When Steve Wirth first attended a Baltimore Clippers ice hockey game with his brother, Tom, in 1962, he was 15 years old — and instantly hooked for life.

Now 71 years old, the Baltimore native runs a hockey league with participants ranging from college students to retired professional players. But Wirth’s hockey journey was anything but typical.

Growing up near Patterson Park, Wirth first fell for soccer, then football, starring in youth leagues before stumbling into a local roller hockey league that changed everything.   

“There was a lady who lived up the street from me who was a hockey buff, and I would go with her to Clippers games,” Wirth said. “And she said, ‘Once you get hockey in your blood, you can’t get it out.’”

A long and winding road

When an ice rink opened at Patterson Park, the 15-year-old Wirth skated every single day.

A year later, he joined a league at the Orchard Ice Rink in Towson. Then, he moved up to play for the National Brewers — an amateur senior team in the Chesapeake Hockey League (CHL) — competing against men twice his age.

“I’ve played other sports and as a kid, I was nervous when you go out on a baseball field or when you go out on a football field,” Wirth said. “When I first started playing ice hockey, I didn’t have a care in the world. All I thought about was playing hockey. So it’s something that fell into me.”

While playing in the CHL, Wirth caught the eye of Clippers General Manager Terry Reardon — whose son, Mike, also played in the league. 

Reardon was impressed by Wirth holding his own against a higher level of competition, so he landed him a tryout with the Milwaukee Admirals of the then-called International Hockey League (IHL). 

Wirth spent a month with the Admirals before IHL teams transitioned to the American Hockey League (AHL) due to financial struggles.

Back in Baltimore, he played with the semi-pro Washington Chiefs, facing college and senior teams along the East Coast. 

Still chasing the big leagues, Wirth asked Reardon for a Clippers tryout. Reardon told him he wasn’t ready, but Wirth persisted — and eventually got his shot.

“Kids from Baltimore aren’t kids from Canada,” Wirth said. “It really didn’t hit me when I was speaking to him. I was way down the totem pole on my way up. It’s very rare that somebody from that level is going to be able to play in the American League.”

After training camp, Wirth signed a 25-game amateur tryout deal, just as the National Hockey League (NHL) was forming a union.

When a player who was cut from the Clippers suggested that Wirth ask for a trade to the Greensboro Monarchs — who needed defensemen — Wirth insisted that he stay with his hometown team.   

“Of course, me being young and stupid and not, I should have listened, but I didn’t,” Wirth said. “I believe anybody who plays sports wants to play for their hometown team. I didn’t realize Terry Reardon knew every league there was because he had been through them all.”

On opening night, Reardon decided for him. During intermission, Wirth was called to the office and told he’d been traded to Greensboro. But his time as a Monarch was short-lived. 

Wirth only spent two weeks in Greensboro before he was shipped to the El Paso Raiders. The Raiders provided a free room, free meals, and paid him $144 every two weeks — a stark improvement from his previous stop. 

“Greensboro was havoc,” Wirth said. “It was the coach saying, ‘Come on guys, it’s time to practice.’ I was gung-ho about learning and playing. I didn’t really respect that coach for the way he was coaching. He just didn’t seem like he could push the guys. And that’s what I wanted to do.”

Wirth never allowed difficult circumstances to shake his resolve. 

As the only American on the Clippers and Raiders, with most of his teammates hailing from Western Canada, he kept grinding. 

In late 1975, with the Clippers piling up injuries, Reardon brought Wirth back and signed him to an official contract for $100 per game. But his fortunes would soon change again.

The Clippers folded after that season due to financial issues. They returned the following year in the Southern League, where Wirth tried out again but was the final cut.

Head coach Larry Wilson let Wirth practice with the team, and by December, he earned another official contract. He finished the season with the Clippers, but the league folded that February and was absorbed by the AHL.

Wirth’s AHL coach with the Clippers was Kent Douglas, a former NHL Rookie of the Year in 1962 as a 27-year-old and Stanley Cup winner. At 39 years old, Douglas was still playing while co-coaching and developed a close bond with Wirth.

