Hockey player happy to continue athletic journey

Peter Sullivan, Central sophomore plays as a center on the Omaha High School Hockey team. Sullivan is a starter on the team and faces challenges due to his smaller physique, forcing him to work harder to compete with the larger players. “It’s hard because I’m small and everyone is so much bigger than me. I’m pretty good for my size.” 

As Sullivan progresses onto his fifth year, he is playing with a new team different from his roots in the Omaha Hockey Club. According to Sullivan, the role of the center player in hockey is to be the offensive leader. “You don’t have to think a lot in hockey,” Sullivan comments, “but the center has to be fast and be able to think about what’s coming next.” 

Since he only plays hockey in the wintertime, Sullivan must run and lift in preparation for the season. The season has just begun, and the Omaha High School Hockey team is ranked third of ten competitors.  On average the games last around an hour and a half, and the team has three games a week- the practices, however, last only an hour and take place once a week. Sullivan tells, “At practice we really just work on getting better at skating, shooting, and passing.” 

Like all teams, Sullivan emphasizes the importance of friendship with his hockey teammates. Sullivan was introduced to the sport by a friend and decided to stick with it. He stresses the negative effects when teammates lack cooperation, Sullivan discloses, “You have to be friends with your teammates because if you aren’t, they won’t want to pass the puck to you. Then people get mad and everything is off.” 

Some essential traits a successful hockey player has are strong legs, speed, toughness, hostility, and chemistry with teammates. Sullivan’s favorite part of the sport is scoring, he speaks fondly of a memory from his previous season reflecting, “I love scoring, one time during state I won a face-off and skated past all the defenders. I got the game winning goal, it was the best feeling ever.” 

If possible, Sullivan would like to play hockey as a college sport, later becoming a professional hockey player or a doctor. He looks up to Jake Guentzel, a hockey player from Nebraska who continued his career to become a player for the Pittsburg Penguins. “It would be cool to play for Notre Dame,” he states, “They have nice jerseys and they’re fun to watch.”