The winter sports assembly highlighted the many sports and clubs on Monday, March 10. Esports, CyberPatriot, Girls Basketball, and much more. Noticeably, one sport wasn’t mentioned, Ice Hockey received no mentions at all. The varsity team set a new program record by reaching the Frozen Four for the State Tournament. Joey Deno (12) said, “I mean, it kind of sucks, our program is really good and quite frankly has been. We’ve had great programs in the past, but this is probably one of the best programs we’ve ever had. We’ve had a lot of great talent that is going unnoticed and it’s getting underappreciated.”
The neglect the hockey team feels doesn’t only come from the assembly, as some players feel like they haven’t gotten spotlights like other sports. “Over the intercom I hear ‘Congratulations for the Girls Basketball team for getting into the last 20,’ and I only ever heard hockey like twice,” Nate Consadine (12) said, “It’s so dumb, like they couldn’t even recognize us for getting into semis or winning in our conference.” For example, the streams for the hockey games were never mentioned anywhere, meanwhile the Girls Basketball team has had their streams for their games promoted at the assembly and having a watch party at lunch. Not to mention how the only Schoology message sent to promote their games was because someone had paid for Pine Creek student tickets.
Not only are the Varsity players unhappy with the lack of recognition, the JV players also feel disheartened due to the lack of support from the school. William Blasko (11) said, “It just feels like we don’t matter, JV made it to the playoffs and yet the only thing we ever got was a small note at the bottom of the calendar near the cafeteria.”
Despite the demoralized players, they recognize it was likely an error at the assembly that they weren’t mentioned. Emmett Smith (12) said, “So I think they just messed up and didn’t cover it which is a tragedy, and basketball is getting the most attention ever and they were at the same point we were.” Even if it was an error, the hockey players are left feeling like they aren’t recognized for their efforts and success. Despite this error at the assembly, the team appreciates the support from the school parents at the games, and the help from the athletic director with their program.
