Hockey is a sport known for being fast paced, difficult to play and popular in cold, northern places like Canada. While hockey is still popular throughout Columbus, the urban environment and warmer weather renders the sport almost nonexistent among high school athletes.
For smaller schools like Bexley, there are not enough players nor space to make a high school team, so students who wish to play hockey must go to either a travel team or a club team.
Sophomore Collin Zupnick said travel hockey teams are divided into multiple levels.
“The highest level is Triple A,” he explained. “You travel all across the country, in different countries, where you’re playing the top teams.”
One step down from that is Double A, then Single A, and finally club and highschool hockey, Zupnick added.
Senior Evan Guttman, who currently plays for the club team The Storm, said it can be difficult to find a team to play for in Columbus because there are not many options.
“If your high school doesn’t have a team, you’re in a tough pickle,” he explained. “You have to be really good to go play travel or for one of these club teams. That makes it difficult to earn a spot on one of the better teams.”
Before joining The Storm, Guttman played travel hockey for almost 13 years, but he finally made the decision to join the club at the beginning of this season, he added.
“I didn’t want to play travel anymore,” Guttman said. “It’s too much grind and too much traveling. With club hockey, you’re playing local Columbus teams, so it’s certainly a lower level. It’s way more laid back, so it’s nice.”
Similarly, Zupnick said he recently joined The Storm after playing for more intense travel teams like the Triple A Blue Jackets, which is the highest level team in Ohio.
“I usually worked on a lot bigger club teams before this, where there’s a lot of travel and dedication,” he explained. “The transition to this new team has been different for me since it’s less competitive.”
Although club hockey can be a much better alternative to travel, it can come with its drawbacks, Zupnick explained. When athletes are used to playing with top tier teams, such as the Triple A Blue Jackets for Zupnick, and the NAPHL for Guttman, playing for a low level club like The Storm can seem like a step down, Guttman explained.
He added in The Storm’s history, they haven’t done very well in their league.
“This team has been some of the worst hockey in the city,” he said.
But after Guttman and his friends joined this year, he added they have turned the season around.
Not only are club hockey teams and travel hockey teams different, Guttman said, but club hockey and other high school sports differ as well.
Senior Rocky Trinidad said he plays club hockey and played soccer for the school team. He added the two could not be more different from each other.
“The school sport is definitely more involved because you have practices every day,” he explained. “Since there’s only a limited amount of ice in Columbus, you can only practice a few times a week, rather than every day after school.”
Zupnick agreed and he said he feels school sports are much more organized than club hockey teams.
Trinidad explained the club hockey season starts in mid-September and ends around the beginning of March. In that time, they played around 50 games, he added.
Junior Noah Grischkan, who is also a player on The Storm, said they have at least one or two games almost every weekend.
“There’s so many high schools and other club teams that also participate in the league, so you can easily fill a schedule,” Grischkan added.
One downside, he said, is not as many people come to their club games as other school sports.
“Having people attend the games would be fun, but it’s fun to do what I love,” Grischkan explained.
