With practices four times a week and multiple games a week, the Pioneer Women’s Varsity Ice Hockey season is back in full swing. Having had an excellent season last year, and with 17 players, the team is ready to take on state championships. 

     Varsity practices 4 times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Fridays, the team lifts weights in the pit. According to Pioneer senior, Anna Thomas, who is also a captain, “Practices always start with skating drills, and then we do a variety of drills to to work on shooting and positioning.” 

     During the off season, there isn’t official training, but players can lift weights with Coach Ben Wojtas in the pit over the summer as a team. When PWICE’s season ends, players also have the option to play in another high school hockey league.

     Another captain, Pioneer junior, Rory Campbell explained that her priorities as captain are “to keep people positive and motivated on and off the ice.” She also hopes to “be representative of the coaches to the players, and representative of the players to the coaches.” Campbell is hoping that because last season went really well, it will set the tone for this year. The team’s main goal is to win states this year. They made it to semi-finals last year, but are hoping they can win the whole championship this time.

     Senior captain Anna Thomas agreed with Campbell, saying “I think our team is very motivated, and pretty positive overall going into this season. We want the state championship bad after coming close last year, and we know it will take a lot of work.” 

     Campbell and Thomas were also in agreement about the team’s strengths and weaknesses. According to Campbell, the main strengths the varsity team exhibits are “how cohesive we are, it’s practically a family, our effort during games, and how supportive we are of each other.” Campbell also went onto explain that “The only big weakness we have currently is our lack of communication on the ice.”

     Thomas and the rest of the team are most looking forward to their rivalry game against Skyline and Huron’s combined team, Skyron. The game is on December 18th, at 7PM at Veteran’s Ice Arena.

     Overall, the PWICE Varsity team is off to a great start, with 4 wins, and a tie, and only a single loss so far. Players and coaches are hoping to have more successful games this season, and are hoping that more students will come and watch their games. For more information on Pioneer Women’s Ice Hockey, upcoming games, and the roster, people can visit https://pioneerathletics.net/main/teamschedule/id/3766176/seasonId/4518078.