Wheeling Park’s Club Hockey Team has started the season off and running with a 4-2 record to start the season, winning the last 4 games by a combined score of 28-8. Led by Head Coach Shayne Wilson, this team is young, fast, and exciting to watch.

“I would say we are definitely faster this year,” said sophomore Luke Simonetti, on what improvements the team made compared to last year. “We didn’t lose too many players last year so we knew the improvements we had to make for this year to make a run for a state championship.”

Something different about the Club Hockey Team is that they don’t participate in the normal WVSSAC regular season that other Wheeling Park athletic teams experience, because there are only 8 teams in the entire state. For the regular season, they play in the PIHL (Pittsburgh Interscholastic Hockey League), where they play against tough Pittsburgh opponents.

“It gets our confidence up and playing hard in those games so we can go into the state tournament fresh. We also get more confidence in our teammates and hopefully win a state championship,” said sophomore Cooper Abraham on how these tough Pittsburgh opponents help them prepare for when the state tournament rolls around. 

“I don’t think you can replace a guy who literally saved lives on the beaches of South Carolina,” said Coach Wilson when asked about the hole left when former captain Gian DeGenova graduated.

Coach Wilson is also optimistic about this team’s future, “We are very young. We’ll go through some growing pains throughout this year which is natural but I think this team has more potential than maybe any other team I’ve coached. We have young talent coupled with a great core leadership group. If everyone buys in and plays for each other this team has a very good chance to win a state championship,” said Wilson.

The top points leaders on the team are Kaden Schnarr with 12, Cooper Abraham with 11, and Luke Simonetti with 10 points.

    Upcoming Home Games:

11/14 – Chartiers Valley

11/16 – Westmont Hilltop

11/20 – Freeport

12/14 – Avonworth