From its humble beginnings in 2003, the Yorktown Ice Hockey Club has evolved from a small, mainly junior varsity (JV) team to a premier program in the Northern Virginia School Hockey League (NVSHL). Under the leadership of Head Coach Jeremey Ferrara, the club now has 40 players and continues to excel during the 2022-23 ice hockey season.
The club’s yearly schedule is simple. From October to February, NVSHL teams play ten season games. After the regular season comes the league’s playoffs. Our school played an extra four non-league games this year against private schools in the Washington metropolitan area.
Within the NVSHL, Yorktown had seven wins, two losses and one additional overtime loss. The club fought their hardest and played their best throughout these games, but, naturally, some went better than others.
Last November, the team played against Kettle Run High School. Right above us in the division standings, Kettle Run was a tough opponent. Our school, nevertheless, came out victorious 4-2.
Unfortunately, with wins come losses; while these were sparse this season, our hockey team lost 2-6 to Loudoun Valley High School. Junior Ander Andreev, a player for the club since 2020, has some insight on the night.
“I felt like we were unprepared for that game. It was far away, late at night and we thought we were gonna win easily,” Andreev said.
The period of loss, however, was short. In a quick turnaround, the team won 10-1—an epic difference—against Flint Hill School just a week later.
Another notable match was the non-league game against private school Archbishop Spalding, which resulted in a tie after a well-fought game. Head Coach Jeremey Ferrara congratulated the team on the arduous night.
“It was a pretty tense environment. I felt like the team played really well and came through in the sense of knowing they could play with anyone,” Ferrara said.
Ferrara’s words are most definitely true. A week later, the club was up against an undefeated team from John Champe High School. Despite doubts that the game could end in a Yorktown victory, the team won 3-2. It was a challenge, but the players seemed to consistently control the ice throughout the match, finishing up the regular season on an extremely good note.
“I think we all just finally realized that if we play together as a team and work hard, we could beat anyone we want to, and we did just that in that game,” senior Jacob Kirshner said.
With the regular season over, the club now has two main tasks for the rest of the year: the NVHSL playoffs and the game against Washington-Liberty.
The NVSHL playoffs are done with the traditional bracket system, consisting of seeds 5-12 in the league. Played on February 24th against Broad Run High School, the first playoff game resulted in a 6-4 win for our school. This victory led the club to the quarterfinals which ended in Yorktown’s 2-1 triumph against Battlefield High School. The next playoff round, unfortunately, finished this year’s playoff run for the team with a 1-5 loss to Langley High School.
With playoffs finished, the annual standoff against our school’s long-standing rivals, the Washington-Liberty (W-L) Generals is the next major event for the team. The game has evolved into what the Arlington community calls “The Battle of Arlington,” and this year, battlegrounds are at MedStar Capitals IcePlex on our hockey team’s senior night: Friday, March 10 at 7:10 p.m.
Being held on senior night, this game holds significance, as most of our school’s seniors have known four years of rivalry with the Generals. For these players, a key motivator is the fans. Most home games solely consist of our school’s student support, so having both Yorktown and W-L spectators in the stands will fuel the players’ motivation.
As they prepare for the head-to-head matchup against W-L, the team’s encompassing mindset is to avoid overconfidence but still keep a positive outlook.
“We’re the better team, but it always ends up being a close game, so we’re gonna focus on not thinking that it’s gonna be an easy one,” senior captain Cole Ransom said.
“We’ve improved a lot throughout the season. We’ve played pretty well the past few games, so I think we’re all ready for it,” senior Noah Robinson said.
While the 2022-23 season is not over yet, our school’s ice hockey club has worked incredibly hard throughout the year. They have performed well during the regular season and while their playoffs were cut short, the team is preparing to give it their all at the Battle of Arlington on March 10th.
