Some people may consider the typical high school sports being football, basketball or baseball, but there are two SHS sophomores who have ditched the court and the field and stepped into the ice rink.

Matthew Tellas and Layne DeHart both play for a hockey team called Indy South Stars.

Both have been playing since a young age. Tellas was introduced to hockey by his neighbor and started playing in 5th grade. DeHart went from learning how to walk to learning how to skate, and started playing hockey by the age of three.

“My older brother played when he was two, so I followed in his footsteps,” DeHart said.

Over 12 high schools feed into Indy South Stars including Avon, Perry Meridian, Franklin Central and Roncalli. DeHart and Tellas are the only two players on the team from SHS and they both play for the A team, which is their top team.

Although Indy South Stars is a club team, a majority of their competition is against actual high school teams.

“Brebeuf does (have a school hockey team) and Carmel and Hamilton Southeastern, all the big schools,” Tellas said. “The more north you go, the more schools there are (that have a hockey team).”

Something unusual about high school level hockey is the season which it’s played. Since the world of high school hockey is a mix between club teams and school teams, they play almost year around like other club sports. According to Tellas and DeHart, the Indy South Stars season spans eight months from August until March.

Since Indy South Stars is a club team, so they travel a lot, like most club sports do. According to Tellas, in the beginning of the season, the team was in the South Bend and Chicago area every other weekend. Tellas also said that his team has traveled to Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Tellas and DeHart both said that they wish SHS had a hockey team of their own because it would be fun and there would be a better crowd at their games in Perry Park.

“The Carmel games, they always have a huge student section and we have the parents,” Tellas said.

Despite low attendance in their games, Tellas still enjoys the environment of the games.

“They’re really fun,” Tellas said. “There’s always music playing, it’s really loud, it’s really fast pace and it’s pretty violent.”