit attitude.

With a junior hockey team coming to town next season and the Packers having some key returnees — forward Isaac Gorman is a sophomore and defenseman Marcus Stoulil is a freshman — Peterson is hoping the squad can keep on improving.

“I think the addition of the junior team will keep some kids on the team who may have left otherwise,” he said. “I think we’ll get better next year. Success breeds success and we have some young talent coming back.”

And maybe when I do next year’s preview, players will be a little more up-front about their optimism.

Austin will host Mankato West this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.