What Hockey Has Taught Me

What hockey has taught me is less about how the game works and more about what’s important. I am horrible at watching hockey. I have a hard time following the puck, or understanding the finer details of what’s going on and the importance of the positioning.

Hockey. It’s a big part of my life now. I never thought this would happen. I never played hockey except floor hockey in gym class growing up. I did like that activity, actually. But I never watched the sport. It was never on my radar that it would come to be a big part of my life.

Fast forward and both of my boys play and since my husband couldn’t play as a kid, he wanted to make sure our kids had the chance to do it, and he learned to play as well, as an adult. So it has been a part of our lives ever since our older one started when he was 7. So that’s 10 years ago now.

I had never been a part of this minor hockey thing, and didn’t know it was volunteer run. There were many shocks to the system, such as the cost each year, not just for the sign up fees, but that we all had to contribute money that would be pooled together to cover tournaments or extra things that the budget allowed, like track pants or gifts for the coaches. And the costs of going to the tournaments, hotels while at the tournament. And then as they get more competitive, the costs go up for all the extra play and ice bookings. Other shocks to the system were how much earlier before the game that you have to be at the ice rink, which makes it feel like your whole day is used up with driving to and from as well. And how cold it always is. But at least I am not a soccer mom standing out in the rain freezing myself half to death. 😂 And an added shock, was the politics and competitiveness of parents about their children, if they think the kid is really good and the lengths some people go to in order to have their child benefit.

So, although I have groaned and grumbled many a time with how much time feels ‘wasted’ standing around an arena waiting (far more time than the actual games), I’ve come around more and more to the bigger picture of why people do this.

The kids love playing. So that’s an obvious one. As parents we tend to want our kids to enjoy stuff. There’s all the ‘team’ lessons of playing with other kids, cooperating with each other to achieve a goal. There are disappointments with losses and dealing with politics and nepotism. All real life stuff. So that’s all obvious too. Then there’s actually a lot of socializing involved. Which is good, but for me – in small doses especially. You meet great people. Nice families. In the beginning years when I was just new to this, I would stress about the hotel trips due to the added cost. Hoping that we could find a cheaper option. But my husband was big into team sports when he was a kid. He sees the big picture with all this stuff and knows that the most important memories for the kids are the times when they all stay at the same hotel together. Spending the time together to bond outside of game time. As well as the ferry rides together or the team dinners. The older boys team had a tournament in Seattle earlier this year and most of the team decided to dye their hair blonde. Jordan joined in, so there we were in our hotel, with a store bought kit, dying his hair before the game. They enjoyed all the laughs around seeing each other, Jordan’s turned more ginger than blonde but this will stand out in their memory as well. Last month, we had a burger and beer fundraiser (which, all I can do is laugh at how much money we have to ‘spend’ in order to fundraise), so Jay and I were at the pub to support the cause but we had so much fun and laughter with the group we were with. And I even won the second 50/50! So we were out of pocket much less than if we didn’t win 🤪.

It has grown on me over the years. I know I will miss it when it doesn’t consume all of our time. One day I will miss watching our boys play. So although I have often wondered, did we really choose to do this? I know that I wouldn’t change it either. Being there for all of it is important. And as happy as I am not socializing, hockey has provided some really great experiences and memories.

Sending Love,

Devon