Cabin John Ice Rink has implemented a new ban on multiple teams this hockey season. The ban prevents Churchill and Walter Johnson from playing games at Cabin John Ice Rink and other teams from starting games after dark.

The ban was instituted to prevent the disruption of games by students and reduce the amount of illegal activity that would take place at games after dark. However, the ban also has implications on the game’s attendance. Whitman now must travel to the Rockville and Wheaton Hockey Rinks to play Churchill and WJ. These rinks are both considerably farther than Cabin John Ice Rink, and many students aren’t willing to make the drive out.

“The games that always get the most kids are the Cabin John games, because people know where its is, and its not too far,” senior Carson Lystad said.

“Over the years I’ve witnessed some pretty shameful behavior at that rink, including having a Gatorade dumped on my head while on the bench, and a laser pointer used to blind our goalie by WJ,” Whitman coach Tom Sneddon said. “Our students have engaged in fights in the parking lot and the result of all this nonsense is a penalty against the teams they are supposedly there to support.”

There is a range of views regarding the new game times within the Whitman locker room. Sneddon feels that the later game times promoted unruliness, and prevented players from performing at full capacity.

“The 9:45 pm game times were way too late to expect peak performance from our players,” coach Sneddon said. “It also allowed for way too much time for students to make bad decisions outside the rink such as drinking.”

However, several Whitman players feel that the earlier game times are detrimental to the team, with game attendance lower than it has been in previous years.

“I feel that the early start times for our games hurt our turnout, but we just got to get the word out there for our games because they are the most exciting for fans,” senior Wyatt Hughes said.

Despite the lower attendance rates, the Vikes look to shoot their way past the rink problems into a season of success.

“There’s a lot of energy and a lot of stuff that you don’t see at the games that happen at school because there’s a lot of security and stuff, so you can kinda scream curse words and yell at specific players without a security guard giving you a warning,” Lystad said.