Hockey Ices Out Competition

“GO BEARS!” The crowd erupts as the puck flies into the net. The team huddles briefly in victory, making a circle with their helmets, before fluidly retreating to their starting lineup out on the ice.

The Blue Ridge Bears, Charlottesville’s high school ice hockey team, competes locally and regionally throughout the winter. Players include senior Matt Huschke, sophomore Jacob Huschke, and juniors Harry Heckman and Malcolm Meistrell.

While Albemarle County schools don’t sponsor ice hockey, Matt Huschke has been playing for seven years, starting “because of my dad. He grew up in Minnesota so it was one of the first sports he learned how to play.”

Hockey outside of school give players the chance to “meet a bunch of new people from different schools,” Jacob Huschke said. “Since hockey isn’t that popular around here, not many people know [or] understand it.”

“I think the hardest part about playing hockey is getting to be a good skater,” Heckman said. “In order to become a good skater you can’t worry about falling or screwing up. When I started to skate I fell non stop, but I didn’t give up there.”

He added that “if you aren’t careful you can and will get injured. Getting injured is awful [because] you miss out on a lot of ice time and practice time which can lead to confusion in game.”

While hockey has a bit of a reputation for on-ice fighting, the players refuted this stereotype.  Heckman hasn’t “seen any fist fights, but we do sometimes get into rough push and shoves after the play.”

Between skating, following the puck and trying to avoid getting shoved into a wall, “you have to be alert while playing in a game,” Matt Huschke said. “You have to always keep an eye out for both your teammates and yourself. Our coach insists that we play using a system [or] strategy that ‘protects the individual.’”

Jacob Huschke agreed that “you just have to be aware of everything that’s going on.”

For Matt Huschke, “it took a while for me to become comfortable playing the game. Once I was able to skate decently, the rest came fairly easy.”

The team’s record at press time was 8-2-2, as they recently defeated several teams throughout Virginia and Maryland, specifically in Richmond and Baltimore.

“The best game we had so far [was when] we beat the Richmond Royals, which is one of the harder teams to beat, 6-0 on their home ice,” Heckman said. “I actually did not play in the game (I was recovering from a dislocated knee) but we ran all of our plays perfectly and we played hard.”

“We have a new coach this year, so I’d say the hardest part is adapting to his style of coaching,” Matt Huschke said. “His strategies are completely different from what any of us have ever done before, but that’s why it’s so great to see everything work out. Seeing the team successfully adapt to the new system and execute the plays is probably the best part of this year.”

For information about opportunities to skate and attend hockey games at Main Street Arena, visit www.mainstarena.com.

This article originally appeared on pg. 11 of the Dec. 18 issue.