Sports: February 2006 Archives
February 25, 2006
Well, I got an e-mail from my new captain last night. There are 14 players, including the goalie, on our team (which seems about average for the league), and 8 teams. I'm not on the same team as anyone whose name I recognize, but then anyone who knows me understands that I could nonetheless recognize some teammates once I see them. :)
Sadly, I won't be using the number I had hoped to; some other fellow took #13. Ah well. It also appears I'll be playing some forward position, which hopefully will work out better than it did during the evaluation skate. :-D Our first game is March 5 at 7:15pm, which is unfortunate; Jenny's qualifying exams are that weekend, and that is of course the night of the Oscars, so I feel bad about not being around for part of that. :(
Oh, also, it appears that our team name is the "ATX Blades"; I have no idea what that refers to. :)
February 23, 2006
So as mentioned, Tuesday was the New Player Evaluation Skate for the league. There were actually two skates, a B/C skate at 7:30 and an A/B at 9:00. I'm a C leaguer (A is the highest skill level, C the lowest), but I couldn't make the 7:30, so I ended up skating with A/Bers (and I think 2 or 3 other Cs in the same situation).
In some ways it was good--there were fewer players, so I got more ice time--but man, it was tough to keep up. :) I didn't have a shot on goal all night (although I almost had a pair of breakaways), but I played all right on defense (broke up a couple of 2 on 1s and even a 3 on 1), so hopefully I didn't look too bad out there. Those A leaguers are fast, though; even turning around and skating forwards I couldn't keep up with most of them.
It was a heck of a skate--we did skating/shooting drills for 15 minutes just to show off our level of ability, then we scrimmaged for an hour straight, no breaks, just roll the lines. That was kind of a new experience for me--never played organized ice hockey before, so the whole line change thing (when to get off, getting over the wall both ways, shifting down the bench) took me a few shifts to get used to. I about killed myself getting over the wall once; tossed my leg up over it, lost my balance, and crashed to the ice on my back. I'm sure all the captains were impressed. ;)
All in all, I was exhausted, but I actually don't feel too bad about how I played. I'm not sure how many of the C captains stayed to watch; hopefully at least a few. I did get to see the last half hour of the B/C skate, and there were a lot of C leaguers out there who were a lot newer to the sport than I am, so if any C captains did stay I think I'll come off all right.
Anyway, we'll see Friday or Saturday when my new captain contacts me. :)
February 15, 2006
So I am officially rooting for the Italian men's hockey team for the rest of the Olympics. I just finished watching their game against Canada, and the way they managed to hang with the Canadian squad for so much of the game was inspiring. They may have lost 7-2, but they did it in style, no doubt about that. And you have to love how excited their fans get when they're doing well.
Of course, I was rooting for Kazakhstan against the Swedes, too. I have something of an affinity for underdog teams, maybe because I was never on a winning team in any league I ever played in. Ever. Not soccer, not tennis, not indoor soccer, probably not even T-ball as a little kid. :) I'm hoping that will change with the upcoming hockey season. We'll see. ;)
