Varsity skates for the win

Kamren Shoup, number 21, skating to make a goal.

Michael Sherman

Kamren Shoup, number 21, skating to make a goal.

Melanie Peterson, Ranger Review Editor

The ice was wet with zamboni liquid. Lewis-Palmer and Cheyenne Mountain High Schools Hockey teams’ glided across the defense lines slapping as many pucks into the nets as they could. The people in the stands cheered, seemingly full of joy and anticipation.

The music from the boys’ locker room started blaring, helping prepare the hockey team for their soon to be victory. G-Eazy rap music was so loud, it seemed close to shaking the cement walls. Varsity players did their pre-game warm-ups, team building exercises and words of encouragement were spread around the halls.

Friday, January 29th, Junior Varsity hockey played Cherry Creek High School and Varsity played against Cheyenne Mountain. Varsity won 6-1, causing somewhat of an uproar in the boys locker room after the game. Junior Varsity lost 8-3, making the mood of the game rather downcast. The student and parent sections were cheering loudly for their hockey boys; cookies from team managers were handed out and Lewis-Palmer fans went home with smiles on their faces for Varsity win.

The end of hockey season is just around the corner. So the teams skated, seemingly determined to not let their team and coaches down. They hit the small pucks as hard and as fast as their bodies would allow, making every shot count.

“Just being on the ice, making plays, scoring and being with my team is what I concentrate on. The season went by really fast, so it’s kind of hard to believe it’s over halfway finished. I’m kind of bummed about that, but we still have quite a few games,” Nick Pavlik, 12, said.

Pavlik began playing ice hockey when he was eight years old. Due to curiosity of wanting to try out a new sport.

“We have our JV and our Varsity teams, basically you just have to work hard. Usually freshman and new guys won’t really start on Varsity, but once you work your way up and get better, you can start. Last year, we didn’t have a JV team, so this year our coach took people who were technically on Varsity and put them on JV,” Pavlik said.

The Varsity team is full of students’ who have been playing hockey since they were much younger.

“I’ve been skating for twelve years,” Iain Fraser, 11, said. “Being with my teammates and being able to just be on the ice is probably my favorite thing. It is definitely a process to learn it, but it’s fun. It gets you in shape.”  

Fraser plays on Varsity and plans on continuing to play hockey until his senior year of high school. Fraser has been playing hockey since he was five years old and was inspired to start by his older brother, Camden Fraser, who graduated from Lewis-Palmer in the class of 2014.

Juniors and seniors are not the only ones who play for Varsity hockey though. Jared Piggot, 9, plays for JV as well as Varsity.

“It’s pretty tiring. Varsity is more fun because you’re apart of a better team, but I get more playing time for JV,” Piggot said.

Piggot has to play two games every time that Varsity and JV go up against other hockey teams. Usually, the two teams’ play games in the same day and they last close to two hours each, depending on zamboni times and penalties given.

The last few moments on the ice were not taken advantage of by the players, as the last hours approach, and every game has huge amounts of energy, from the players, as well as the fans.

  

Seth Dunham, number 38; playing for JV.
Michael Sherman
Seth Dunham, number 38; playing for JV.