Hockey season is bearing down us like Hurricane Irene and it's brought the thought of hockey mamas and all their drama to the forefront of my brain. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce my new blog..."Confessions of a Hockey Mama." It'll be a fun, little blog of crazy hockey mama stories...the stories won't always be P.G. because, let's face it, hockey mamas (or dads) are rarely P.G. ~ at least the ones I know and plan to write about. I plan to change names to protect the "innocent" but the stories will be real and full of all the drama a hockey mama can cook up.
Hockey mamas...we're quite a breed. We keep each other on our toes. We can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies. This blog will have just a little of both. I'll tell the crazy hockey mama stories I've experienced myself, seen second hand or been told about.
I've been a hockey mama for as long as I can remember. Zach was six when he started playing this sport that sucks you in and doesn't release the kids (or parents) from it's grip. Zach never wanted to play another team sport until he discovered hockey. He had no idea how to skate or play the game, he just knew he would love it. Lucas followed in his big brother's footsteps, joining in the fun when he was five and Stan started playing after standing at the glass watching his boys have all the fun. Stan was 37 when he learned how to play the sport his boys love. So, I guess you could say, I'm a hockey mama three times over.
I've watched hundreds of games. I've learned the game from the ground up. I didn't grow up in the world of hockey. I got adopted into the sport by way of my boys. I know most of the rules and what I don't know I can bluff my way through well enough to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I may not know all the ins and outs but I know enough to either be scary or brilliant. I am one of the crazier hockey mamas and I surround myself with like minded hockey mamas ~ Heather and Leslie, just to name two. I love looking at stats and figuring out who's going to be our toughest competition in a tournament or league play. I'll go onto different websites to find out league standings and rankings. I love hockey ~ watching it, participating in the excitement of the crowd and being a bad ass hockey mama.
I love going to my boys' games. I love watching the crazies come out of the woodwork...myself included. I've never known a sport to pull out such crazy enthusiasm and passion. What other sport can "boast" fans who come to games and act like complete and total idiots (I know there are others but for the sake of my blog, I'm gonna stick to crazy hockey mamas). We have one hockey mama we've knicknamed "Spiderwoman" because she tries to climb the glass as she's yelling at the refs for missed calls or bad calls or whatever it is that is wrong with the game. Spiderwoman hooks her fingers over the top of the glass and tries with all her might to scale the glass. I love watching the crazies at the games.
I know, pretty much, which mamas to avoid at games. I know myself well enough to know that I can get wound up tighter than a top when I'm around the wrong influence at a game. Case in point...the year our boys went to playoffs. I was with a couple of mamas who get wound up tight than I do at games. It was the game to decide who would be the Capital Beltway Hockey League (CBHL) champions. Our opposition for this game was a team we have scrapped with on many occassions. it was shaping up to be quite a contest between the two teams and the parents. The opposing team's parents positioned themselves directly behind our goalie in the first period. They taped signs up signs all over the glass. The chanted and jeered behind our goalie. (Keep in mind, this was 12 and 13 year old youth hockey.) They were nasty, so I, along with the my hockey mama friends, got nasty too. During the second period we went over to where the opposing team was positioned. We moved some of their signs so we could see the game. Was it right? Nope. Were they right to post signs up directly behind our goalie? Probably not. Were they good sports? Nope. Were we good sports? Definitely not. We should never have moved their signs. Because we moved their signs they started puffing out their chests and making threats. One of our hockey mamas, I'll call her Mary, got into with one of the opposing mamas. Words kept getting more heated and the situation was escalating when Mary blew up and said to the opposing mama "Shut up, you fat bitch!" In response the opposing mama said "I may be a fat bitch but at least I'm not a white trash, piece of shit like you!" WOW ~ classy! What do you do with that?? Chests kept puffing bigger and bigger, so my thought was to get the hell outta Dodge! I took Mary's arm and dragged her away from the ruckus. On top of all of the heated words, we lost the game. It was a bitter pill to swallow. This team was our "arch-nemesis." We lost the CBHL title to our biggest competition. As we were standing around recapping the game I realized something wasn't quite right with my wedding ring...I looked down to see a broken setting and four missing rubies. During the game, as I was pounding on the glass, I broke my wedding ring. Talk about classy...who breaks their wedding ring at a youth hockey game by pounding like a mad-woman on the glass? Uh, that'd be ME!! I definitely learned which mamas get me too wound up.
I've learned how to keep myself a little more calm but that doesn't stop situations from happening all around me. I'll tell the crazy stories in this blog. If you have a crazy hockey mama story I'd love to hear it! The more crazy stories the better!! I love realizing that I may be a little crazy but, for the most part, I have nothing on the other mamas out there but I'll confess my worst. Come along for the ride ~ it'll be wild!
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