The Jenison hockey team and how they can improve

Hayden Blik, Staff Writer

October 6, 2022

I spoke to a few Jenison students that attended the home opener for the Jenison hockey team. to see how they felt about the experience of the hockey games. and what they saw that needed change for the games.

The overall experience for students

All my interviewees attended the home opener for the team last season. As Keagan Everin responded to what his favorite part of the game was. “I got to spend time with the team during the game and help them in the locker room. if they needed anything during the game,” Liam Zolman said. “I had a great time inside the cat pack the people around me were having a great time. And made the atmosphere a lot better for the students in the stands.” And finally Brian Donley stated, “As a future player for the team, it was great to see how the players were having a great time on and off the ice, especially with the other students.”  Students seemed to have a great time at the game but few of them showed up for other games.

How it could be better

When asked about how the events could improve we got a lot of help from the interviewee Brian Donley. “The students didn’t have a lot of things to do during intermission which made them get a little bored before the restart of the game.” Keagan Everin stated, ”The time for the skate with the team afterward was quite boring for both the students and the players. so they should add something for them to do on the ice.” Liam said, “the whole experience was quite fun for him and, I didn’t see anything that the team could do to make the experience much better.” It seems that the students have a great experience during and at the games. But especially during the intermission of the games, it seemed to change that.

Other games during the season

They had all been to other games but they all seemed to find the other games quite boring to the fans with these quotes Keagan Everin saying, “they didn’t seem to worry about the student section as much as they should for the other games.”  Liam Zolman added, “I didn’t have as much fun in the student section compared to the first game.” Brian Donley said, “the other games were quite boring for the attending students.”  The students seemed to only care about the team right at the start. it shows that the team doesn’t get enough recognition. by staff and social media accounts that get the students to sporting events.

Conclusion

It seems to me that the games have been good experiences for the attending students. we could do better to have the CatPack show up for the games and have more fun for the players and the attending students. It also looks like the team doesn’t get shown on the social media accounts that the school has, the amount of times during my interviews I heard. “we have a hockey team” is showing that the team that is having a lot of success lately should be getting more recognition from the school. And especially with the team moving up in conferences after last season’s conference championship the team could use the supporters.