The 2019-20 Wilson Ice Hockey team is comprised of 21 student athletes, with an underclassmen-heavy roster. Similar to the 2016-17 season, this year the team is called “DC Stars.” Unique to this hockey season, however, is that not all of these students go to Wilson.

 The “DC Stars” team is comprised of Wilson students along with students from different schools across The District. “It really didn’t make a difference to me,” Junior Luke Cashion, who is currently in his third season as a member of the Wilson hockey program, explained. “Coming into the season I knew that it was going to be a completely new team, there were only about six of us from the team last year.” he added.

Since there were not enough Wilson students to field an exclusively Wilson team, the team “functions like a regular high school team [with] kids from different schools [such as] Maret and the Lab School,” explained senior Kevin Oakley. Cashion added that he believes a reason behind the lack of Wilson students is because “No one really knew about the team.”

With the season that started in October underway, the team has gained a few victories so far. One weakness of the team that Oakley mentioned is that it is almost always short on people. The team practices at Ft. Dupont Ice Arena on Monday afternoons, which is technically the Tigers’ home ice, but they play the majority of their games at Rockville Ice Arena or Cabin John. 

The fact that these ice arenas are not very close to Wilson or easily accessible by public transportation is a huge factor in the team’s fanbase. “Many teams have whole fan sections and in my four years playing for Wilson there have only been a select few instances where any Wilson students were in attendance,” said Oakley, crediting it to the distance from Wilson. He also added that Wilson’s team is diverse compared to the competition of some Maryland schools. Even with the makeup of athletes from different schools, the team doesn’t fail to show tiger pride.