Sophomores, Tyler and Zach Carr are excited to finally play their first college game after an incident that suspended the team for a year. The two twins joined the men’s Division 111 Club Hockey Team at Central Michigan University as freshmen. Tyler and Zach are mirror twins who grew up playing hockey. They are both are lifelong Detroit Red Wings fans and have been playing since they were 4 years old. The two did not start competing until fifth grade.
The twins like their freedom of not having to live with each other at CMU because they both shared a room since eighth grade. Like any siblings, they have their arguments and disagreements. However, both agreed they get along a lot better than they used too. There was always sibling rivalry between the brothers. Tyler, a defensemen, and Zach, a forward, are always competing to see who is better. “All the time, we’re constantly seeing who hits, who scores, who does anything the most,” said Tyler.
Tyler and Zach played all throughout high school in their hometown of Brighton and helped lead their team to a state title during their senior year. “That was an awesome experience that we will never forget,” said Tyler and Zach. The reason the twins came to CMU was because of the great hockey program and they also wanted to get an education at the same time. “I did not want to play junior hockey and CMU has one of the best hockey programs,” said Zach. Tyler wants to study Kinesiology and Zach is still undecided. When the twins are not playing hockey they enjoy being outside — either fishing, ice fishing, being out at the lake, or throwing the frisbee around.
Zach’s idol is Pavel Datsyuk from the Detroit Red Wings because he plays forward and can “stick handle.” If Tyler could play with anyone for a day, it would be former Red Wings Captain Niklas Lidstrom because according to Tyler, he is the “perfect human.”
Unfortunately due to social media, the team was suspended for hazing last year. “Our Team President Rick Jones and Head Coach Mark Morley handled all of the media extremely well,” said Tyler. This had a huge effect on the team because this was the first season ever not playing in a game. “It has been extremely difficult to get back in the swing of things,” said Zach. Months after the hazing incident, the team suffered an even greater loss when defenseman Zachary Bunting passed away unexpectedly.
Junior Nick Page is one of Tyler’s roommates who is also on the team. He said, “people may think the Greek community has a strong bond, but I think our hockey team has the strongest brotherhood after everything we have went through.” All of the teammates are good friends and spend most of their time outside of hockey together. “It was extremely difficult not playing for a year and losing ‘Bunts’ had a huge effect on all of us,” said Zach and Tyler.
The two twins and their team are excited for this season and cannot wait to play in their first college game. The first home game is on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. at Mount Pleasant ICE Arena.