Deciding between a travel sport or a school sport can be a huge decision for a multitude of reasons. Chase Porter, a junior at Chelsea High School, is making his decision between school hockey and travel hockey this winter.

“I play for a pretty good travel team, but since I can play year-round for that team, I’ll still play school Hockey,” Porter said.

In school, you are with the people that you socialize with all day. Seeing the same friends that you play with urges Porter to play with them.

“For me, I want to play school so I can be able to play with my school friends,” Porter said.

Travel teams usually play year-round, and high school hockey in Michigan is only played 1 time a year. Chelsea’s varsity hockey season is during the winter.

“I don’t really have to choose between school hockey or travel hockey; it’s either I play more travel hockey and no school hockey, or a bit less travel hockey and school hockey,” Porter said.

Hockey is a very physical sport that requires physical durability and puts a lot of strain on the body.

“Hockey is a very hard physical sport to play with getting hit and all the skating on your legs,” Porter said.

When playing all around the state for travel hockey and at different times on different days, the sport becomes de-romanticized. But a high school hockey game with rivalry and a large fans can bring back the love of the game for players.

“Although my travel team is really good, in my opinion, there's a certain feel for playing on your school team that a travel team doesn't have,” Porter said.

As Porter weighed the pros and cons between his choices, he came to the conclusion that there really isn’t much of a discrepancy between the 2 seasons.

“Overall, there's no battle between playing school hockey or travel hockey, since I would just play school hockey with my school friends and travel hockey with my travel friends,” Porter said.