Intelligent Allah (‘24) interviewed Southwest High School student-athlete, Will Plunkett (‘24), for The Navigator. Plunkett plays hockey for Minneapolis. Many high school division teams represent a specific school, but Minneapolis is unique in that the team is a coalition of the seven big high schools in Minneapolis. For more than a decade Southwest, South, Washburn, Edison, Roosevelt, Patrick Henry, and North students have been playing together on the ice as a single team. The team’s uniform look: black and gray jerseys that don’t favor any schools’ official colors. 

Intelligent Allah (IA): Tell me about what you do outside of school.

Will Plunkett (WP): I play hockey—I’m on the JV team. 

IA: How many goals have you scored on the season? 

WP: 10. 

After that I asked the highest number of goals he had in a season and he said he had 11-12 was his max. 

IA: What are your hopes—for you to make it to varsity?

WP: I hope to be a fourth line grinder and go for big hits.

I’m not sure what a fourth line grinder is but I continued on with the interview. 

IA: So while you’re on the ice, you’re a person that the other team has to look out for.

WP: I’m a player the coach puts in to hit people hard. 

I was a little confused on what he means by hitting people because I’m not too familiar with hockey so I asked a follow up question to better understand.

IA: What is legal when it comes to hits in hockey? 

WP: You can do anything but hit someone from behind; that’s a big no go.

That surprised me because most sports don’t allow fighting but I continued on. I asked Plunkett more about the hitting and he told me he has slammed people in hockey and has been in some fights on the ice. I asked a question further to clarify if the fights were strictly sport and if afterwards if they were cool off the ice.

WP: It depends on the team; when we play our biggest rivals (Orono) there is a lot of fighting and violence on the ice. 

IA: What are your goals for the next season? 

WP: I want to make varsity and get a lot of goals and hit a lot of kids. 

IA: Thanks for the interview, Will.

Thanks to y’all for reading my interview with Will Plunkett.