Douglas helped Wirth land a spot with the last team he played for, the Toledo Gold Diggers — led by Ted Garvin.

After about three weeks, Wirth faced a potential trade to Dayton, Ohio but chose to return home to play for the Baltimore Blazers seniors team.

Though his official playing days were over, Wirth’s passion for hockey never faded. It remained a constant in his life — shaping the decades that followed.

Still laced up

After his playing career, Wirth’s father — a longtime Rod Mill steel mill worker — set him up with a job in the Armco steel mill. 

Wirth had already seen the grueling conditions of his distant future during an open house at the mill in the early ‘70s and swore he’d never do it. 

“So it took a four-inch square, and they would run it down to quarter-inch wire,” Wirth said. “And before they put what was called a manipulator in there, the guys had to catch the wire coming out, turn around, and put it in the other side of the mill. So my first thought of that was, ‘I ain’t never doing that job.’” 

He ended up spending 23 years there, working in 90-degree heat, handling molten bars, and wearing cotton long johns to avoid burns. 

Despite the brutal conditions, the rink eventually called him back.

A former Clippers teammate who ran concessions at Patterson Park asked Wirth to run a hockey clinic for him in the early 2000s.

Wirth began renting ice on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, a routine that lasted five years.

Eventually, he added Saturday mornings and family skate sessions on Sundays, offering both ice hockey matches and figure skating.

When interest in family skates dwindled after three years, his friends encouraged him to stick with the pickup runs — and he’s kept those same weekly ice slots ever since. Wirth’s clinics include 16 to 18 players on average.

These sessions became more than just games for Wirth and his cohort of ex-pros. They evolved into a welcoming community for players of all backgrounds — dubbed the Steve Wirth Hockey League (SWHL).

“We have kids who play college, guys who play professional, and guys who are just rink rats,” Wirth said. “By word of mouth, guys are always giving me a call, and I say, ‘Well, where’d you play? What’d you do?’ So that’s why we continue to grow.”

When the Mount Pleasant Ice Rink opened in 1985, Wirth reconnected with rink operator Dave Stewart, an old friend from his Orchard Ice Rink days. Through that connection, Stewart gave him ice time for his clinics — a tradition that continues today.

Wirth balances the teams himself, and there’s no official referee. With the wealth of experience that the players have, they have no issues keeping the games in check themselves.

“Nobody gives anybody sh*t,” said 65-year-old New York native George Carlson. “It’s a lovely group. Even though obviously hockey is what draws you, it seems like it’s much bigger than hockey for everyone involved. There’s no doubt.”

Carlson grew up playing street hockey in Long Island before pursuing ice hockey in 1974.

He got his start in the New York Met junior B league. Then, he moved on to play in Minnesota and eventually the Pittsburgh Junior Penguins in a junior A league, before joining the Continental Hockey League (CnHL) in Springfield, Illinois.

After that, he played college hockey at Framingham State in Massachusetts. When Carlson transferred to Towson University due to high out-of-state tuition, he joined the Blazers as a goalie to continue playing the sport he loved. 

After he completed his psychology degree, he ran into Wirth at a Baltimore Orioles game and connected with him more. Given his passion for the game, it was a natural step for Carlson to join the SWHL. 

“He is an upfront, upstanding guy,” Carlson said. “If he weren’t a straight shooter, guys wouldn’t call him. If he was just kind of an a**hole, why would I call him? He’s got a good heart. He may not say that, but he does.”

The SWHL keeps retired players active while giving them a chance to mentor the next generation of hockey players.

Outside the clinics, Carlson recently joined the board of the Baltimore Banners — a youth hockey team managed by mentorship nonprofit organization The Tender Bridge. Every Tuesday, he meets with East Baltimore kids at the Creative Alliance for games and dinner.

“These are young kids who come from very difficult family situations, and hockey’s a ticket to hopefully build those skills,” Carlson said. “It may not be professional hockey, but we’re going to build skills and teach them a new way, a different way.”

