With the excitement of effortless skating and aggressive body-to-body contact,  who couldn’t love the sport of ice hockey? Junior Spencer Golub plays for both the school’s varsity and junior varsity teams. Even with quarantine in the way, that doesn’t stop him from loving his sport. 

Golub has been a long-time fan of hockey, enjoying the sport since he watched it for the first time in first grade. It wasn’t until fourth grade that he started playing himself, and he’s been playing ever since. “I wanted to play hockey from the second I watched a game for the first time. I remember forcing my mom to go to Dick’s with me to purchase a street hockey stick a few days after that game. Once I saw hockey I knew I wanted to play it,” Golub said.

The pandemic has impacted the season greatly, since hockey is a contact sport.  It is difficult to find a training area for practices since numerous ice rinks have closed, and team bonding is reduced with the loss of locker rooms. For a long time, the teams have only been participating in practices, but now both practices and games are being played. Games are only being played two to four days a week, without fans cheering the teams on. The school’s team not only has to play without fans, but also without their coach, social studies teacher Alex Parker. “Our coach is a Wootton teacher, so he’s not allowed to be with the team due to MCPS guidelines,” Golub said.

During practices, the players always start with a warm-up drill and work their way through a variety of other drills. Varsity and JV usually split up for practices, as varsity does more complicated drills than JV does. “These practices were really intense and focused, but everyone seemed to enjoy them,” Golub said.

Golub has an aggressive playstyle and effort is put into all of his plays. He often goes into corners and fights for pucks, using loads of energy to beat players who are more technically skilled than he is. “He’s a big playmaker and always looks to not only improve his play but the play of his teammates,” junior James Lieske, one of Golub’s teammates, said.

His talent for making plays is one of his best traits on the ice. He often tries to improve the skills of the entire team along with his own If he was paired with someone who was defensive-minded, both Golub and the teammate could learn something from each other. “Some of his best traits as a hockey player is his ability to create plays from nothing as well as creating scoring opportunities for the team. He has pretty good flow too,” Lieske said.

Golub has a fun time with his teammates, as they’re all supportive of each other and give each other encouragement. Golub is friendly and encouraging to teammates, even if they don’t have as much talent or skill as he does. He can also be serious when he needs to. “The team sees Spencer as a leader on and off the ice and someone they can ask for help or someone who’s easy to talk to,” junior Noah Weber said.

Golub has affected his teammates on a personal level and on the ice, as he works to elevate the play of others and support his teammates constantly. “He is a good leader who is willing to help out teammates that need it,” Weber said.