That's not very christian of you....

Yeah. Fine hockey is a tool of the devil. Anything else you'd like to add to the list of devilish activities while we're here?

It's just not hockey anymore.. I see it in soccer in my area. There's now indoor soccer leagues for the winter to keep the kids "in tune" for when the summer arrives. Games, practices, tournaments take up whole weekends now. It's amazing how stressed out people (parents) get over the whole deal yet they still keep going. There's even parents that aren't allowed to say anything anymore at the games because of their comments. One is a mom... and this is for a nine years old girls league. I believe they get so deep into whatever the child's activity is, it actually turns in to their religion!

I've been thinking, it's seems that it's not just a "Christian" characteristic to infringe your way of life on others.. it's a human thing.

By the way, it's ok to burn about something for a bit, as long as it doesn't consume you!

don't back off, Serena. You're dead right.

Organized hockey does not develop social skills. Quite the contrary, it retards them.

Kids playing on their own do learn social skills. Though they seem to spend most of their time arguing, they are learning how to organize, how to relate to each. But you put them onto an organized team, and they lose all that for the sake of becoming an effective part of a hockey playing machine. The trouble is that 99.99% of them will gain nothing from that because they won't become professionals, and hockey will play no great part in their life. So they have lost a chance to grow up.

The purpose of organized hockey for young kids is to produce players for the NHL. It does it at the cost of the kids.

I would certainly encourage kids to play hockey - as a pick up game that used to be called shinty (ofr shinny). They are certainly not going to learn any social skills by training to become hockey pros.

graeme

It's just another team sport......no harm in that. It's the parents that distort it.

Agreed, Athiesto. The parents are the ones who distort it for the kids. They put so much pressure on their kids to succeed and sometimes it just gets out of control.

Hockey is a team sport and teaches lots of social things. Anyone who disagrees is looking at the glass half empty. It teaches teamwork. It teaches to work hard to strive in a goal. It teaches loyalty. It is something the kid can belong to . Witch could also be used later in life.

And by suporting hockey for other kids you are helping these children learn these valuable traits witch some of these kids would not otherwise learn. That being said kids are the future it will help mold the way the world your kids and grankids and so on will live. I am not saying sports teams are everything but they are definitely a big part of it.

hockey is just another team sport. Quite true. And all of these team sports forced on kids at a young age are harmful. Nothing wrong with orgoanized sport for adults. But for kids they get in the way of growing up. It's rather like these parents who put their kids into beauty contests at the age of eight. (BTW, it's not just the parents in team sports. It's the nature of organized sport, and esecially of organized sport dominated by professionalism and profit making.)

Kids learn to relate to each oather by relating to eaoh other. Stcik in an artificial set of rules with adults enforcing them, and kids lose that opportunity.

Some people say organized team sports teach loyalty, team play and leadership. Really. Where is the evidence that hockey players are more loyal and more cooperative than others? Where is the evidence that it produces leadership? Look at all the pro hockey players, past and present, in Canada. They are the ultimate products of the system. How many go on to become leaders in anything? We can, of course, name a few like Beliveau and Dryden, but not many for all those players and ex players supposedly bursting with leadership. And any number of leaders from the sport will certainly be outnumbered by the egomaniacs, bullies, louts, and drunks. If you're going to count the products of playing, count all of them.

I taught some hundreds of students who had spent a lot of their lives in team sports and who arrived at advanced levels. Many of them wre nice kids; but I saw no evidence whatever these were superior to other students in cooperation or loyalty or leadership. (Some, though, were notable for their attitude that they had a free pass to do and to get whatever they liked because they were on the team.)

graeme

Hockey is 1000 times better at character building than some sports. Compare NHL players to NFL or MLB players, and I think you'll notice a marked difference. I'm not sure why all the antagonism towards organized hockey. There can obviously be abuses, but the responsibility lies in the parents to discern what's best - it's not a problem with the sport itself.

I'd like to see more Christians getting involved in organized hockey, rather than moan and complain about kids' priorities. There is such a thing as taking Christ and His values into social arenas like organized sport. If you're worried about the influences in sports, or the school, or anything else, don't curse from afar - get involved and be a good influence in that particular forum.

If I remember, in Roch Carrier's "The Hockey Sweater" wasn't the ref a minister? Didn't churches used to offer sports leagues and be involved in kids' sporting lives?

