On The Ice: Carriage club hockey players share their experiences

Sophomore Henry Zwillenberg flew down the Carriage Club ice rink, hockey stick in hand, maneuvering around a Kansas City Stars defender firing the puck past the goalie and into the top left of the net for his 12th goal of the season.

Zwillenberg and his friend junior Henry Pollock have been playing hockey since they were in preschool — where they just learned the basics. This year, they recruited Woodsie Wetzel to play with them on the Carriage Club Hockey team.

“I just love hanging out with the fellas,” Zwillenberg said. “We hang out every day at practice.”

Now, with the season in full swing and coming off a 6-1 win over Rockhurst, Zwillenberg and Pollock spend as much time as they can with their team — whether it’s traveling from state to state for tournaments or practicing in their backyards after school.

Pollock and Zwillenberg have been begging sophomore Woodsie Wetzel to join the team for years but he just recently agreed after deciding not to play basketball this season.

Wetzel’s first hurdle was getting all of the necessary hockey gear: a helmet, stick, gloves, jerseys and multiple different kinds of pads for a total of $1500.

“It was difficult getting the gear,” Wetzel said. “I went to Play it Again Sports for most of it, but they didn’t have everything so I had to go to other stores.” 

Then came the hard part: learning how to skate. Just learning to stand with skates on is difficult, but learning to move forward and backward is even harder according to the team’s coach Joe Zwillenberg. After five months of weekly skating practice, Wetzel now glides over the ice with less slipping and sliding.

“We didn’t have practice for the first two weeks of the season because it wasn’t cold enough to practice yet,” Pollock said. “So when we did start, [Wetzel] and a lot of the new people kept falling over like every few minutes while they were trying to skate.”

Wetzel says that the coaches on the team are always very helpful and the attitude on the bench is electric.

“During the first few games, I was scared to go out on the ice,” Wetzel said. “Both Henry’s helped me with things like skating and controlling the puck outside of practice.”

Pollock and Zwillenberg would stay late to help him with skating after practice, so he wouldn’t feel as scared as he had been when he’d go out on the ice.

They especially enjoy staying at hotels and spending time with each other when the team travels to places like Wichita and northwestern Arkansas. The team has team dinners at nearby restaurants where the team is staying, according to Coach Zwillenberg.

“Traveling is really fun, we all stay in the same rooms and bring Xboxes from home,” Pollock said.

Coach Zwillenberg, has been focused on developing a competitive team since starting his coaching career 14 years ago for his son, Henry. Since then, he’s led the team to three league championships — more than any other Kansas City team.

He has always enjoyed the dynamic of the Henry’s and their recruited rookie friend despite his desire to stay competitive.

“It’s just really fun to see the kids who are just starting to develop for me and the players,” Coach Zwillenberg said.