Jordan Weiner pushes limits of club ice hockey
After a long career in the
sport, Weiner hopes his
team will be able to win
the Pac-8 championship
By Brett Williams
lor the Emerald
It has been a long journey.
Jordan Weiner’s ice hockey
career began while his friends
were still wearing diapers and
has included a prep state cham
pionship and several regional
tournament games. He has trav
___ eled hun
WHAT:
Ice Hockey
WHO:
UOvs.
Stanford
WHEN:
Friday, Nov. 13
at 9:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 14
at 9:15 p.m.
WHERE:
Lane County
Ice Arena at the
fairgrounds
MORE INFO:
Call 346-3733
SOURCE:
ClubSports
areas of miles
to Eugene
from his
home in Lin
colnshire,
Illinois, and
now has
helped make
the Oregon
Club Sports
Hockey team
one of the
premier
forces in the
Pacific-8 Con
ference.
As this fifth
year senior
laces up the
skates for his
final season in
competitive
ice hockey, he
still has one
stone left unturned — a Pac-8
championship.
Weiner and his teammates take
the ice this weekend at home
against Stanford in a doublehead
er that has Pac-8 championship
implications. The Cardinal have
lost a solid group of players to
graduation, including last sea
son’s goalie who helped the U.S.
women win the gold two years
ago in Nagano, Japan, but remain
near the top of the Pac-8 stand
ings.
While a sweep of the Ducks
could eliminate Oregon from
tournament consideration and
surely end Weiner’s career unful
filled.
“We have had team meetings
and decided that we will settle
for nothing less than a champi
onship this year. And we defi
nitely have the talent to do it,”
said Weiner.
Weiner, a 6-foot-l, 205-pound
defenseman for the Ducks, feels
that Oregon has more talent than
they did two years ago, when
Weiner and the Ducks lost a
heartbreaker in the champi
onship to Stanford.
“The freshman talent and
depth on this team is incredible.
The coach can play up to our
fourth line of players with good
peace of mind.”
His road back to the champi
onship will undoubtedly have to
go through Southern California, a
team that swept the Ducks this
season and is undefeated against
Oregon in Weiner’s career.
"USC sweeping us this year
was a huge downfall, especially
because it was our home opener
and I have never beaten them.
But if we play them again, we
would be confident.
“We’re still the best team in
the league.”
If the Ducks are for real, one
of the main reasons is Weiner,
who began to play hockey at
age 4 and says his parents
“threw him in every sport.” His
other sports included soccer
and baseball, but both took a
back seat to hockey and were
expunged by his sophomore
year of high school.
One reason is because hockey
is so much more predominant in
the Midwest compared with oth
er parts of the country. “Every
A tck Medley/E merald
Weiner helped lead Oregon to a fourth-place finish at the Pac-8 championships.
005008
(3
o
Winter Term 1999
Take a pE class
For More Information:
a) Web site: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~pars
b) Schedule of Classes — pgs. 100-103
c) Call 346-4105 WBBIBUI
d) All of the above 85EI
Recreation
Nick Medley/Ememld
Jordan Weiner flips the puck over a defenders stick in the Pac-8 championships last February at Lane County Ice.
high school has a team and there
are at least fifteen hockey rinks
less than an hour away. It is a lot
more intense.”
Intensity on the ice has never
been a problem for Weiner. In
high school, he competed on his
high school team and a club team
in which Weiner was the only
player selected from his county.
However, Division I-A possibili
ties were reduced by his decision
to attend public schools.
“I had a chance to go to prep
school and possibly go on from
there. But I wanted to stay with
my friends in high school, so I
made a decision that I wouldn’t
try to play hockey in Division I,”
he said.
Because he was not pursuing a
school with Division I-A hockey,
his choices were down to Oregon
and Arizona. His parents favored
Arizona because of the Wildcat
golf program that Weiner could
have possibly played in. But he
chose Eugene simply because he
liked the appearance of the
school.
“I just wanted to get out of
(( We have had a team
meeting and decided
that we will settle for
nothing less than a
championship this
year. ^
Jordan Weiner
Hockey defender
the Midwest,” explained Wein
er. “It came down to the desert
or the rain, and I went with the
rain."
It was a blessing for the Ducks,
who have been feeding off his
leadership ever since he started
his freshman year.
“I think it is because I have
been around for so long and
younger players respect what I
have to say,” said Weiner. “Play
ing at Oregon has made me more
of a team player, as opposed to
always thinking about myself in
high school.”
Being more of a team player is
not the only part of Weiner’s
game that has changed since his
high school days on the rink.
Weiner was notorious for his
time in the penalty box. “My dad
told me the other day that I still
had the record for penalties. I use
my head more now than I did
then.”
One has to use his head to play
defense, a position Weiner con
siders “the quarterback of the
hockey team.” His skills enable
him to be an offensive defense
man that is counted on to push
the puck up the ice and put pres
sure on opponents.
“I love to pass; 1 always have,”
Weiner said. "My coaches have
always told me to shoot more,
but it is more rewarding to pass
and get an assist.”
Every championship team
needs to have good chemistry, a
quality this year’s Ducks possess.
“Our team has a lot of positive
energy. We play as a team be
cause of the many friendships we
have with each other,” Weiner
said.
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