The SWHL welcomes anyone who wants to play, including some of Baltimore’s most recognizable names.

In 2019, Orioles vice president assistant general manager of analytics Sig Mejdal — a devoted hockey fan — moved to town and connected with Steve Moorlach, a former Blazers coach and Wirth’s friend.    

That link brought Mejdal into Wirth’s clinics.

“The fact that they kept it up for this long is kind of a testament to how important it is to all of them,” Mejdal said. “I’m thinking these old guys are not as fast as the youngsters, but their hockey sense and their skill is apparent.”

For Wirth and his fellow competitors, the goal is simple: keep playing as long as they can. 

“As long as I’m physically able, I want to play,” Carlson said. “It’s been a part of my life for more than 50 years. And it’s just a part of my life that I’m not willing to put aside. It brings me great pleasure. So both for my emotional well-being and for my physical well-being, I just feel compelled to keep playing. I don’t see an end. I just don’t.”

Related

By: Dan Richeal

WACO, Texas—The National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) announced its end of season awards on Thursday. Dartmouth head coach and director of riding, Tenley Walsh and Dartmouth assistant coach Megan McGill have both received honors. Walsh was named Single Discipline Head Coach of the Year while McGill was named Single Discipline Jumping Seat Coach of the Year.

Walsh just wrapped up her sixth year at the helm for the Big Green and went 7-4 in 2024-25. Dartmouth captured its first NCEA National Championship in April by defeating the College of Charleton. The Big Green also earned the program’s first No. 1 ranking in November, in the last poll of 2024-25 Dartmouth regained its top ranking. Dartmouth had four All-ECAC honorees, three All-Americans, while Samantha Takacs was named ECAC Rider of the Year. It is the first time that Walsh has been named a national coach of the year, in 2021-22 she was named ECAC Coach of the Year.

McGill completed her third season with the Big Green in 2024-25 and played a major role in the success of the Big Green. With McGill’s help, Dartmouth had three All-ECAC honorees in fences while Takacs, Cassidy Exner, and Elise Stephens each were named All-American for fences.

HERNING, Denmark — To tell it to a 20-year-old Ryan Warsofky, a defenseman from Sacred Heart University relegated to exactly zero games as a freshman because of a rare disease known as Guillain-Barré syndrome, that he’d eventually find himself on the international stage with Team USA?

Might seem far-fetched.

But that’s where he finds himself now.

Front and center, from behind the bench.

“I was sick,” recalled Warsofsky, reflecting back on his collegiate days that he’d admit didn’t show enough promise to finds these heights from an on-ice perspective.

“It’s a virus that put me out for the whole year. I had a redshirt year and I obviously ended up transferring. It was a long year, tough year. As a young man you’re changing… you’re in your 20s, you’re in college and there’s a lot of pressure. I look back on all my years quite a bit.

“I’ve wanted to be a coach since I was 16, 17, 18 years old. Really fell in love with that part of it. I always knew in the back of my mind that’s what I wanted to do. I knew I probably didn’t have the skill set to make it to the National Hockey League, so really into college I started picking up from coaches what I liked, what I didn’t like, how I would do things. I always kind of thought like a coach when I was a player.

“Definitely to be here this soon… I’m humbled by it and very grateful to be here representing my country and USA Hockey.”

Warsofsky, skipper of the San Jose Sharks, became the youngest active head coach in the NHL when he was promoted from assistant to head coach on June 13.

Fast forward 11 months and he’s the youngest bench boss at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, tasked with guiding a United States squad in its quest to land gold for the first time in the tournament since 1933.

That’s 54 years before the pride of North Marshfield, MA was born.

It wasn’t a target destination for Warsofsky. Not this soon, anyway.

Instead, it’s a byproduct of a rising star amongst the coaching ranks whose humble start came as an assistant coach with Curry College, the Division III school he wrapped his collegiate playing career at two years prior.

“Did I have a list of ‘at 37 years old I want to be a head coach at the World Championship and be a head coach in the NHL?’ No. I just wanted to be where my feet were and work as hard as I possibly can and people maybe noticed. I’ve been very fortunate,” said Warsofsky, who is younger than six active players in the tournament.

