Last Saturday’s varsity hockey game was a game the Vikings aren’t going to forget. Not only did our players lose the game, but Triton’s fan section took an “L” as well. One simple chant could have potentially ruined the Vikings fans reputation of good sportsmanship. Triton Voice found that the last couple of games Newburyport has been involved in has required the presence of the police.
On Saturday January 6, the Triton Vikings and the Newburyport Clippers shared Graf Rink. The Clippers held a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period which fired up the Viking Ship. At the start of the second period, the Viking fans had faith that our players would make a comeback, which unfortunately didn’t happen.
Senior Sean Hirtle plays Center and shared with Triton Voice his thoughts on what went wrong for the Vikings. “Our compete level was there, but we struggled offensively,” said Hirtle. “It’s frustrating because we have a lot of offensive talent on the team and the fact that we’re not scoring is really frustrating.”
By the third period, the Viking Ship and the Clippers were exchanging offensive chants rather than watching the game. With just about a minute left in the last period, the Triton fan section went against the rules and began to chant “FTP”, an offensive chant that was made clear by the Triton staff it was not allowed. Our fans have been warned that the use of this chant will result in the evacuation of the entire fan section.
Triton students that attended the game were angered when they were told to leave. This did not look good for us in the presence of our biggest rival, Newburyport. Not only had the Clippers’ players beat our players, but their fan section had officially dominated ours. As a result of our team evacuating the premises, the Clippers’ fan section began to chant, “Find your own rink.”
We also spoke to a few of the Triton students that were at the game about their thoughts on the situation. Senior Riane Vatcher felt that the hockey game didn’t reflect our school.
“I honestly thought it was fun. It was like we accepted the fact that we were down and going to lose,” said Vatcher. “I wasn’t embarrassed at all, I just thought it was funny since there was only two minutes left in the game.”
We thought we would try to get some opinions from the staff’s point of view so we spoke with Mr. Brennan. Brennan told us he believed our fan section was excellent. From his point of view, it was only a few kids that started the chant. He explained that the reason why the fan section was told to leave was because he had already spoken to one student about using the “FTP” chant; this was not a three strike situation. “For the most part, I thought our fans were great.” said Brennan.
When asked about the Newburyport fans, Brennan felt strongly about how they represented themselves. Although the Clippers are our rivals, Brennan did say he enjoyed some of their chants due to the creativity. What astounded Brennan was the disrespect one particular Clipper student had towards our fans. “There was one kid that would directly say things to our kids,” Brennan said. “And it was personal and taunting.” He also noticed the troubling trend that the Clippers have had. “It always happens and it’s always Newburyport.” Brennan explained. “I’ve heard two or three times now that they’ve had fights.” Regarding how the Vikings reputation seemed in front of the Clippers, Brennan feels that it was classless for Newburyport to chant, “Find your own rink” to us as we were leaving the game. “I don’t care what they think about us,” Brennan added.
The Clippers may have defeated us, but we seem to have held ourselves together in a heated situation. Triton will face Newburyport once again on Wednesday, January 31 at Graf Rink.