Many people around the St. Louis area are fans of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, but not many actually play hockey. However, junior Jacob Pentz is an avid Blues fan and has been playing hockey for many years.

“It all started when I was born because my dad and I have been going to Blues games since I was eight months old,” Pentz said. “I always kind of wanted to play.”

Pentz’s interest in hockey was sparked at a very young age. He was able to start playing hockey as a toddler and pursue his interest.

“I did a learn to play when I was like, three or four. But then we moved and then I didn’t find any hockey [teams] until eighth grade,” Pentz said. “Then I joined the roller hockey team at school. And from there, it’s kind of just blossomed out.”

Joining the roller hockey team allowed Pentz’s love for the sport to grow as he got to play on a team with other guys who shared the same passion for hockey. Those who are on both roller hockey and ice hockey teams, such as Pentz, play almost all year round.

“So roller [hockey] is a spring sport. While ice [hockey] is usually like a straight winter sport. So typically you can work with ice and then you kind of transition through the early spring and end of winter … into roller [hockey]. Then most roller tournaments go throughout the summer,” Pentz said. 

Because Pentz has been going to hockey games since he was only eight months old, he has seen a lot of great players throughout the years. One player that inspires him is former Blues player, Ryan O’Reilly.

 “He’s always dedicated,” Pentz said. “Even though the Blues traded him off recently, he still had nothing but nice things to say and he was super dedicated and always put the team first.” 

While Pentz has plenty of great memories with his teammates, one of his favorite memories was from when his team went to compete at Nationals in Florida. 

“Our initial locker room actually got stink bombed and Axe bombed by the team before us … and we went out and talked to some of the people that we knew and they offered us the professional car show locker room”, Pentz said. “So we were able to leave our gear there and just didn’t have to worry about anything. It was kind of fun feeling like a professional player.”