Southwest Michigan Blades come together for successful season

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Southwest Michigan Blades are a high school hockey team made up of nine different schools in the Kalamazoo area. The Blades are 21-4-2 overall and haven't lost since December 9.

"It's a lot of fun playing with kids you're not used to seeing or meeting, " Cole Shafer, a senior from White Pigeon said about playing on the team.
Nw kids, making new friendships. A lot of the kids I've played with before, but meeting new people is kind of fun."

But despite the fact that they do not see each other at school every day, the team says they've done a good job of creating team chemistry. "We bond pretty good in the locker room and stuff, " added Lakeview senior Alex Ploehn. "We like to hang around each other, and we hang out whenever we can."

And it looks like the team's chemistry is doing just fine. This weekend, the team is hoping to win their fifth Rivalry Cup game in a row against the Kalamazoo Eagles, which would also clinch their first league championship in 13 years with two games left to play.

"We're working as a team," Galesburg Augusta senior Elijah Wilson explained. "It's just us being aware of where each other is at. We know where each other is gonna be, so we know exactly where to put [the puck], and what's gonna work. For the rest of the season, I think we're just looking to perform well. We want to end on a good note. We'd like a league championship, but we don't want to look too far ahead and just take it a game at a time."