I would get up on a weekend morning, have breakfast and head out in my winter clothing wearing my toque, the blade of my hockey stick slotted through between the boot and blades of the skates that were carried over my shoulder. Like some little ‘hockey hobo’ I would head down the two blocks from our house on 64th street in Edmonton to the Highlands Community Center on 62nd street.
There I would spend a day of play — either on the rink of our massive outdoor ice rink surrounded by pillows of snow or playing shinny on the shiny new hockey rink that my dad and our church janitor, Horace Atkins, helped build.
It was at this community rink that I learned to skate; learned to play shinny; learned to play hockey; and most importantly…..just learned to play with others.
At any given time on the hockey rinks there would be 2 or 3 games. One lengthwise game for the older boys, another slower lengthwise game for the medium boys, and of course a cross-ice game for the little tykes. There were no parents, no one really around, other than all the kids working amongst themselves to choose the teams, define the rules, keep score, and settle the disputes. And it all worked. Somehow we avoided colliding with one another, working it all out ourselves and when there was some sort of impasse we got the ‘big guys’ to settle a dispute amongst us ‘smaller guys’.
Sometimes all the games would be called to a halt in the middle of a snowy day and everyone would grab a shovel or use their sticks to help remove the snow from the rink. If some hockey widows are wondering why their husbands sit glassy-eyed in front of the TV during a snowy Winter Classic, they just need know that they are not watching the game, but feeling the water pellets freeze on their eyebrows, or feeling their ears warm as they pull their toque back down after a dash up the ice with the puck.
This morning as I again sit in my office in at Tim’s Central in metropolitan downtown Tsawwassen I am going through the documents – the minutes & motions for two important meetings as part of my role as Interim, and possibly, President of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association.
Today’s meeting is the annual general meeting of the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association (PCAHA), the governing body for all hockey associations in the west coast of BC – a body that stretches from Chilliwack up to Whistler. It’s the second biggest association after the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) where I played my hockey as a teenager in Hamilton Ontario.
The second and more important meeting is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association (SDMHA) where I will be putting my name forward to serve as president for ‘two years….less a day’.
Hockey governing bodies like the BC Hockey, Hockey Canada and the ones mentioned before, play an important role in structuring and organizing the ‘hockey experience’ for all the participants & members of these associations. They are essential to the effective functioning of minor hockey.
But amongst the clauses, subsections, codicils, and a couple ‘notwithstandings’ that we will cover over the next two days you can be rest assured that this little ‘hockey hobo’ will continue to fan the flames of a fire that started some 40 odd years ago on the outdoor rinks in the Highlands on the east side of Edmonton- making sure that the true spirit of the game, the soul of the little tyke who loves hockey and loves to ‘play’, is not forgotten.
pucksense 