Although it is a club sport at South, hockey is one of the most followed sports at South. Hockey is a sport that takes years of experience and players often play for multiple teams.

Senior Jacob Kasten is one half of the Kasten duo. The Kastens are South’s leading scorers with 25 combined goals and 15 assists. Jacob said he has been playing hockey most of their life and devote a lot of time.

“I’ve been playing puck for 12 years. I now play for South and the Affton Americans AAA team. I practice twice a week for South, and twice a week for Affton. I am very busy in the winters with hockey and spend most of my time on skates,” said  Jacob.

Currently South is 5-6 with wins over Lafayette, Lindbergh twice, Eureka, and rival Seckman. South is projected to go to the Wickenheiser Tournament this season.

“I think that if we play our best game and are in the Wick, we have a pretty good shot at winning,” said junior Blake Lauria.

South hockey has a reputation for always bringing a good Posse to games. Their biggest rivals are Rockwood Summit and Seckman. Senior goalie Vincent Rebello loves rivalry games

“Rivalry games are the best. Some of my favorite South hockey memories are rivalry games. Sophomore year we beat Seckman in one of the biggest games of my career. Both teams had huge student sections and it felt good to be able win and shut up a lot of summit fans,” said Rebello.

Every hockey player has a classic celebration when they score. Lauria has one celebration that he uses every time.

“My go-to celebration is always the Lasso while coming back to the bench. It gets the boys rowdy and hypes me up,” said Lauria.

Jacob Kasten has a crowd-pleasing celebration.

“My favorite celebration is jumping on the glass when I score. I jump on the glass that the Posse is on and they go crazy when I do it,” said Jacob.

The Patriots still have a lot of hockey left to play and they hope to make a deep playoff run.

“The season is long and we have a lot of time to make fixes. We have a very senior heavy team and I feel like we can make this a really memorable season,” said Jacob.

Although ice hockey is not a school-sponsored sport, it is one the most popular sports at Parkway South High.

The Patriots currently have a 5-6 record, and their next game is on Dec. 21 when they will face off against the O’Fallon Panthers.

One of the most competitive teams that stands against South and the Wickenhauser trophy is Marquette. South has many players to help support the team.

Peyton Stevenson and Vincent Rebello are the two senior goalies of the Parkway South team. Stevenson has a .836 save percentage, while Rebello sports a .866 save percentage. 

“With 27 players on the team, the team is very committed and supportive,” said Coach Jim Taylor.

Because ice hockey is a non-school sponsored sport, the team and the coach face issues including expenses, according to Taylor.

“The main challenge for us as a sport that isn’t school sponsored is probably a financial one. Ice time is expensive and uniforms and equipment needs can be as well. That means we have to charge a fee to players in order to participate. It can be tough for players and coaches to commit to very much time for a lot of fundraising activities,” Taylor said.

When the players play there are many factors impacting their game, one of the main factors is the behavior of the audience. Sophomore Jason Gifford said the behavior of their audience has a huge impact on their engagement and enthusiasm while playing.

“When they’re loud it’s fun when they’re not loud it’s not as fun. It’s kinda mellow when they’re not there but when they’re there it’s fun and it’s just exciting. We kind of build off the hype I guess. You have more of an incentive to try harder and do the best that you can do for the fans,” Gifford said.

Memories are very precious and stay with us all the time. For the ice hockey players, this is the space where their best memories are created.

Offensively this season, senior Henry Kasten leads the team in goals with 9. Second on the team is senior Max Boyer who has 6 goals. Last year, Kasten led the Patriots as well, with 23 goals on the season.

“My best memory would probably be when I scored 60 points in a season, that was pretty cool,” said Aidan Karfs, junior.