The World Cup of Soccer

At the recent AGM for our local hockey association we celebrated a unique act of outreach, of giving, by a young Peewee goaltender in our community. His name was Cairo and he travelled with a his family to an impoverished village in India. On this journey he took with him hockey sticks so that he could introduce the game of hockey to children in that village.

At our general meeting we watched pictures of his trip as they scrolled up on a screen – a travelogue showing kids in a far away land playing the game of hockey for the first time.

The other night a family from Australia reached out to the association about possibly sending their child up to play hockey in our association. It is great to see the ever expanding world of hockey.

On June 12, the World Cup of Soccer begins in Rio di Janeiro bringing together teams from 32 countries for the largest sporting spectuclar in the world. The game of soccer is the biggest game in the world played in places spanning the globe from the slums of Rio to the perfect pitches in stadiums in the Premier League in Great Britain.

It is popular because the game is so accessible – it is a game with low cost of entry. All that is needed are some soccer boots, a ball , and an open field. It is also an all weather sport. Some of the highest paid athletes in the world are ‘football/soccer’ players those who from all parts of the world – Messi from Argentina, Ronaldo from Portugal, Torres from Spain – rise to the top of the global pyramid.

While I love to see situations where the game of hockey is introduced to new cultures and peoples I know of its limitations owing to the need for expensive ice surfaces and costly equipment. It’s a game that flourishes in the Northern regions of the world owing to its dependence on climate – a hold that is slipping with challenges of a planet that is heating up.

Hopefully the game will grow but its growth will likely evolve in ways that are already familiar, but less in keeping with the game we know that is played on ice. It means street hockey, roller hockey may be played in place around the world– and that won’t be bad at all.

After all, at the Olympic training camp last year, the players practiced playing Ball hockey!

‘Two Years……Less a Day’

The other night as I looked over at the list of candidates for the position of President of our local South Delta Minor Hockey Association, I couldn’t help but notice that my name was the only one on the list.

In chairing our Annual General Meeting as Interim President of the SDMHA, I found it tough to withdraw at that point and besides I had looked forward to a night of electioneering and campaigning.

I had dreams of Michael Wilson walking across the convention floor past John Crosbie coming to me, like the young Joe Clark, to be crowned as the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Or a young John Kennedy almost winning the US Vice Presidency in 1956 as young first term senator -not knowing that years later Marilyn Monroe would be singing “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to me. I had a dream.

But without the fireworks and the ‘Vote for Pedro’ sloganeering, it was left to Kellie, our energetic and efficient board Secretary, to move my election to one of acclamation, asking the same question 3 times.
(The meeting was held in Tsawwassen after all, and half of us will likely miss hearing 1 or 2 of the questions!)

“Are there any other candidates from the floor that would like to put their name forward for the position of President? ”

Suddenly it was if people’s hands had been nailed to the sides of their chairs, the annual report suddenly looked like an absorbing novel, and adults started sending emails home to their kids with reminders to feed the cat.

With thoughts of Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s line ‘that you shouldn’t trust anyone who really wants to be the Prime Minister’ …..I accepted my sentence….er… nomination saying.

“I am honoured to serve as the President of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association for a term of …two years less a day”.

Now as I sit at my home office at Tim’s central in downtown metropolitan Tsawwassen I can see that the signs have been taken down, the volunteers have gone home with hangovers from a post-election celebration – a beer at the Rose & Crown – and all that remains are the encouraging words from my family

“Dad, does that mean you still have to go to all of those meetings?”

and the congratulatory emails from fellow members

“Well done Murray -so does that mean that there is going to be an A-3 Peewee team this year?”