<strong>T</strong>he South Indy Sharks Peewee hockey team formed as a travel squad just three years ago, but have already found success great enough to garner an international invite.
The Sharks placed second in the 12U B division of the Silver Stick Mid Am Regional in Fort Wayne earlier this month, then found out that they had earned an invitation to compete in the International Silver Stick Pelham Finals, which will take place in the Niagara Falls area of Ontario, Canada from Jan. 5 to 8.
For a team that has only existed as a travel squad for three years, “this is as big as anything that’s happened,” coach Mike Mullen said.
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Half of the Sharks’ 18 players reside in Johnson County (seven from Greenwood and one each from Franklin and Trafalgar). For the majority of them, this tournament will be the first time they’ve ever left the country.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Mullen said. “It’s a dream for every kid from Indiana to go up to Canada, where hockey was born, and go up to play. A lot of these kids won’t get the opportunity again.”
Charlie Pottgen of Greenwood, a wing who ranks among the most experienced players on the squad, is one of the few who has crossed the border before, having played in a tournament in Sarnia, Ontario. He said he likes “all the stores, and I like playing in all the Canadian rinks.”
Pottgen has shared some of his tales with his teammates, who admitted to feeling varying degrees of intimidation about the idea of venturing up to the country where the sport was born.
“I’ve heard stories from Charlie and the people that went up to Canada that their shots are really hard and pretty accurate,” said goalie Harry Hummel, also of Greenwood. “So I’ve got to get better.”
Hummel, one of two Greenwood goalies on the roster along with Jacob Scott, is in his third year playing hockey but his first between the pipes. He said that he decided to try tending goal after watching the Disney hockey classic <em>The Mighty Ducks</em>.
The Sharks play their regular-season games in the Buckeye Travel Hockey League, a collection of teams from 26 different organizations from around the Midwest. Competing in the 12U Silver West Division with teams from Bloomington and Carmel as well as Owensboro, Kentucky, the Sharks are 7-7-2 overall this season — but 14 of their 16 games so far have been on the road.
The Pelham Finals, obviously, will be the team’s longest road trip. Driving upper Midwestern roads in winter is rarely fun, but Greenwood forward Brady Fanter is looking forward to “just going out there, having fun and playing some good Canadian teams.”
American ones, too. The 16-team field in the Peewee (12U) division is largely comprised of Ontario teams, but there will also be clubs coming in from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California and New Mexico.
Making the Sharks’ unlikely Canadian trip more interesting is the fact that the team has been missing its head coach, Ryan Wadsworth, for most of the season.
Wadsworth’s wife, Emily, gave birth to twin boys just before the season, but the pair were several weeks premature and have been in the hospital since. The boys are doing well and are expected to come home for the first time next month, but Wadsworth will not be making the trip across the border with his team.
Mullen, a southside native who has been coaching in the area for decades, has been leading the team in Wadsworth’s absence. He has taken teams to Canada in the past, and he has a pretty good idea of where this group of Sharks should stack up.
“We should be okay up there,” he said. “I don’t know how much we’ll win, how much we’ll lose, but we’ll be in competition in all of the games.”
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Hockey is not an inexpensive sport — especially when international travel is involved. The South Indy Sharks are trying to raise money to help cover the cost of the 12U team’s upcoming trip to Canada and have set up a GoFundMe page in hopes of receiving some donations from local supporters.
If you’d like to help, you can go to the team’s page at <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/south-indy-sharks-12u-canada-bound">https://www.gofundme.com/south-indy-sharks-12u-canada-bound</a> and make a donation.
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Nine of the 18 players on the South Indy Sharks 12U roster hail from Johnson County:
Caitlin Austin
Nate Balasia
Ezra Deckard
Brady Fanter
Harry Hummel
Conner Inman
Charlie Pottgen
Cameron Riley
Jacob Scott
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