I’m on a stinking high from last night. After literally years of telling my kids that I was going to start playing, last Tuesday I picked up what remaining gear I needed(pants, jock/cup, elbow, chest and socks/jersey) and started looking at options to get on the ice. I turned in my Rookie League application yesterday at noon & received a phone call at around 5:15 saying that if I could make it, I’d been assigned to a team that was playing at 7:30 PM. Though I was admittedly nervous, more just not exactly sure what I was getting into & didn’t know one person, I decided “rip the Band-Aid off” and headed to the ice center, after a quick trip to the hockey shop to pick up a cage. I had been wearing a visor and after taking a HARD STICK to it(my son last Friday), I wanted full face protection in a game situation.
It’s not like I haven’t been on the ice a bit. My son has been playing for over 10 years(an ‘96 and will play next year in DII of the ACHA), my daughter for over 4(an ’05 will play her 2nd season with a Squirt A team next year). I’ve gone out with them at S&P, youth drop in(just helping out) & even helped coach for a year. But I’d never actually played, Hell, I didn’t have a full set of gear until Thursday of last week.
Anyway, I had soooooo much fun. Good bunch of cats on the team, I guess on the ice in general. My son even came out to watch, which was a nice touch. My only disappointment is that I have to wait until next Monday for another game…..well, and that even though I bought skates, gloves, stick ect 10ish year ago…it took me all this time to actually go all in.