The Plague set to take to the ice... sometime

For the past three years, Oberlin College has been a hockey school. Attendance at ice hockey games is huge. Pounding on the glass and berating opponents with far too intellectual insults are clearly the preferred methods of cheering for standing room only crowds at the rink. And the team manages to pull off a solid .500 record each year. Without question, the Plague has had a great run.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. This year the Plague will take to the ice without any members of last yearıs starting line-up. Many of their better players from the last few years are also gone. ŒJerseyı Jon Gonelli, OC ı99, Greg Scranton, OC ı99, and Ralph Cuseglio, OC ı99 are just a few of the talented players who have moved on to things other than hockey. While the Plague will persevere, it will have to do so without much of the strength of its past.

Though the Plague seemed to have found an antidote, the team ‹ led this year by co-captains junior Nick Party, senior Matt Winstanley and senior Jessica Friedman ‹ remains hopeful.

³We lost a lot of seniors,² said Winstanley, ³but weıve got some promising new kids on the team.² Sophomore transfer student Kert Heinecke is one of those kids, and looks to be an exceptional and much needed addition to the team. Also new to the team this year are two area high school students. The pair follows in the footsteps of first-year Caleb Miller, a ringer on the Plague last year when he was a senior at Oberlin High School.

But a few new faces are not enough to make up for the devastating loss of last yearıs graduating class. It seems that with many of the better players gone, morale is low among the remaining players. ³Weıre functioning well as a team and we have enough people signed up to play,² said sophomore Pete Schall, ³but thereıs not enough participation. Not enough people come to practice everyday.² With so many new players, practice is especially important so that the team can become a cohesive unit. ³This has been a building year,² said Winstanley.

Unfortunately, several things stand in the way, with meteorological conditions topping the list. ³The weather has wiped out weeks of practice, ³ said Winstanley. ³The cooling system at the rink is unstable enough as it is, but the addition of 70 degree weather made it impossible for us to practice for days at a time.²

In a world where even Florida can have its own hockey team, youıd think that things would run pretty smoothly in Ohio, but the rink isnıt making any moves towards buying any new equipment.

The Plague is also having difficulties scheduling games due to time conflicts. ³Weıre trying our hardest to get a game for this weekend, but itıs been tough,² Schall said. Scheduling has always been a hindrance in for the team. Being a club sport in a loosely formed amateur league doesnıt make things easy, plus other teams in the league donıt always take hockey as seriously as Oberlin.

Prospects for next semester are brighter. With the return of senior defenseman Dan Borque, and junior winger Evan Kelley, the team should be a little more rounded out. Also, schedules will hopefully be ironed out and the Plague will get to play more games. Even though the Plague may lose a lot of fans, the team knows that itıs not about that. When interest was shown in making the Plague a varsity team, the Plague rejected the notion. Theyıre more interested in having fun than pleasing crowds.

So hot itıs not cool: The Oberlin Plague have had difficulty practicing as often as they would like. The recent warmer weather made the ice rink unusable for skating. (photo by Brian Hodgkin)