As the 2013-2014 hockey season approaches, players fear that the loss of key team members from past seasons will affect their success. While Aspen High School hockey is considered one of the rowdiest sports, it’s experienced the largest downfall. The Aspen Skiers have lost several crucial members of the Hockey team, including those who graduated.

Last year, the boys hockey team made it to the playoffs only to be eliminated in the second round. The team was still proud to have made it that far. They were considered to be a young team and they did much better than anyone expected. Their goalie at the time, Alex Parish was outstanding, and they finished 7^th in their conference. This year junior Evan Morris will be starting as goaltender after being a backup last year.

Junior Harry Ferguson hopes to lead the team to victory and his teammates have very high hopes in him. Ferguson has been a starting defenseman on the team since freshman year.

“Whether we win or lose, I plan to have a lot of fun this season. We had a heavy home game schedule last year and this year we are going to be away a lot. We only have about 7 home games out of 20 this year,” said Ferguson.

One of the several players that the Aspen boys hockey team has lost is defenseman, Arthur Kelso. Kelso is focusing on his hockey career as he is living alone in Austria eating what they call “voist semel” every day.

“I am playing for the Salzburg Red Bull’s U18 and U20 teams. I’ve been traveling most of Europe to play games. I’m just living life to the fullest,” Kelso said.

Other players the team has lost are Juniors Jack and Willy Doremus. Jack Doremus has dreams to one day go professional with hockey like his older brother who plays for Denver University. For now, Doremus is playing hockey for a team in Denver.

“I am playing for the Colorado Thunderbirds U16AAA. It is a Tier I club league in Denver. We travel all over the states playing the other AAA teams. We play around 70 games and go to twelve different cities,” said Doremus

A positive and exciting addition to the Aspen Hockey team is hockey star and mullet model Kai Cathers. Cathers has dedicated most of his life to hockey and has finally decided to come home to Aspen after living in Canada to peruse his dreams of one day being a professional hockey player. He played for the Cowichan Valley Capitals and attended Cowichan Secondary School in Duncan British Columbia. Cathers will be playing right wing for this year’s team.

The team players as well as the student body are excited to play regardless of the expectations.

Elijah Kaplan is one of the many students excited to support the team.

“I hope the student body gets really rowdy this year. I know my boys Luke and Kai, as well as the rest of the boys on the team are going to keep this season alive with violence and excitement,” Kaplan said.

Although this season may be a challenge, the school has faith that the boys hockey team will bring it back to the playoffs.