I believe in Hockey.
Most people at Penn State say, “Wait what?” or give me a funny look when I tell them that I play Hockey. “The kid from South Florida that plays hockey?” they say. Then there is my grandpa who my dad affectionately refers to as “the only Canadian who doesn’t know how to skate”. Yes I do play hockey, and I’ve played more hockey than some people from traditional hockey hotbeds.
I played many sports growing up, most for a season or two and none of them really captured my interest. They were all just phases, soccer, football, lacrosse, and baseball. It wasn’t even that I wasn’t good at them; they just couldn’t compete with the feeling I got from playing hockey.
My dad introduced me to hockey when I was six, at the time I never would have thought that it would be something that played a huge role in the next fourteen years of my life. Hockey took me places. It took me across the U.S. to places like Las Vegas, Dallas, and Chicago to compete. It created lasting memories that I wouldn’t give up for anything else.
It taught me things too. After I learned the rules of the game, it taught me lessons that I could apply off the ice. I learned about respecting my opponents, about sticking up for a teammate, about never giving up until the clock reads 0:00. Things like these don’t really make sense to people who haven’t played the game. Most people know hockey as the only sport where it’s legal to fight. When people watch TV and see two hockey players fighting they probably think that it’s just two goons trying to beat each other’s face to a pulp. But it’s more than that. They’re fighting to stick up for a teammate that would just as willingly do the same for them. They’re fighting to send a message that it’s not okay to take cheap shots. It taught me to fight through pain and adversity too. Taping up a cut, or rubbing some ice on a stinger and heading back out on your next shift. Pulling on a jersey is like making a pact with your teammates, promising them to never let them down when they need you most.
Hockey is a place where I can escape. When I’m on the ice nothing but the thoughts of the game can enter my mind. I can’t allow it to or I’ll make a mistake, I’ll let a teammate down. No thinking about what’s happening at home, or the class assignment that is due in a couple of days. Just hockey, nothing more nothing less.
It’s taught me things more important than just the rules.
This is why I believe in Hockey.