I'm kinda shocked to see yet another reference to the "devil" and "hell" in these dicussions. I'm thinking it is tongue in cheek and then I reflect on some of the negative attitudes associated with it and think ...."are these people serious? Hockey, our national game ... a tool of the Devil?

People miss Church to play hockey. It's a choice ... good one or bad one who knows. Sometimes I wonder why anyone shows up. Parents do overemphasize the importance or winning and kids get an exaggerated sense of competition and agression as a way to resolve issues.

The best of people and the worst of people show up when they are under stress as they are in any kind of competition or group interaction ... but the tool of the devil? C'mon people! Do you really see EVIL at work here or just a lot of not very "skillful" (to use the Buddhist terminology) choices?

As a former coach of a VERY competitive sport, the OLDEST in Canada, rowing, I have seen kids "built" by their involvement more often than not. I have seen parents misbehave and dishonour themselves and embarass their children. I have seen extraordinary moments of camaraderie and team spirit and moments when the glory of God was revealed in the struggle and grandeur of human endeavour. I have NEVER seen any evidence that the "devil" had any role to play in any of it

i always KNEW there was something weird about ron mclean and don cherry....

BEHIND ME, SATAN!!!

Serena: I am the parent of a 7 year old hockey player. I did not force the sport on my child. This is his first year playing and it was completely his choice (as by my name I am a curling mom and my girls curl and love it). I was hesitant to put him in hockey because of the hockey politics but our experience so far has been very positive. My goal is not to produce an NHL player but I did have a fairly quiet reserved child who has blossomed by becoming part of a bigger team. He was a horrible skater when he started in Sept. and now he skates as well as any of the other kids because HE has chosen to do so. One of my concerns was how much time would be spent at the arena on Sunday mornings and I have been very lucky and nothing has been scheduled during that time. Yes I agree that in hockey (as well as every other sport) parents are the ones who go way too far and display behaviour that we would be giving our children time outs for if they displayed the same behaviour. I was not impressed with the funraising (selling of tickets) that was involved but in our league we pay for the tickets up front and it is up to the individual if they want to turn around and sell them to others to recoup some of their costs. I have found that the fundraising is necessary because the cost of renting the ice surface by the league is so expensive. In order to get rid of the fund raising it would be necessary for the municipalities to lower the cost of renting the ice and we know that the municipalities will not take money from their pockets. If the league did not fund raise then only the rich would be able to afford to play. It is an expensive sport for sure (as I naively found out) but I think all children should have the opportunity to play if the child (not the parent) so chooses.

*methinks Serena likes to be controversial*

There are nasty, competitive parents in every sport, no?

What about 'stage moms' and ballet classes full of tired, grumpy 'ballerinas' trying to make mothers happy?

I like science's post. Thank you, science.

And I LOVE hockey. Started out with ringuette. Spent many hours playing pick-up games on outdoor rinks on freezing days, or inside local arenas in my 20's and 30's and took part in thousands of ball hockey games as a youngster. Sometimes there were bullies, but those games didn't last very long. Mostly everyone played very very co-operatively (boys and girls). I absolutely loved those spontaneous games with kids of all ages. I learned alot from older boys who really knew how to play well.

Some ringuette parents were mighty weird.

Tool of the Devil?
Only if you take a run at another player intending to hurt or maim.

Professional hockey players make way too much $ but there's a whole other discussion.

Find out how many of the politicians have played on a team sport when they were young. Then argue with me. Cause of all the players they dont all make it to the big league.

well, yes. a great many politicians played organized sports as kids -because a great many kids of all sorts play organized sports. If you check, you will probably find that large numbers of convicts also played organized sports as kids. But you surely wouldn't say that organized sports produce convicts. And they don't produce politicians.

If you have any hard evidence that organized sports contributes to social development - and I mean real evidence, not assertions by Don Cherry. I should love to see it.

Anyway, my point is that if you look at the highest levels of sport you find relatively few people there who become leaders in anything.

People always make claims about the social benefits of organized sport. But nobody has ever produced any evidence of it. I can remember hearing the same of boxing.But in the many boxers I knew, I saw few with anything that had any resemblance to social skills, and many who needed fundamental training.

Mind you, I have not said kids should not play hockey or should not learn to skate. I said that they should not be doing this in a tightly controlled and adult regulated manner.

