Words: Sasha Allen
Photos: Adithi Soogoor
With the winter sports season here, many of Centennial’s students have tried out for or are on a winter sports team. One of the biggest winter sports, however, is ice hockey, and, to the surprise of many students, Centennial actually has an ice hockey team.
This club has been around for a while, and was originally one of the first Maryland Scholastic Hockey League teams, founded for the 1988-1989 season. However, the team merged with Long Reach in the 2016-17 season. This year, the Long Reach and Centennial team has combined with Wilde Lake, Hammond, and Oakland Mills because of the lack of players. This merged, co-ed team is called the Wolves. There are actually only 2 students on the team from Centennial, Julia Reynolds and Kyle Duff.
Throughout the winter, the team, which is made up of 24 students, plays against Howard County schools over the course of nine games. Along with the nine games, the team has around ten practices for about 2 hours each.
Summer Shen, a junior at Centennial, participated in the team her freshman and sophomore years, but is injured and cannot play this season. She had been playing hockey since eighth grade, so she was devastated that she was not able to participate this year. Originally a gymnast, Shen had decided to try out a new sport and was influenced by her younger brother to take on ice hockey. Shen says, “I decided to pick up the sport and immediately loved it.”
Most of the 24 players participate on a club team as well as their school team, but there are a couple of players who had little to no experience before playing for the Wolves.
At a recent game on January 4, the Wolves played the Hebron Vikings. The first goal was scored by the Wolves, but they ended up losing the game 7-1. Less than half of the team was present at the Friday night game, so most of the players played the majority of the game. At the beginning of the game, both teams came together to award the senior players on each team, announcing their name and achievements.
This was the team’s second to last game of the season. The last game will be played on Monday, January 28th against River Hill.
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