Playing hockey has its hurdles, especially in the Mahoning Valley. Ice rinks are few and far between, and the cost of equipment is a prohibitive force to kids across the globe.

The Youngstown Phantoms have a youth program, but when area kids reach high school, if they want to continue playing, options are limited. Canfield is the only high school in the Mahoning Valley with a hockey program, but the school district doesn’t have open enrollment.

Four Mahoning County students opted to go a different route, suiting up for the Canton-Akron Jets. The Jets, based out of North Canton, give high school-aged players a chance to play hockey if their high schools don’t have teams. It’s not sanctioned by the OHSAA, but it’s still high school hockey.

Connor Mould and Will Craven from Poland, Lukas Black from West Branch, and Connor Sepe from South Range helped the Jets win the Ohio’s USA Hockey-run state championship and reach the national stage in March.

The Jets’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Miami Jr. Redhawks was the first time a Northeast Ohio team won in nearly 20 years.

“I don’t have enough words to say about this team,” Sepe said. “It was great just to be out there with them. We really gelled together all year. It was just sweet. It was a special group all year. It was an honor to be able to represent not only Ohio, but Northeast Ohio for the first time in such a long time.”

Playing a schedule mixed between OHSAA-sanctioned schools and other USA Hockey-run programs, the Jets finished the season with a 35-17-1 mark.

While the team went 0-3 at nationals, held at the Anaheim Ducks’ training facility, it was still a fantastic experience for the four area kids.

“It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience to go out with the group of guys we had,” Craven said. “After accomplishing such a feat that we set out for us, just getting to play on the national stage like that with all the production, all the stuff done by USA Hockey, and really playing in some competitive games, besides that first one, where it was kind of a wake up call. It was a fun competition, and I’d rather end the season in California than in Cleveland, Ohio, that’s for sure.”

There’s a Youngstown throughline with all four players. They’re not just from the Mahoning Valley, but they all got their start with the Youth Phantoms program.

All four players credited their time with the program, as well as then-coach and former Youngstown SteelHound captain Chris Richards, for helping foster their love of the sport.

“When I got a little bit older, my coach was Chris Richards. He really coached us well,” Black said. “He coached the fundamentals very well and he really complimented everyone when they had good games. He kept it real with you when you had bad games too, but to help you contribute and be a better player. We were very successful there. … I had him as a coach for a long, long time. I still talk to him to this day. He still plays a very huge role in my life, as he coached me for many, many years.”

Watching the Phantoms at the Covelli Centre is where many hockey-loving kids discovered the game, Craven included.

“I went there, and that was where I truly fell in love with the game,” he said. “It was just something different. It wasn’t something I was used to seeing, but it just caught my eye. The pace of the game, the physicality, the emotions are displayed. You can see emotions displayed on the ice through the play, and it was just something that I wanted to try. … I started youth hockey, and then I kind of just fell in love with it. Just playing with the guys, embracing the grind. There’s really not a lot of sports to have a grind like the sport of hockey does, and I really just fell in love with the process of working together and going out there every single time we hit the ice and grinding it out to achieve victory.”

With hockey’s entry barrier, those who stick around in the sport truly care about the game. The hour-long trips to practice, the travel to games, the staggering cost of equipment. It takes a true dedication and love of the sport to keep going.

But when some of your earliest memories involve the sport you love, those tough days get a little easier. Those hour-plus drives don’t feel as long and that push to keep going feels stronger.

“Hockey’s meant, I don’t want to say the world, but it’s meant my life,” Mould said. “Starting at 2 years old, I used to play knee hockey in the kitchen by myself at my old house. My mom still has pictures of it. I would have a little knee hockey net, and that’s really where I started playing goalie. I would have my dad come and shoot those little foam pucks at me, and I stopped every one of them. Hockey’s been my life since as long as I can remember, and before I can remember. Sharing that with my late grandfather definitely transformed it even more. He passed away almost two years ago and that was our biggest connection. Every time we talked, we talked about hockey, so I would definitely say hockey has been the core thing in my life that I love the most.”