It is quite unusual when Heritage, Littleton, and Arapahoe all come together for a single cause. The rivalry runs deep for all of these schools, and when these team’s sports play each other, it gets really intense. However, when the schools team up in the combined hockey team, it becomes one of the craziest student sections in the state. Recently, those stars did align, and South Suburban Sports Complex got CRAZY.
On February 28th, the Boys Hockey team played their quarterfinal game against Monarch High School. While the team was technically the away team, being the 12 seed in the state tournament, the players noted that the atmosphere felt more like a home game.
“It was crazy. That was the most kids I’ve seen at a game in my 3 years on the team. The chants were electric. It was a completely different atmosphere than anything I’ve experienced,” Kyle G. ’24 explains.
Once the puck dropped, the crowd never stopped. They cheered for saves, goals, passes, and even big hits the team made. And the players noticed it, heard it and loved it.
“The crowd being there and being loud really motivated me to play better. Everytime we made a good play and they cheered, it made us want to go out there and do it again,” Carter W. ’26 elaborates.
While the team did not come out victorious, losing 4-2, both the fans and the players enjoyed the game’s atmosphere and hope for more games like this in the future.
“Seeing all of the social media posts about ‘today being the day we come together’ was really great to see. It was just really great to watch all three schools come together over a common cause,” Kyle describes.