Winter season sports have started. In addition to basketball, wrestling, and girls swim, the hockey program is ready to start strong this season. Ending last season 0-9 was disappointing and the players are hoping to turn it around. Michael Stone (9) said his goal this year is to “Try to win some games and put up a banner.” Pine Creek competes in the 5A division this year and there will be no easy competition. The first contest against Chaparral gave the team a taste of what 5A competition is all about ending in an unfortunate 8 – 1 defeat. The second and third games on the schedule are Lewis Palmer and Valor Christian. Lewis-Palmer, who is a big rival, is a player favorite to beat. “I’m really excited to play LP (Lewis-Palmer), [I] wanna beat them,” said senior, Alex Bergquist.

 This year, there has been improvement seen already throughout many players. “I feel like we’ll grow a lot. Just from playing preseason we’ve grown double the amount,” said freshman Connor Bohl. Playing against the highest level competition will only bring the player’s up, and it will give players little experience in high school hockey, more high level play. Their goal for this year is at least a .500 win percentage, which may be reached with talent coming to the school. “Try to make 500, then go from there,” said Bergquist. All of this talent on the varsity team is coming from multiple different schools, consisting of Discovery Canyon, Colorado Springs Charter Academy, Falcon High School, and of course Pine Creek. This year there is a JV team and a Varsity team, which are both greatly involved with each other. JV also known as “future varsity” will have their run of it this year, with this being the first year having a 5A JV team. 

Overall Pine Creek is hoping to have a great year, with a lot of talent on the team. After a tough start to the season, the team is hoping to turn it around and dominate this year. The student body is highly encouraged to support the team during the games and cheer them on throughout the year. This could truly be the start of a great season, and this may be the year that the seniors have success. “I just wanted to play for the team one last time for my senior year,  said Bergquist.