By encouraging a sense of teamwork and connection, the Souderton ice hockey team is preparing players for their personal lives and future.
To stay motivated during practices and games, the players rely on each other for support.
“Everybody else that is on the ice, they have got their back, they are there to help them out,” coach Scott Ryon said.
“I think that teaches them that teamwork is incredibly important. There are very few things that we do in life by ourselves,” Ryon said.
According to Ryon, hockey is more than just a passion, because it teaches players many important factors that they can apply to their own future.
“It is a sport that sort of emulates life. There is so many lessons in hockey, because at the end of the day, you can’t win with one player,” Ryon said.
According to senior Nick Smith, playing for the hockey team has increased his social agenda.
“It helped me connect to people in school more and helped me create more friends,” Smith said.
Similarly, for junior Max Ryon, hockey has given him many opportunities to get more social.
“It just helped me gain friends automatically. I have friends from all four grades,” Max said.
Ryon said that hockey has taught his players to gain skills such as leadership and rational thinking.
“It teaches [athletes] leadership and teaches them to have emotional intelligence,” Ryon said.
For Ryon, hockey involves discipline and continuous work that can be utilized past high school.
“It teaches you good time management skills [and] not to procrastinate, to get all your assignments done, do all your studying. It just helps you make sure you are ready and focused,” Ryon said.
According to senior Connor Paulus, hockey has taught him determination.
“It taught me [good] work ethic, hard work and determination. This has helped me get over things,” Paulus said.
According to Smith, his communication tactics have grown due to participating in the sport.
“Communication is a key part of hockey and a key part of life,” Smith said.
Playing for the hockey team in Souderton has given many students opportunities to try to make playing hockey a career plan.
For Smith, he is “taking a gap year to play hockey” and “hopefully” making it into a career path.
For sophomore Matthew Cross, he plans on playing hockey in college.
“I plan on playing at least college, maybe a little bit further if I can,” Cross said.
Though some players would like to play professionally, being on the team has prepared them for other career plans.
For Max, he does not want to play professionally, but hockey has helped him realize his strengths.
“Hockey has helped me realize I am a very competitive person. I may go into banking or finance, where there’s a lot of competition in the job market,” Max said.