According to editor-in-chief Madeline Djerf, the Echowan staff will run into a dilemma involving the Hopkins-Park girls’ hockey merge.

Djerf said the merging of Hopkins and St. Louis Park girls’ hockey means Echowan will have to cover it differently.  

“We’re trying to figure out the best way to cover as much and as many people as we can while still being true to our school,” Djerf said.

According to photo editor Benedict Chong, the hockey merge creates a difficult situation because Echowan only covers varsity teams and only five players from Park made the varsity girls’ hockey team.

“This is just an unfair situation for them in general, because less of them will probably be covered,” Chong said.

Chong said the staff tries not to cover one person twice on a spread, but that will be difficult for the girls’ hockey spread this year, because of the few players on the varsity team.

“I can’t imagine trying to fill a spread with only five people you can take photos of,” Chong said.

According to Chong, photographers have to use player numbers to know which players to take photos of, and playing time will affect how many photos are taken.

“It really varies on how many photos you can get by how long they are on the ice,” Chong said.

Adviser Julianne Herbert said the adjustment for the hockey merge will require a different configuration for the Echowan staff.

“We still have to cover the athletes as accurate as we can, and as long as we can get writers and photographers into the hockey games I don’t see a problem with it,” Herbert said.

Djerf said the staff plans to embrace the merge.

“It seems like this merge is going to be this way for a while, from now on, and if that is the case then we should embrace it,” Djerf said.