BTW, I'm not sure rowing is the earliest organized sport in Canada - though it was the second earliest professional one. I don't know the earliest date for organized rowing. But cricket and curling and horse racing, at least, were all here
as early as 1760. Paddling, wrestling and weight lifting were even earlier, of course, but not as organized sports. Horse racing as a pro sport appeared by 1820 or so. As I say, though, I'm not sure whether that beats rowing by people like Hanlan who made a living by betting on themselves.

graeme

Competative sports have no appeal to me. I just don't get it. When I was forced to play sports in highschool gym class, I would do what any sensible person would do when they see a hard object flying towards them: get the heck out of the way of it!

When they televise hockey and football, why do they include that really annoying crowd noise, and the announcer shouting over it?

A Hyde raises an interesting point about Roch Carriere\s hockey ref being a priest, and churches offering sports leagues.

About 1870 you see the growth of an idea in Protestantism that sport built character and thus was a reflection of Christianity. A good christian was a good athlete. That's why the YMCA, which began as a bible study group, became so overwhelmed by sport that it largely ceased its religious activities. That whole movement was called "Muscular Christianity". Honest. And that lies behind church participation in sport, largely through the church leagues that i played in as a kid.

The Catholic church at first opposed this because the worship of sport was seen as a worship of one's own body, and a distraction from the soul. But as their young people became attracted to Protestant orgnizations like the Y, it reversed itself. It was about 1920 that the Catholic churches in Quebec, at least, moved into sport in a big way. Every parish had its teams in a structure that ran right up to the provincial diocese. That lasted until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s when the government set up a department of recreation that took it all over, and which staffed itself with the brothers and sisters and clergy who had operated the Catholic system as they left their orders to become civil servants.

graeme

If the real question here is why is sports more atractive Church. One should look at the church and not the sport. Why do these people not attend church during the off season?

I personally hate what hockey turns kids into. I'v seen too many nice little boys turn into arrogant , aggressive monsters when they started to play hockey.

I've been 'lurking' on Wonder Care since Day One...because I'm LOTS older than the target age group of 30-45...However, I love a good discussion, and in retirement years (yes, I'm really, really old...and a retired United Church minister to boot!)...So, I', m asking you...and will respect your judgement...
Is it OK with you all for me to join this discssion?
YOu see, I see many sides to this question.
In one Pastoral Charge I learned a lot about how hockey ...and yes, also figure skating and ringuette, competed with what till lately had belonged exclusively...at least there...to church..
Well, you'll need to know...I don't think church should depend on legislative pressure to maintain itself...church should simply keep doing its job...more of that later, perhaps, and perhaps on another question.
But hockey.
If some of you follow NHL hockey the name Sidney Crosby will be known. 19 years old...not at all arrogant.. ( at least as far as one can observe publicly)
he's a great role model for young folk to see how one can be a huge success and not be an awful person.
Well, I'm from Nova Scotia...and we're all very proud of 'our' Sidney....
And hockey is fun...fun to do...and fun to watch.

Someone had observed that other...maybe all...sports bring problems.
Doesn't life????

To add another point.
My grandson loved to HIT things. His mother enrolled him in hockey so he could hit the puck and use all that energy withoug hurting others.
It worked.
No, hockey did not become his love...but his year in organized hockey helped him work through a lot of stuff in his 8 year old life...

Nice to hear from you, NovaNance.

The only problem with hockey is that it literally takes over the families life. The kids have a ridiculous schedule where they practise 3 X per week and then have games on top of that. The games are often out of town so the whole weekend is wasted on hockey as well. I will also not buy hockey tickets because I think that the hockey players make way too much money and that money is better spent feeding the hungry.

Would Jesus go to a hockey game? I have no doubt that He would. But I seriously doubt that He would shell out $100 or more to go to an Oilers or Flames game or any of the other real expensive games. I would take that further. If the Church wanted to start a hockey league I would be all for it. I doubt they could get ice time. Too much of anything is not a good thing. It puts a person out of balance. I think hockey has become a god in Canada.

Would you rather see a kid get exercise and play hockey with a stick or sit and play it on TV

Serena wrote:

"The only problem with hockey is that it literally takes over the families life. The kids have a ridiculous schedule where they practise 3 X per week and then have games on top of that."

Sounds alot likesome stages of my musical upbringing (recitals, exams, festivals...) or my neighbour's dance life or the family next door's swim schedule for pre-Olympic training...

I guess somethings can take over if you're excited enough about them, and want to really excel. All about choices, prioritizing.

