Season Recap of a successful U16 ice hockey team

Year 10 Commonweal student, 15 year old Oscar Forshee, who has been visiting Swindon Link on work experience examines the Swindon Wildcats Academy and how they have done over the course of the 2022-23 season.

In my 10 years of playing ice hockey my whole career has been with the Wildcats Academy. I have been lucky to have some great coaches and teammates who push me to success, one of the coaches being my dad who came over to England from Toronto in 1998 to play hockey for the Swindon Chill. He has inspired me to play hockey and is one of the main reasons I play hockey today. I’m currently playing for the Swindon u16 Leopards. We have been very successful this season and I would like to share our season with you.

 

Firstly, in February our team had its second trip to Canada to play a tournament, this one being in Granby, Quebec. It was a great experience as we were with our teammates who we have known since we were around seven. This tightly bonded team has experienced lots of success, such as a previous tournament in Canada and a national championship. 

 

But this tournament in Canada was one to remember, as new additions such as Ethan Lock and Joel Meyers had strengthened the team, and they both played key roles in a small English town's fairytale run in a big north American competition. 

 

Our first game was a 5-2 victory against Voillers Aylmer at the Leonard Grondin Rink, thanks to goals from Jan Kostal, Ethan Lock and Ethan Taylor. Our second game was great, with our goalie Sam Ellis preventing a strong French Canadian team called Express Rive-Sud from scoring. 

 

The game eventually finished 2-0 with goals from Josh Poole and myself. Then, sadly, in the quarter finals after being 2-1 up for the majority of the game we crumbled against one of the best teams in the province of Quebec for their division. Scoring two goals in the last five minutes, Draveurs Mont-Laurier came out victorious with a 3-2 win which brought Swindon’s international tournament run to an end. 

 

After the tournament it was then time for the team to shift their attention on the league. Swindon were eventually crowned champions of the South England U16 Division 1 league. There were two key games which powered the team to the title one of them being a 7-2 victory over Slough, with the line of Luca Kirk-Browne, Ethan Lock and I combining for five goals this game. 

 

That line had been in form as of late, combining for three goals in the previous game when they beat Streatham 4-1. Then probably our most important game of the season was playing Chelmsford at home. We beat them 4-1 thanks to a wonderful penalty shot from Ethan Taylor and a superb solo effort from star defence man Joel Meyers. 

 

This win pretty much clinched the title for Ken Forshee’s team as they just had to beat Basingstoke at the Better Link Centre, which they did by the score of four goals to nil.

 

The team qualified for the national tournament and would face Manchester in the semi-finals. Sadly, this was Swindon’s second loss all year. 2-1 was the final score in that game, with Forward Luca Kirk-Browne scoring the team's only goal just like in 2018, when he got the team's winning and only goal in the national finals when we beat Sheffield 1-0. 

 

Sadly Swindon couldn’t repeat the glory from their national championship-winning campaign, and instead had to settle for third, beating Chelmsford in the third place game 5-2. Goals from Ethan Taylor, Oskar Sagan, Ethan Lock, Josh Poole and Joel Meyers helped the U16 Leopards cruise past a morally defeated Chelmsford team. 

 

Overall it was a great season. The team finished with one gold medal, a bronze medal and an international competition appearance, and coaches Ken Forshee and Danny Meyers are very proud of the team. You can come show your support and watch the U16 Leopards for free at the Better Link Centre.

 

If you would like to play hockey there are Learn to Play sessions at the Link Centre every Friday at 6pm. This is a great way to get into hockey.