“I think in this day and age we’re in such a hurry to get to the next best thing. I think you need to be where your feet are. Do the best possible job you can do where you are and what your role is and stay in your lane and when you do a good job people will do their homework and they’ll look around and ask questions. That’s always been my backbone of what my thought process is to get where I am today.”

Warsofsky worked his way from Curry College to the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL, first as an assistant and then the big boss. Next up? The Charlotte Checkers, again, first as an assistant and then to head coach. A pivot to the main chair with the Chicago Wolves landed him behind San Jose’s bench as — yes — an assistant.

From there, the main chair.

“I get asked this question a lot from younger coaches… I never looked for the next job,” Warsofsky advised. “I would always be where my feet were and be the best at whatever my job was in that situation. If I was running the penalty kill, do the best job I could do on the penalty kill and coach the defensemen and get them developed and help us win games. If I was running the power play, do that.

“You do it for the love of the game, and I truly believe what I was back then is exactly who I am now. It’s a lot of grind. It’s a lot of effort. It’s a lot of support for a lot of people.”

He now has the support of USA Hockey.

But, though he’s calling the shots at the World Championship, the development isn’t done.

Much like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, two budding young players who pledged to represent their countries on the Worlds stage and who are poised to push the Sharks from rebuild to regular contender, Warsofsky understands the perks to be had by jumping into international waters for new experiences.

He knows what it can do for the games of Celebrini and Smith.

He understands how it’ll make him better, too.

And, in the end, rise San Jose up the Pacific Division ranks.

“I’m trying to learn,” said Warsofsky, unironically an assistant coach on Team USA’s entry at the 2023 World Championship.

“I think that’s another part of it, too. I don’t have all the answers. I’m trying to learn from John Vanbiesbrouck. I’m trying to learn from (assistant coaches) Kevin Dean and Mike Vellucci and Adam Nightingale. I’m trying to learn from our players. I’m trying to learn from Tage Thompson. It’s not just ‘my way or the highway.’ I’m not ruling here with an iron fist. There are philosophies that I think the game should be played with, but as a coach I’m trying to get better myself.

“I’ll do that after this tournament. I’ll take a break and get right back into it… digging into the NHL playoffs and how we want to tinker and change things in San Jose… talking to people around the league and talking to coaches in other sports. It’s a constant process I’ve had as trying to get better as a coach is learn from other people.

“That’s what it’s all about.”

According to this major sports outlet, the Tennessee Volunteers have a top 3 environment in the sport of college football.

As one of the most unique and passionate sports in the country, college football is home to numerous iconic stadiums that have created unforgettable atmospheres and daunting home-field advantages for more than centuries.

Fortunately for Tennessee, the Volunteers have one of the nation’s best environments in the sport. According to a list by 247Sports, which ranked the top 10 greatest atmospheres in college football, the Tennessee Volunteers possess the third-best atmosphere in college football.

“The Neyland Stadium experience returned to elite form and delivered a celebration for the ages after the Vols toppled Alabama in the 2022 rivalry battle.” Wrote 247’s Carter Bahns. “That amount of passion is on full display every time the Vols run through the T and every time the band blasts “Rocky Top” through the more than 100,000 seats in Knoxville.”

The Vols will look to utilize their home-field advantage this season, as they are scheduled to host a handful of challenging opponents. The Volunteers will host Georgia, Oklahoma, and Arkansas this season, along with a handful of other teams.

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OTHER TENNESSEE NEWS

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Riding the momentum of a second-place finish in the regional round, the Kansas State women’s golf team is set to appear in its first NCAA Championship beginning on Friday at the par-72, 6,330-yard Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.
 
The 2025 NCAA Championship consists of 54 holes of stroke play, Friday through Sunday, after which the 30-team field will be cut to 15 in addition to the top nine individuals on non-advancing teams.
 
The fourth and final round of stroke play on Monday will be used to determine the eight teams that will advance to match play in addition to the 72-hole individual champion. Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be held on Tuesday, while the championship match will be conducted on Wednesday.
 
