“The idea of it never seemed out of reach but we knew we would have to push ourselves if we wanted to achieve it,” senior assistant captain Nolan Shingle said, before tightening his skates in preparation for this week’s season opener. After a championship that still fuels hallway conversations, the team is ready to chase another State Title.

March 22, 2025, a 4-1 win for the State Championship against Cathedral Prep created cheers that echoed in the foreign rink all the way home. The cries of an outwardly successful season- though not as smooth beneath the surface, when asked if everything planned out like it should have been Shingle’s response was grounded.

 “There was definitely a lot of adversity we had to go through last year,” Shingle said as he continued to explain the specific injuries of some of our players, “For starters one of our upcoming freshmen had surgery on his shoulder and was out for the whole season. Along with this I sprained my ankle and was out for 3-4 weeks, one of our players was out for a week with a sickness, another player hurt his wrist mid way through the season and was out for the year, and finally in the state championship one kid suffered a concussion.”

Fighting through a series of injuries, the team faced a major hurdle in their path to success- yet that did not stop them from creating North Penn history. But history doesn’t always have to repeat itself, this season will need no small amount of hard work and dedication as North Penn is viewed as a huge opponent to beat. 

And when talking about the future Shingle agreed. “The path to winning a state championship is hard no matter what and if we think it is going to be easy then we will most likely fall short. We’re going to take each game at a time and go out and do our thing.” The Knights will continue on with humble mindsets and strong hearts as their plan of action is to stay “focused on each week” and what they can do to secure victories one game at a time.

And with a historic season like that, it can make people wonder if it was the team chemistry that helped move the season along as well as the pucks slid across the ice.

“We definitely had good chemistry and everyone got along pretty well. North Penn Ice Hockey does multiple events out of the program which help with bonding but it was also everyone’s 2nd or 3rd year together which helped,” Shingle said. 

As the Knights enter the ice for another run at greatness, their focus is not on repeating last year’s story, but on writing a new one. The echoes of their state championship still motivate every practice, but this season’s drive comes from resilience, the same grit that carried them through injuries and doubt. With returning leaders guiding the way, North Penn Ice Hockey enters the new season with a blend of confidence and humility, determined to prove that last year’s victory was only the beginning of the legacy.

North Penn takes the ice this Wednesday, October 29, at 7pm at Hatfield Ice.