Ice hockey: Shortly before the start of the DEL season! A look behind the scenes at the Schwenninger Wild Wings

1. Philip Feist and Daniel Schwaiger on the hard road to becoming an ice hockey professional

“Yes, what was built there is really impressive.” “It is really unbelievable what possibilities there are,” explain Philip Feist and Daniel Schwaiger, both now DEL players with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, in unison.

The center in Liefering is indeed huge. This performance center for young football and ice hockey players covers a total of 100,000 square meters. Up to 400 athletes train there, and around 140 can stay in the 70 double rooms in the in-house boarding school.

In the same year, 2000 other youngsters also applied. The two Wild Wings youngsters therefore started in the same year, but Feist in the U16 and Schwaiger in the U17. At first, both players saw it as an opportunity and didn’t think much about what was in store for them.

2. Wayne Hynes never wanted to be a star

Schwenningen ice hockey fans have always been very generous with their affection. There have always been professionals who have been showered with it. One person who has experienced this great love is still an important part of the club today. Wayne Hynes was on the ice for the Wild Wings for six seasons and has now been working for them on the sidelines and at the desk for 14 years.

The then 25-year-old knew a young lady named Ulrike particularly well. So well that they married a short time later and had their first son. “It happened a little too quickly and was of course not planned,” says Hynes with a broad grin. “But I felt at home here anyway.” The two are still married today, and their sons Jonah and Justin live in Ludwigsburg and Spartanburg in the USA respectively.

This meant that Hynes was practically half a Schwenningen native, and when his brother Gord joined the Wild Wings a year later, the Neckar river really became his home. Three years later, the now father of two was faced with another choice: to go or to stay?

3. Kyle Platzer pumps life into the Wild Wings’ veins

It was perhaps the most surprising contract extension of recent years. SERC fans had not expected that the highly sought-after playmaker, who was apparently also of interest to some financially better-off clubs from Switzerland, would stay at the source of the Neckar. They had seen the departure of such talented players too often in the decades of being in the first division.

What managing director Stefan Wagner and head coach Steve Walker told him in the final talks of the last, very successful season was “only positive” for the team’s leader and thinker. “I knew immediately that I would be a part of it,” says Platzer.

Kyle Platzer also played a large part in the team’s success. The North American with German grandparents showed his high hockey IQ in almost every game. His game intelligence and creativity are an extremely important building block in the Wild Wings system.