Flying across the ice

Caleb+Caldwell

Caleb Caldwell

Timothy Wood, Manging Editor

There are a lot of unique and special sports in the winter. Here is a story about Caleb Caldwell. His story is about hockey and how it is special to him.

“You are never going to find a hockey player that has more heart than I do. The odds have always been against me because I am a hockey player from Kansas, and I know I’m going to have to grind for something special If I want to make it out,” Caldwell said.

What does Caldwell’s day to day basis look like?

“I only practice three times a week. I have a net in my basement and I’ll go down and shoot pucks,hit the gym, do hockey circuits with my coach, or get one on one coaching,” Caldwell said. “Hockey circuits are explosive movements that only happen in hockey,” 

Caldwell explains why he chose hockey over all the other sports out there.

“My dad grew up in Detroit and played hockey his whole life, my uncle went D1, and my other uncle holds records in St. Louis for the top scores. I just thought why not follow? why not try to continue the legacy, and try to live up to it or even farther,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell explains why he loves the sport so much and continues to push through it with all the adversity.

“Just the feeling, It’s definitely up there with the hardest sports and the fact that I almost perfected my game, and I have a wide variety of things I can do on the ice. It’s just unreal compared to anything else, “ Caaldwell said. “It’s like an escape from reality and everything else. As soon as I tie my skates, I forget about everything, it’s just hockey,” 

Caldwell’s motivation in hockey has really helped him push forward and be able to persevere.

“The motivation I’d say is not wanting to disappoint my younger self, wanting to 

push for that dream, and prove to myself that I can do anything through heart and hardwork,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell explains what he thinks the hardest part of hockey is. Trying to perfect the movement of everything.

“Skating is the hardest part. I mean, you only have not even a quarter inch thick blades that are half an inch tall. It’s taken me 16 years of practice to finally have the speed that I do,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell says he will never stop pursuing it unless it is a career ending injury that he cannot recover from.

“Unless a knee injury comes around I will never stop, because that is detrimental to a hockey career. If I make it to college to play and don’t play after college I would definitely play in the beer league to still have fun,” Caldwell said.