...or ringuette tournaments in different parts of Montreal or hockey tournaments in Brockville...or...

I am very glad that I had a very active and colourful childhood, and alot of the same activities I loved then are my hobbies now.

Yes there are always some people both children and adults who will twist the game into something aggressive and negative. However I was in a highschool all girls team and it was a wonderful experience. The parents got to meet each other, and didn't have to worry about what unsavoury activities their teenagers might be up to. It was a bonding experience where we laughed as we tried to get dressed in all the padding that was required and fell all over the ice. I agree with Science's post many of you are looking at hockey from a negative point of view that can be turned towards almost any activity.

My own personal theory of why Canada's female athletes bring home more hardware at the Olympics than the men:

Girls do a variety of sports, thus spreading around the athletic talent pool.
Boys all play hockey...that leaves our athletic talent pool for other sports weak.

Ha ha, this is not a proven theory...

My son plays indoor soccer and he snowboards...

Couldn't playing church be a thing of the devil too? I'm assuming by "of the devil" you mean something that separates us from God and from each other. Some people get so involved in church activities that they don't have time for daily Bible reading, prayer and meditation. I'm sure this is a danger for many of the clergy who have so many demands on their time.

I used to scoff at all organized sports, but sometime last year I came to appreciate them - I realize that for players and spectators alike, sports are outlets for getting rid of excess energy. If all sports were outlawed there'd be a big jump in sins such as adultery. Yelling my head off and jumping up and down at the hockey game bleeds off excess energy.

The excess energy theory is the catholic theory of sport. If the burn off their energy playing whatever, they won't t hink of sex. Nice theory. If it were true, pro hockey players would never have children.

Let's not waste time on anecdotes. If there is evidence, real evidence, that hockey produces leaders, aids social maturity, cures baldness, etc. show it. No anecdotes. Show the evidence.

graeme

I never even watched a hockey game until a few years ago. I have never seen one played live, not even kids on an outdoor rink. Am I missing something? I am not much on sports, except basketball when I played.

personally i have absolutely no problem with hockey.
i joined the highschool rugby team when i was in grade nine, and it likely did more to build my self confidance and my social skills than anything else. through elementary school and junior high i was an outcast and quite anti-social, however through the rugby team i met people that i would never have encountere before and i was able to make lasting friendships that have lasted 3 years now.
the contact gave me an outlet for my emotion that i did not have before, which was cruicial as i had been having some problems with dealing with stress in the past.
It is true that durring the season rugby consumed my life, we had practices monday to friday, except game days and the day after a game. But in the reverse of what started this discussion i see that as a positive, it keeps me active. "idle hands are the devil's workshop" is an old addage that still is relevant today.
i dissagree with the thought of only hockey asking for support from the comunity as all house league teams in all sports have corporate sponsors, only hockey is much more expencive than other sports so they also ask people in the surrounding area for donations.

oh and to comments suggesting that some players are being payed too much, some are i agree, but the normal salary of a NHL hockey player is under 1million a year, and for someone who's career will only last several years that put them very much above the normal income level over a lifetime, only the top 5% are being payed the rediculous amounts advertised.

Graeme it is a generally held theory in schools that those who play sports or are involved in organized extra-curriculars do better in school. Statistically this is true. The reasons are a bit more ambiguous. However I will say that sports is a safe environment in which to interact with peers...something that is surprisingly lacking in our society.

Peace

Joel

graeme, show evidence that it produces poor leaders, you are giving "evidence" that it procuces bad leaders, true there are people that are overly violent, but i do not believe that it is actually a common trait among professional players, if it were true that all players were violent, then trading players would be rare (at least not common place) since any "enforcer" who was beaten off would hold a grudge and would then start a fight with newly traded players.

also ovcourse many professional hockey players don't act as leaders, they have frequent and long practices to keep them busy, also it's the ones who are pationate about HOCKEY that become pro hockey players, the ones who want to be comunity leaders become comunity leaders (which is not necessarily politicians, or even polititians who win elections considering most never do)

oh and i speak from personal experience when i say i have SEEN learship be born in friends and i have also seen the effects of wanting to fill the time with something new.........in fact i have seem MANY more peers be corrupted by drugs than sports (for ones who have had complete reversals of character 3 from drugs, 0 from sports)

I don't have to prove anything. i have never claimed that hockey produces people either good or bad. ( I have said it seems to produce both.) Others have said it produces leaders. They are the ones who have to produce. Okay.Show me the evidence it does. (And a tale of the kid you knew who once played hockey and later became chief clerk in a convenience store is not evidence.)

