Hockey!

Just so you know, I love Hockey!

I enjoy watching it (in person or on TV), but mostly I love to play! Back in college, when we were "just friends," James' roommate convinced him to get inline skates and come play. It didn't take long for them to convince me to do the same. Why I decided this was a good idea I still don't know... I have never been that great on roller skates and the few times I had tried inline skating, I was not much better (in truth, probably a lot worse).

Just in case you don't know much about inline skates, here is a news flash:

Hockey Skates Do NOT Have Brakes! I thought that might help with your understanding of the insanity that is me. It must come down to my weird enjoyment of abnormal sports (for girls that is). I grew up playing football with my brother and his friends, ran track (not too bad, except I'm on the short side and ran hurdles and was learning pole vault...go figure) and did Tae Kwon Do. I participated in a lot of other activities as well, but those give you the basic idea.

So we went to the local sporting goods store and I found a pair of not too expensive hockey skates. I borrowed a stick from James' other roommate (thus the issue of me using a stick that is too long, bad habits are hard to break). We went to the outdoor rink on the CSU campus and started "playing." Well, I can't remember a whole lot of the beginning of my hockey playing, but I was lucky in that I didn't end up with too many injuries and nothing serious. I will say that you learn quick when you get thrown into the fire. I was hooked!!

We played roller hockey at the CSU outdoor rink and even got a team together from our church to play at the local roller hockey rink. That fizzled out, but then we met a few guys out at the CSU rink who asked us if we wanted to join their team. "Sure!" That led to several years of playing roller hockey with many of those original players.

James and I both held the desire to play ice hockey eventually. So, after we got fed up with the atrocious reffing at the rink, we decided to make the switch. We convinced a couple friends to take a Hockey 101 class at the ice rink in the spring (still playing roller hockey) and joined the ice league for the summer session. We managed to get one of the guys who took the 101 class with us to join, in addition to a couple guys from our roller team.

I really liked roller-hockey, but I LOVE Ice-Hockey. We have been playing for a few years now, both the summer and Fall (Fall is really a Fall/Spring league, it's extra long) sessions. We have played up to three leagues/nights at the same time and are currently playing two. It is great!

Our teams are awesome, especially our "C" league team! We have had most of the same guys together for the last few seasons. Everyone seems to enjoy....well....picking on each other. We've had our share of wins and losses and even won a Championship! Mostly it is just a great group of guys (I am the only girl, but am considered just one of the guys).

As much as I enjoy playing with my wonderful husband and our team, I really just love playing. I like that it is competitive, physical and fast! I don't have a great shot or puck-handling skills, but I am fairly fast (still trying to get faster though) and aggressive. I like that you can hit (not punch, they don't allow fighting in our league) other players and that it can be quite a battle to get to or keep the puck. I play defense and it's a great feeling to keep the puck in the zone or get it out of our end, to make a good pass or to steal the puck from an opposing player. I like battling for the puck against the boards and skating as fast as I can to get to the puck first. I definitely get my share of penalties: some I think are good calls, others not so much. I also take a lot of hits: I draw some penalties, but not many; I'm okay with that. I just enjoy the game! It is a blast!

Now if I could just figure out how to get paid to play hockey......I guess I can dream