The 2024-2025 Kings High School hockey season has been underway for about 4 months now. Because McHenry and surrounding schools in our area are unable to field teams large enough to play at an individual school level, Kings is a way for MCHS hockey players along with Huntley, Woodstock, Woodstock North, Hampshire, and Jacobs players to compete on a high school team.
Kings competes in the IHSHL North Central Division which consists of six levels of competition and nearly 60 high school teams. They play their home games at Crystal Ice House in Crystal Lake and Canlan Sports in West Dundee.
Three MCHS seniors, Brady Anderson, Dylan Pancyrz, and Matt Rensberger, play for Kings Varsity. This season, Rensberger has noticed a change in the team compared to last year; they are finding more success on the rink.
“I think we’ve made a big improvement,” Rensberger said. “We’ve already quadrupled our wins this season, which I think is a huge improvement. I think, overall, our team has gotten much better. We got a new coach, which has helped us a lot, and I think our team is just structured well,” Rensberger said.
Kings Varsity’s current record is 14-11-2, and they have seen major improvement moving from last spring season. Rensberger feels a big reason for their success has been the team’s chemistry, which he feels has built up over time due to playing with students from other schools.
“Honestly, its [team chemistry] has been kind of the same [as last year],” Rensberger said. “Because most of the people that I’ve played with, I grew up playing with on another club team, so half the team I already played with previously before going to the high school team. So it [playing with students from other schools] honestly has an impact on team chemistry, and everybody knew that has joined have fit right in,” Rensberger said.
Rensberger isn’t the only player who feels that the team has performed very well during their season. Anderson also feels the same way but hopes one day McHenry is able to field their own team and that more people go to their games.
“I would like to see McHenry have its own hockey team for sure,” Anderson said. “Although I’m not sure we have enough kids that play hockey, it would be cool to see in the future.”
Anderson also hopes that Kings get more recognition in the future because of the hard work they put in at practices to perform well during their games.
“I do wish Kings got more recognition because we all put in a lot of work for months throughout the season,” Anderson said. “And I feel like people should recognize that and show their support like all the other sports here.”
Although Kings may be a less known sport, their mission is to be the first choice for hockey players. They are also dedicated to improving their players’ skills, teaching the game, creating memories and well rounded young adults.
With Kings regular season ending January 31, there is still plenty of time to go and see some of their games before their season ends, as they are technically an MCHS high school sport and would love the extra support.