Courtesy of Cynthia Pitts| The JV Hockey team grabs water right before they head back to the game. The team has seven upper classmen who have never played hockey and has started a spark of interest in upper clasmen.
By Josh Belgrad ’19
THE ROUNDUP
The hockey team sparked new interest among students this year, which welcoming seven new skaters that began the return of a JV Hockey team.
This is especially unique to have seven upper classmen join a team of a sport they have never played before.
“I had a few buds on the team who convinced me to get out on the ice and skate, at first I wasn’t quite into it but eventually, it came naturally to me,” said Michael Manley ’18, a new skater to the team.
Jack Stooks ’19, another recent addition said he gained interest from NHL hockey video games, the NHL itself and Brophy classmate Dawson Dewar ’19 who urged him to play at the beginning of the year.
The team has lost its first three games, but has recently turned the season around as they became more experienced, which evened their record at 6-6.
“At first it was really hard because we came in with very little hope for the season,” said Stooks. “We just worked hard and kept pushing in practice and we started seeing great improvement. We began to win games and it was such a great feeling knowing that all our hard work is starting to really pay off.”
Not everyone on JV is new to the game of hockey.
Nilay Murty ’19, an experienced skater, said he has enjoyed teaching and watching the new skaters grow.
“All of them are great guys and good to help start skating,” Murty said.“During the drills I like to help out and give them advice and they listen.”
With more experience on the ice and more wins for the Broncos, confidence continues to build.
“We have gained a lot of confidence but we still have to go into every game knowing we have to give it our all and compete at our best because no games are handed to us,” Stooks said.
The hockey JV state tournament does not begin until February, which gives the JV hockey team a long regular season to develop and improve their skills.
