sportsmanship today shows focused on peers township high school hockey the boys team won recently won the chip wave or c ice hockey pennsylvania state championship with me today are nick young jr defenseman he's a defensive defense and jack underwood jr forward congratulations on effect a fantastic season let's start at the beginning of the season trials how do the trials work and does everyone automatically make the team know what how's the trials go so usually we have two sets of child one in the spring and that's usually about three trials and then about a week of trials in the fall around the first week of school and the spring tryouts are just kind of to gauge everyone's base skill level and then i think what the coaches really look for in the fall is improvement over the summer because they know if you're willing to work hard to improve over the summer you're going to be willing to do that exact same thing during the season and then in the past few years yes everyone has made it seem now we have a farm of kids this year so there could be a few kids that get cut but in years past everyone has made the team now as are a varsity and the j v team or is it all just one big team we've got  university once in an age university and just last year all three of our teams actually made it to the championship game of their division so we went to our state championships and then the j v one team went to the upper division championship for junior varsity and then the j v team went to the lower game but however we are the only ones who were able to pull through all the way in first place so how many how many team members are on each one of those teams in between the varsity  eighteen skaters and two goalies a game and that goes the same for the other two teams we're here talking about sportsmanship in talking so what does sportsmanship mean to you and they ask for sure i mean i think it's a big deal especially in you know whenever you're on the ice and makes a difference you know again that guy top on the back making the sherries are after maybe give him a little head into the voids area you notice you know keeping even guys on their feet and line them how people look at it again so nick in everyone's watching the playoffs right now obviously the penguins are having another fantastic season this had a fantastic season at the end of the series or a game with one of your opponents you guys all line up and shake hands like they do in the in the professional levels yeah we definitely do every game pretty much for guard lists of the situation you can kind of see sportsmanship through all different levels of hockey kind like you're saying with the penguins and all the way down to high school level and i think that's really going to fight when we fled north guys will actually i mean drop the gloves and fight and punch each other for about a minute or two then the lines of the referee will come in break it up and ok good fight good fight man and then you can see in that game last night after they fired so i think you can really see it through all levels again i mean although you know there may be fighting and it might be you know hakimi be stereotyped as a brutal sport you know although this happens i would say that a lot of players have respect for each other you know on and off the ice do you feel sportsmanship affecting the way you're actually playing the game during the game itself some of the bad sport does it get under your skin a little bit or does it you just let it roll off or i mean  provoke them to do something stupid but in the end i still have respect for my opponent so i mean i think that everyone's respectful even if i'm not a good sportsman and they've you know they're saying some profane things i think in the end you have a basic level of respect that allows everyone to live prevent extremely kind of dirty plays from happening to keep everyone safe sure sure sure sure can you think of a situation that happened during the season obviously going all the way and winning the championship the season quite long were sportsmanship played a critical role and one of maybe your outcomes yeah i mean i feel no doubt you know again in the playoffs first round every play can a mac with although they're one of our top rivals i say with that township beings and close to us you know i saw we got a lot of buddies who are on that team and although you know it's a real it was a real rough game it is every time we played and you know i always talk to my buddies on the team and you know even before the game you know we would send one another tax and wishing each other law i mean definitely texan your opponents yeah yeah they had a time yeah i mean you know it's always you know it's funny games before hand you know you can  you've been playing varsity since off more year says about seven points this year played about ten games about eight points so you weren't exactly sure but that's all for eight four points in the playoffs critical played every other shift in the playoffs which sounds like a lot to somebody you know i think they the it's kind of a guys that you don't really notice we're constantly just rubbing people out of the boards or just trying to make good out of the forwards we know it's not our job to score our main goal is to prevent the opponent from scoring and like i said we just try to get the puck up the forwards as quick as we can and we really actually focused on that in the playoffs with our break outs from the defensive and just to get the puck up as quick as we could and we know that it's not our job to score in the fourth can do that the honor roll every year that's great like that boom of r c player player award freshman year you have the injury last years you're back from that that's awesome and you were motivated to come back what what got you involved in like ever since that day i've been in love with the a man you know i can never get enough of it and how were you when you started playing then i mean i started playing street hockey ever since i was like you know five years old but lot of these kids come into play hockey in this developmental program and this kind of reach their progress their way up to the high school level and since we have such a good program we have all these kids coming in and you know we have one of the m starting what grade or what age approximately who like even first grade really so like seven six seven years old they have a developmental team and then kind of like jack said you can really start i personally started a lot later than that i and i played football throughout elementary school and i didn't play for my first peter's team until i was in fifth grade so i would have been ten or eleven at the time i started then played what was called a freshman  when we were in sixth and seventh grade and then it was that was really just middle school and then in ninth grade i made j v to which i mean that's kind of just like that's a crappy team and i was not happy about that but little motivation to work harder yeah it was and that's exactly what i try to do and then i ended up making varsity the next year so i jumped a team and but yeah like you said i mean i would definitely