The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Kyle Troup

You think of a legend as someone famous or even a prodigy, but what you may not know is there is a hidden legend in our school.

Kyle Troup is a national-caliber ice hockey player but is not well known because the ice hockey team here at Penn Manor is, well pretty much under the radar to most people except the vivacious players and fans of the sport.

Although in high demand by many Travel teams, Troup will soon decide if playing travel hockey is worth giving up his senior year.

Troup started playing for Penn Manor varsity in ninth grade, although he was capable of playing in eighth grade, he was not allowed because he was too young.

“Skill wise I was able to but I could not play because of my age,” said Troup.

Troup started playing ice hockey at age 7 on the Lancaster Firebirds, a travel team, where he said that it was easy skating in the start.

His mother started him on his hockey dream when he watched her play in an adult league, while his father, Rob, was all about him playing hockey because he saw the real potential in him.

Troup showed his potential when he made the Central Penn Panthers, a midget AAA 16U team. He originally played Bantam A at the Firebirds, but this jump in levels in hockey is unheard of.

“Playing at this new level was scary at first because it was a whole new bunch of kids with legit dangles (crazy puck maneuvers). I wasn’t in a bender (someone who can barely skate) league anymore,” said Troup, referring to his initial experiences in a higher level hockey.

When he got up to playing with Central Penn, his coach didn’t allow him to play for Penn Manor because he didn’t want him getting hurt, Troup recalled.

He played for Central Penn as a sophomore and junior, but when he moved in his senior year to a new team, the Junior Flyers, he came back to his home ice.

Troup is known as a good and physical player. He plays rough.

He made his Penn Manor debut on Friday November 6 where he saw the penalty box more then he saw the ice.

“I felt like the refs tried to handle me through penalties,” Troup said referring to the game on November 6. He received five penalties, three of which, he thought were unnecessary.

But Troup shrugs off those kind of experiences for the love of the game.

“I’m really excited; I really want more people to come out to games to see what high school hockey’s all about.”

After many years of continuous travel hockey, Kyle Troup suited up for the last time when he decided to be a senior and “have a life.”

He choose to do this one day out of the blue while he was getting ready for practice.

Troup got all his equipment on except for his worn out skates and decided he was done with his life being all hockey, all the time. He just got up and left that day without letting his coach or fellow teammates know.

One of the major reasons that swayed his decision, along with wanting a life, was that most of the kids on his team that were worse than him, yet were moving up to junior A hockey teams.

By: Alex Geiger