Growing up with a father who was a professional
athlete meant that I was put into athletics as soon as I could walk. My father,
alumni of professional hockey, got me started in it pretty much from birth. When
I was too little to skate we would play mini stick games in the house with a
golf ball as puck, pillows belted to my legs as goalie pads, and a laundry
hampers as goals. Those mini stick games transferred into 5 am practices, late
nights in the driveway practicing my slap shot, and private skating lessons
from a crazy Russian figure skating coach. Hockey was my father’s passion,
passed on to me.
Fortunately hockey is still a sport I play today on
an NCAA D-III level. When you speak with other hockey players at almost any
level, they will probably have similar stories to tell about their childhood. Hockey
is a sport many were raised with because the fundamentals of the game are so
tough to learn, it almost requires being taught at a very young age. Therefore the
hockey community is very small. It is common to see players through the ranks
knowing and having played with individuals who have capitalized on the
opportunity to turn pro. This unique tiny community is one of the things that sets
aside hockey players from other athletes.
We are warriors on the ice, but gentlemen off of it.
We stand on a piece of steel 1/8 of an inch thick, moving at speeds five times
faster than running, whilst checking each other into the boards. We bleed,
sweat, and struggle together just to kiss a piece of metal and raise it above
our heads. We lose teeth, break bones, and put our face in front of a round 80
x 30 mm, piece of vulcanized rubber; going close to 100 mph.
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| Why? |
Why do we do this? We do it for the guy sitting next
to you in the locker room, who you know, will do the exact same for you; out of
love, passion, and simply, because we are hockey players.
It has seemed to me that hockey is a game some kids get from birth. I remember when I was an undergrad in Canada, from California, and I met for the first time kids who could move a hockey stick like it was second nature, or like it was an extension of their body. It sounds like you were like this. Now, from your description it sounds like hockey is a sport with a strong code of ethics, and I think it would be interesting to know how that ethic gets expressed on the Internet. Do fan sites water down that ethic? Or is there a true expression of it somewhere? How does this form of real-life community get expressed in the environment of the Internet. That is what I am looking for.
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