recommend if any parents are watching this and your kids  are trying to get into hockey i think the developmental program is great and it's it's really about having fun and learning it's not too competitive i mean you do play games but the main goal of it is to help kind of develop your skills and to have fun which is really what we in our coaches would tell us do even i mean when we're winning by one goal coming out of the third because a championship game that's what they're saying to us like let's just have some fun here boys and not give up any goals when the game was what are your favorite between the two you guys were playing hockey for what's your what's your favorite thing or favorite things about playing hockey in peter's town i think the camaraderie of it like all of us together and especially that really did come together in the playoffs we  do pasta dinners before every game we have our little team traditions like we say a prayer before the game we always eat lunch or swedish fish in the intermission between the second and third so i would say that's probably my favorite part being with everyone or like when we and this creates all the chemistry you know on the ice and yeah i mean just having these guys all around you you know really creates a strong team what other off air i heard about some of this but let's talk on air about other sports that you guys have played historically in other sports and activities that you're currently playing so jack are you doing anything else besides talkie to stay in shape let me other sports and i've always you know ever since you know before high school i used to wrestle i played basketball baseball and hockey and then as soon as i got to high school i really just narrowed it down to hockey but you know of course i work outside on outside of hockey at the gym and during the offseason our case has us do some workouts with that scene and say really helps us progress and become better overall i train with martial arts kind of on and off i don't train too much during the season just because it can get a little dangerous and i don't need to be playing with broken ribs or anything but i think that really helps me to stay in shape during the season and during the off season because i mean that's obviously a huge aspect of mixed martial arts you have to be in shape or you're going to  what's especially during the off season you know when i'm if i am training maybe three days a week and some of it's more intense than others some days are more intense than others but that's so it's a lot of running and a lot of working out so i think that really helps me on the ice well too many people in high school who do mixed martial arts where do you actually train out and you have competitions of how often do a lot of training just like with my friends like we'll go and spar and for those who don't know what i mean that's basically where you kind of practice fight so to speak where you're not hit each other quite as hard but you're still you know i mean getting punched in the face so and then there is a  bridgeville that i will sometimes go to with this same group of friends they belong there and so we'll go there and train and i mean some days they have pro practices and then amateur practices and you know which are you know the amateur actors but then they also have times where you can just go and spoil our and hit the heavy bag and work on drills and that can get really interesting sometimes because there is to us the heavyweights the train there and sometimes if you're even holding pads for them it could be a little that they have a gym kind of around that i can go to get into some mixed martial arts a little bit more ok we're going to take a break here in a minute and we'll come back and talk about the run of the championship and everything else  with the peters township boys hockey team here and yes i asked you to bring along some hardware and jack and nick in nice nice to bring some stuff along i got some trophies or not trophies actually some medals here yes click and we are on these medals we've got the pennsylvania high school hockey championship aaa champion and the other one we've got the champion two thousand and seventeen the penguins cup obviously these are nice thick stuff so guys how did you get these i mean i hand them back to you i guess one to each their good job tell me about the season let's talk about this i know going in you were kind of underdogs going into the into the penguins cup and obviously the state championship probably were similar things so whoever wants to take that one well it was it was a rather crazy year we were injured for a lot we had some major injuries and like i said even myself i missed about twelve games with a concussion so we were down and out in a while and we kind of just kept pushing and i think we were what like one in five for a streak and all the season and it wasn't looking too good but we're really impressing about our team and then i think what really showed through the end is our work ethic and our determination because even when we are losing games and you know it wasn't to find still everyone was coming to practice and we were getting skated a lot which and i'm deservedly so but so everyone was showing up and we were so willing to work hard and then these games  so the penguins cup we played central catholic high school and that was a pretty crazy game at the new lemieux sports complex in cranbury and we gave up a goal few minutes  we were feeling pretty down but you know we're all just thinking that in our first song game can max what about thirty seconds into the game and so we're just kind of our boys like we were just two weeks ago i were fine we're trying to keep very calm on the bench and i think everybody knew and we were all ready to go and then we just kept coming kept coming kept common and we eventually took a two one lead with about ten minutes left in the second period and then we gave up a power play goal to central catholic with maybe a minute or two left in the second period to tie the game at t and that really hurt but we got back in the locker room and we were all trying to we were all staying calm and we were just talking with each other about how we had twenty minutes or seventeen minutes to realize our dream and then we just had to go leave everything out on the ice and we ended up you know our regular season you know we just kind of were middle of the road and missed a year and now in a very playoffs came around or just started to go and play in the way one to play at the right time and you know we had a lot of big players stepping up and they can get plays and  ick went into the penguins cup and moving on to state championship hole yes prep had an unbelievable season and you know it's different playing for the state championship because you know you see the teams you play in  penguins throughout the season so you kind of know how they're going to play what they're going to do and so we know much going into the state championship but we got an all in early goal and which really does go in and i'd say is a this was really the toughest game and you know like i said some guys just made the right place at