Starting out at a young age loving the game of hockey and still loving it to this day. From working almost everyday to become a better player it has brought him to whole way to the nahl to further his hockey career. Walker is doing one of the things that he loves the most all while getting to move to a different state to do so. Hockey has always been a big part of his life and is something enjoyable that he loves doing. He has been playing on many different travels teams along with playing for the school at the same time. With Christmas coming around the corner her will be returning for a few short days to be with family and friends, but then he’s back to Texas to prepare for upcoming games.

 While being away from home is definitely different, but he is adjusting to it well. Walker said, “It’s tough not being able to see your family, but I still talk with them over the phone.” 

With being gone for long periods at a time and not seeing friends and family from back home, phone calls are the closet he gets to being with them. He said, “So making calls back home helps, but at the same time you’re away doing what you love so that makes it all worth it.” 

Since Walker is in Texas he is not able to attend school at Latrobe, especially with his hockey schedule it is a little difficult to manage both. Fortunately he is able to still learn his academics from Latrobe and do all of his classes online, while still managing hockey at the same time. “I miss seeing everyone at school, the teachers, guidance counselors, and friends,” said Walker. It definitely is different not taking any in person classes although he was in a similar situation at the end of the school year last year when we went online due to the pandemic. 

During this time he was still able to see his friends so it has changed a little bit for him. “I miss being able to see everyone but just like if I was home right now we’d be online anyways so everyone kind of gets a feel for online school,” he said. 

 Like at the end of the school year in 19-20,  covid had not only affected school, but it also had affected his hockey season and not only for school it also affected his travel team Esmark Stars. 

The pandemic has also affected his season already a little bit this year. “So we were all good up until recently when a couple of our guys got it. Since that happened we had to quarantine along with having to reschedule games and miss practice,” said Walker.  They had been good and had not had any problems with the pandemic until that point. This  put a little strain on the team and the season, but they are ready to get back into action and be able to play games again. 

The Wichita  Fall Warriors continue to take all the right precautions to try and make sure that they can make the most out of their season and play as many games as possible. While they are ready to get back on the ice and play, they also like to do other things in their free time. Walker said, “When I’m not playing hockey I’m either doing schoolwork, preparing for the ACT, spending time with my teammates and billets, or talking with people back home.” The billets that are mentioned are the family that he is currently living with while he is down in Texas. It is a family that is kind enough to welcome a player or players to stay with them while they are playing hockey and need a place to stay.

Being away from home can make you miss friends and family a little more when you are gone for long periods of time when you have never been away from home for this long. “I do miss my family and friends, even though I keep in touch with all of them it’s still not the same as being face to face,” he said. Although he is missing friends and family back home, he still has a lot of people around him like all of his teammates and billet families. Walker said, “My teammates and I are all together everyday so we’ve become very close with each other.” This is probably nice to have a lot of people around that  have grown close very quickly, which can make up for missing friends and family back home.