For the record, what I said was that kids learn socializationi by play. When you take play away from them and control as in organized sport - any sport - you take away that learning experience.

That, if you feel passionately about it, is not an attack on hockey and Don Cherry and the Canadian beaver. i simply say it is a mistake to organize kids so early, and rob them of the learning experience of free play. If you like playing hockey, fine. If you played it as a kid and enjoyed it, fine. you're allowed to. I would simply like to see the evidence that playing organized hockey as a child has the benefits that people claim for it. Show me the evidence.

Contrary evidence? There is some. Hockey develops loyalty and group spirit? Check army vountary enlistments in WW2. You'll find that when it came to enlisting, NHL players, despite the examples of the schmidts of the league - and of Maruice Richard who tried but was turned down -NHL players were at the back of the line in enlisting when you look at their age group.

Playing organized hockey (or baseball or football) at a young age teaches you - how to play organized hockey (or baseball or football) at a young age. that is all it does. Any notion it does more is just sentimental blather unless you can show me some evidence.

graeme

in reply to preecy, I have taught in schools from elementary to university for 0ver 40 years. I have never even heard it is a generally held theory that those who play sports do better in school and, based on my experience, I t hink it extremely unlikely. In fact, I have rarely had a top student who was an athlete.

When you add all extra curricular activities, then it becomes possible. Very often, a top student is also on the student newspaper or debating society. So, of course, if you lump the athletes in with the debaters you get a jump in the proportion of good students.

Mind you, I have had some good kids who were athletes. I have taught pro footballers, olympic judoists, top flight basketball players, a world chamption pro boxer... many of them fine students who did excellent work. But I have never seen the slightest evidence that it was the sport or their involvement in it that made them good students.

graeme

that WW2 statistic doesn't show much, that shows national loyalty not leadership or good cooperation, you would have to look at how they performed in the military but that would be far too complicated to anylise (but i see your point) (and admittedly my "evidence" is fairly weak, considering personal experiences were deemed insufficient evidence to prove a point quite a long time ago)

i seem to have strayed from the relavant discussion, your point about organized sports being pushed on kids too early is interesting, however i disagree that it is such a bad thing, i have played organised sports since i was young, and i refereed for some time, i see nothing wrong with putting rules down rather than having games with no rules. Aslo having organised sports in rural areas (where i live) is important becuase it give children a chance to meet other kids (other than their relatives) and is the only good way other than sunday school in our area for kids to even see each other on a regular basis other than family friends and best friends. Even the little hamlet of bognor has enough kids who want to play (from ages 6 to 10) soccer that they have an under 8 team and an under 10 team both with more than enough players, all of whom become fast friends. admittedly this may be different in the city where friends can walk to each other's houses

oh and for the record i don't like hockey....just not my sport, i prefer soccer and rugby

at least on my football team 8/10 honour roll students were football players. we were not shown any preference by teachers. Furthermore there were students who enjoyed football and they had to pass to play so they were further motivated to get better grades. Also generally kicking around hockey arenas and gym teachers offices I read material (i.e. pamphletes) which sugested that any extra-curriculars improved scholstic preformace. This also went for the band directors office. Lastly on this note that these students have higher grades shows extra work as generally this takes up a great deal of time off their schedual so although busier they also preformed better.

Peace

Joel

Hey there, I am new here, but this really caught my attention. I have read through most of the replys and have to give my opinion too!

My 9 year old son has been playing Hockey for 6 years. Yes, we started him young as overzealous parents sometimes do, but it was and still is his passion. He is ADHD and struggles in many aspects of his life, but hockey is the one place where he excels and is accepted by his peers. He is keen to go to every practice and every game and does whatever is expected of him so that he can get there.....the sport has made all the difference in his life.

What if he wants to quit tomorrow......he would do so with his parents' blessings, because we believe that he has to do what he wants.

I agree that parents get too involved. It sends me through the roof to listen to the parents go on and on at some of the hockey games....that is when I go stand in the corner by myself and watch my boy skate!

For me growing up it was horses, for him it is hockey. What ever it is, I support him fully!

loved teatime and nate. of course, if a kid enjoys it, let him do it.

I, too, live in a rural area (as of a few months ago). I think it's great for kids to get together. But what bothered me about kids getting togehter in my old days in suburbia is that it was always under the heavy hand of adults. By all means lete kids get together. But let THEM get together.

have trouble with preecy. If his school football team had good grades, I'm happy to hear it. but playing football does not autormatically poduce good grades. And in my 40 plus years of teaching, I have seen no evidence to suggest athletes are better students than non-athletes. (mind you, my world chamption boxer was a gem, the most methodical student (just like his boxing style) I ever saw.

graeme

Two things I just remembered. One there are scientific studies linking physical activity and fitness to better brain activity. Two there is more to being on a sports team than just palying there are the road trips, the locker-room, the sense of membership which extends beyond the ice, field, court...

Peace

Joel

okay. so show me the evidence that athletes are better students and become prominent leaders.

graeme

All Games, Hockey is one more, breeds pride.
Pride is one of the biggest siins out there.
Teams breed pride, a team is all about pride.
God help us all......

Stephen Gordon said"I never even watched a hockey game until a few years ago"

My dear friend I am very happy that you are posting with an assumed identity because if you had posted this under your real identity your Canadian Citizenship might have been revoked. ;)

Repeat with me very slowly. HOCKEY RULES HOCKEY RULES HOCKEY RULES..........

Good now those hockey spies have gone to another thread. We can go on bashing hockey without fear of retribution!

It seems to me that most of the people who have posted opinions on this subject have had very little experience with hockey in this country--most opinions seem to be based on stereotypes and media's biased reports. I have raised three boys with minor and junior hockey being a big part of their lives. Church is also a big part of their lives. The kids start out playing very casually when they are young and they grow into the competitive and committed levels if they have the passion and love of the game. Most kids play a couple of times a week. A small percentage actually play at the level that most people love to critique. The ones that do play at higher levels learn commitment, dedication, team work, delayed gratification, goal-setting, etc. These young men and women have courage, strength and character--they prove and develop these things every time they step on the ice. They risk a great deal to achieve their goals. There are few people in our society willing to risk or give up anything for anyone or anything else.
Most of the parents I know through hockey are great people. There have been one or two in the fifteen years we have been involved that I would hesitate to send my son with. We spend a lot of time together--on buses, in hotels, in resturants and arenas. People in general get nuts for lots of reasons--just watch how people behave on the roads, in the malls, at work, in resturants and bars. Hockey parents in general act with consideration and generosity, better than most folks in the line-up at Walmart.
The problem, as I see it at least, is that hockey parents or parents who support their children as they follow their passions, are an easy target and a popular thing to criticize--almost in vogue--justifying mediocraty.

Enoch_bud said "The problem, as I see it at least, is that hockey parents or parents who support their children as they follow their passions, are an easy target and a popular thing to criticize--almost in vogue--justifying mediocraty"

Most of my students who are failing are failing because they:

A)usually don't do their homework because they were at hockey practice
B)don't do their homework because they were at hockey games all weekend
C)are too tired to work in school because they were out too late at hockey practise

Most of these kids will NOT make it to the NHL. So why sacrifice their schoolwork and possibly a chance at a higher education?

preecy wrote:
there are scientific studies linking physical activity and fitness to better brain activity.

Correlation does not imply causation. And if there is causation, we don't know what way it is going. There are lots of possiblities:
a) better brain activity causes people to be physically active
b) being physically active causes better brain activity
c) some other lurking variable (for example socio-economic factor or personality) is effecting both levels of physical activity and levels of brain activity

Another example:
More churches being built in a community is linked to more criminal activity

Do churches cause criminal activity?
Does criminal activity cause churches to be built?
Does an expanding population cause both things?

I've been teaching for 30 years. Over that time, I've observed that many of the bullies, kids with attitude, and unpleasant, clique-y kids were hockey players.

There is one little darling in my current school (K - Grade 5) who is on a Junior Rep team, whatever that is. His mother has told his teacher, in so many words, that school does not matter, that hockey is what is important in his life. The school is not to discipline him or to expect him to complete assignments because he may be away for tournaments.

There are a few good kids who are hockey players, but they are the minority.

As a kid, I played hockey on a small pond in borrowed skates -- they weren't hockey skates and they weren't sharp. We had to hike a half mile to get there. There were about 5 or 6 of us. We had some fun and some angry moments. Eventually we grew too big for the pond and the borrowed skates. The pond dried up. I remember it vaguely, a bit fondly.