Ball Hockey/Street Hockey is a sport I as well as a lot of other kids love and is overlooked most of the time. Sometimes people say, "It's not the 'real' Hockey." Well to those people, here:
1. Most of us have been playing since we were five.
The guys I play with and I have all been on the rinks since were 5 years of age. We all remember when we had no clue how to even hold the stick or even where to be on the rink. We know the sport now like we know how to ride a bike. You’ll never forget how to play, you might be rusty but it’s always there.
2. Sweat, a lot of sweat
Just like every sport, there’s a lot of sweat involved. In Ice Hockey, if you're tired you can kind of coast on the skates and you’ll still be moving. In Ball Hockey, there’s nothing but your legs and feet involved in motion so if you stop moving, well, let’s just say your coach won't be too happy.
3. Hockey moms
As a Ball Hockey player, you've never felt embarrassed, but happy at the same time until your mom is screaming your name from the bleachers. Whether you just scored a goal or someone cheap shots you, you'll always hear the classic Hockey mom. You could be the referee, the coach or even another player and if you are doing anything wrong, you will hear it from the Hockey mom.
4. Tournaments
Playing in Tournaments every week during the season for your town against other local towns until the big tournaments which involved traveling from state to state. In these tournaments, player fights, bench clearing brawls, coach fights, parent fights, all happen. We traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia in 2014 and this year to Sheffield, United Kingdom.
5. Your teammates are family.
Theres nothing like a good bond with your teammates, we all could agree. There is such a connection between us Ball Hockey players that literally built an entire community. One day you could absolutely hate another guy on the rink that you're playing against and next weekend you get asked to play on a team that he’s on. Now you hate each other but you realize when he’s on your team, he's not a bad guy.
6. Practice, Practice, Practice…
Of course we practice, it’s just like any other sport. If you're in a town league, you practice with your town team. If you get selected for your travel team, you practice some more. Practices when I was younger on my travel team involved hundreds of push-ups, indian runs, suicides and demanding drills until you were begging for a water break. These practices also included skill training, and other drills that involved passing, shooting, and stick handling.
7. Passion
The passion brought to every game is stronger than anything you'll ever see. Each player wants to win, every game. I will never forget falling just short to the Czechs 5-4 in the bronze medal game this year. We fought so hard to come back of a big deficit in the 3rd period, and the emotions on our bench afterwards was heartbreaking. We battled so hard and the tear filled locker room after the game will bring chills to anyone. This is the kind of passion I am talking about.
8. Screaming coaches
If you're offsides you will hear, "CLEAR!" Every coach will use just about every word in the english vocabulary including ones that are not family friendly.
9. Bruises/Welts
The only sport where you will see a player purposely get in front of a possible 80 mph slap shot to block it. The balls will leave a nice raspberry on your body. Another famous mark is the waffle shaped welt on your leg thats created because you slid on the dek flooring. The shower after is the most pain you will ever feel.
10. The Fans
Whether there's 0-10 people watching the game or 100, you will always hear the word, "SHOOT!" Fans could be annoying at times but overall they keep the sport going just as much as the players.
11. Equipment
We have full equipment just like every other sport. It includes helmet, shin guards, elbow pads, gloves, and a stick.
Now this sport might not give a college scholarship, or be professional in this country or even known about. However, it has given us most of the friends we have, manners taught to us by our coaches and parents, and even how to be ambitious and competitive in everything in our lives. We one day will all be older and sore with some scars on our bodies from this sport but I can say not one of us will regret it. So next time before you say, “Ball Hockey isn't a competitive sport, I play it in my driveway,” think of this.