the right time and got a side view all sports have superstitions and all hockey has a lot i mean that you see on t v and so what are some of the superstitions you personally have a individually or as a team i heard the swedish fish thing already what other superstitious things do you have going on well for the team like i said the swedish fish we bet and then i also i had a peanut butter and banana sandwich about forty five minutes before every game and i also a prefer to drive myself to games which i think is kind of interesting because a lot of people don't like to drive but i like kind of getting my mind off the game so much if it's far away i mean as far as the team yeah we got the swedish fish you know dinner before the games and then while playoffs roll around we me personally i mean i know a lot of guys how some free game rituals they do whenever the time comes i just really kind of sit there and focus and get my mind straight and prepared for the game but yeah i know some guys you know do some handshakes and you know like nick put their stuff on a little differently than others takes a lot of time to play hockey takes a lot of time to go to school how do you balance you know hockey season all these games all these practices versus schoolwork which obviously the number one priority should be scored so how do you do a balance during the season and they can get pretty difficult at times i'm especially the higher like i'm taking three a few classes to honors classes in this being our junior year we had to take as eighty's and a c t's and so it's a lot to balance but i think you just can't really freak out about it there's a lot of people you have to be called out and realize you're going to get everything done everything's going to be ok it's just high school to get a b on a test it's not the end of the world and i think if you have that kind of attitude like everything's going to work out like if you know your abilities and you're confident in yourself and your abilities but academically and then out on the ice i think it becomes a little easier but i think you certainly have to set aside time and be good at managing your time and especially because some of our games are really like we'll have games at nine thirty in like north allegheny so a lot i mean we're not getting back until twelve thirty one so you have to make sure you have all your homework done you have all your studying done so that when you get home you can just crash off or even i mean it's really just a few hours and then you get up and come the school  your i mean i feel the same way i mean especially my parents you know it's schoolwork first and then hockey and most the time you know as soon as they him i do all my work and you know it's not just high school that a lot of these guys who are on the team also play an additional like travel team as well and so that really you know gets us back up on you but you know i feel like a lot of the guys on our team get their school work done most the time but you know also i think is good that the high school provides this thing called a sharp program and i think maybe we only have like one or two guys this year but you know i don't know if it's a league rule or just like you know role in general but if you're just really you know i'd have to do a stephen rex in my opinion you know we've got guys all have their roles on the team you know nick we've got him there and people up in front myself i'm more of kind of a playmaker and stevie his outstanding play on the ice and his academics in school and he's really are a great guy and he scored our game winning goal in the state championship game with about two minutes to go and then the second guy i would go with would be and he just really came through in the playoffs he went he was our best offense and in my opinion in the playoffs he realized he just played so hard we had some issues earlier in the season i mean mention god as watching this  but he really just came through he stepped up big time he stepped up on the ice and then even emotionally he turned into a really good leader on the team let's talk about leadership here with the again with sportsmanship and hockey you know the good leader is usually to be a good sport and give some examples of any of those might happen during the season or in previous years where you know you really you know good leaders demonstrate some of the skills great you know all the guys are super friendly on  team you know you come off from a bad shift you know they'll be a guy they're patting you on the back saying that's are a united to get back out there and keep on and i'd say for almost missed very games we were down you know a goal at the beginning of the game and we have to come back and you know a lot of the guys started down themselves and you know our coach you know you can say as much as you want but it's a lot means a lot more whenever it's coming from another teammate telling you to keep galen and that we're not given up and  yeah i feel like leadership is a really important thing on the team and you know sometimes it's hard because especially next year we're going to have a lot of upper classman on the team and say maybe that's different whenever you're talking to under classmen you know you can have that you know say over them but having leaders on a roller team definitely is important i agree with jack and i think that there's a wide variety of leaders on  team i specifically remember in the penguins cup championship game like i said after central kathak it scored right at the end of the second period you know we weren't feeling too good we felt like we missed an opportunity to kind of shut it down to go in with a lead and our fresh  would say was our team a v p in the playoffs he kind of stepped up in the locker room and he's fifteen and we have guys that are eighteen on the teams about to turn nineteen and as soon as we got in there you know he talked to us for about a minute and just said like look eyes we have to keep rolling here we can't we've got to just leave it all out there and i think that kind of got us all fired up so i think that was a really crucial turning point in that game and i think just leadership in general i think it kind of like he said you have to be a good sportsman to be a leader and i think you have to be positive to be a leader you can't get down like he said like when we would give up goals early you know we really couldn't focus on that we just had to focus on what we could control and to play our game and then i think like i said the positivity that is very important can ever reach these level over here of you know i mean that's pretty impressive my girlfriend we were kind of low key about it been dating for a while now so we decided that we were going to go we talked about it and she didn't really want to do anything big so i yes well thank you to all our athletes for taking time out of their busy and a year schedule to sit down and chat about sportsmanship today with today's hypercompetitive focus on sports and academic achievement is important keep in mind the critical role sportsmanship always plays and remember being a good sport is always the right way to play th