“It’s been a goal all year to compete for a national championship, not just make it to the NCAA finals,” said head coach Stew Burke, who on Tuesday was named a finalist for the Jackie Steinmann National Coach of the Year award. “All year we have had a good mix of different players contributing to give us our best scoring lineup. We know to really challenge this week, we will have to be at our best. We are fortunate we were able to leave early and get out to California to practice and adjust to the time zone and a different type of grass that we are going to play on this week. We will be focused on building toward the tournament through our practice round so that we are ready to go on Friday.
 
“The ladies seem very comfortable and composed with what lies ahead of them, and we look forward to showing our best golf at our last event of this collegiate season.”
 
Kansas State enters the NCAA Championship after finishing in the top five in three-straight events, including a fifth-place showing in the Big 12 Championship and a tie for second in the 2025 NCAA Lexington Regional.
 
K-State’s scoring lineup remains unchanged from the last two events as it features seniors Carla Bernat and Sophie Bert, junior Noa van Beek, sophomore Alenka Navarro and freshman Nanami Nakashima. Sophomore Julia Ballester Barrio will serve as the Wildcats’ alternate.
 
Closing out her illustrious collegiate career in the NCAA Championship, Bernat enters the final event of the year with a program-record 69.91 scoring average this season. The 2024-25 Big 12 Player of the Year and one of 10 finalists for the ANNIKA Award, Bernat also holds the school record with a 70.38 career average in addition to ranking second in career victories (5), top-five (14) and top-10 (16) finishes. A native of Castellon, Spain, Bernat is coming off an individual win at the NCAA Lexington Regional when she tied the school record with a 54-hole score of 12-under par 204. She has finished in the top three at each of her last three events as she also tied for third at the Silicon Valley Showcase and second in the Big 12 Championship, compiling a 69.67 scoring average over her last nine rounds.
 
An All-Big 12 Team honoree who won the school’s first individual conference championship, Bert enters her final collegiate event with a 73.09 scoring average this season to rank fourth in school history. Winning the Big 12 individual title at 2-under par 211, Bert entered the final round in a tie for 14th place and five shots off the lead before firing a 5-under par 66 to take the conference crown. Earlier this season, the Deurle, Belgium, product set the school record for lowest round with a 63 at the Westbrook Invitational and tied the school’s 54-hole score record at that event with a 204.
 
A native of Oene, Netherlands, van Beek enters the NCAA Championship with a 74.06 scoring average this season to rank 10th in program history, while her 74.37 career average ranks fourth. She tallied a first-round total of 2-under par 70 to begin the NCAA Lexington Regional, while she had a counting score of 1-over par 73 in the final round.
 
Navarro’s average of 73.84 this season ranks seventh in school history, which included a score of 1-under par 71 during the second round of the regional en route to a tie for 18th place at even-par 216. Nakashima is right behind Navarro as she ranks eighth in program history with a 73.86 scoring average this season. She saved her best round of the year for the postseason by turning in a 5-under par 67 during the final round of the regional to tie with Navarro for 18th place.
 
K-State, the No. 21 seed for the event, is one of a record six Big 12 programs to play in the NCAA Championship as the Wildcats are joined in Carlsbad by Arizona State, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas and Oklahoma State. The top 10 seeds in the NCAA Championship consist of No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 South Carolina, No. 4 Florida State, No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Wake Forest, No. 8 Arizona State, No. 9 USC and No. 10 Virginia.
 
Kansas State begins its play in the national championship on Friday with a 6:52 a.m. (PT) tee time off No. 1 as the Wildcats will be paired with Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State. The Wildcats, Commodores and Cowgirls will be part of the afternoon wave for Saturday’s second round, beginning play off the 10th tee at 12:12 p.m. (PT). Tee times on Sunday and Monday will be based on results entering the round.
 
GOLF Channel will provide coverage of the final round of stroke play on Monday and throughout match play on Tuesday and Wednesday. Live results can be followed on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd.