Most people know that I love football. That comes mostly from my father’s influence while growing up. Once I learned about what hockey was, being about 18 or 19 years old, I was pretty much hooked. That was a time, around 1990, when I was one of America’s troubled youth. I was messed up into smoking dope, I was in a bad relationship with a girl, I was in a punk-rock band and I was trying desperately to make something of myself by attending the local trade school.
Well, during this period of my life, I had spent some time living with one of the band members (Ron). He was a huge hockey fan who had even played in high school and a city league. He was also a huge Rush fan (I swear he must be part Canadian), hence my love for both of these things today! I have always been a Steelers fan and thought about watching some Penguins hockey. What a sweet time in the franchise to start watching the Penguins, I mean it was the year of their first Stanley Cup!
Unfortunately, I did enough bad crap in that time of my life to pretty much lose everything. So I decided to join the US Navy, there was nothing left to lose. I even returned to my roots, by going back to church, for the few weeks before leaving for boot camp. I met my wife at that church.
Jumping ahead about a decade, I have returned to my love of hockey. It began by watching the regular season in 2003, when life was rough again. The large gap of time was blamed mostly on the Navy not having much access to my franchise teams (being stationed in South Texas), and having married a woman who doesn’t enjoy sports at all. But I had just closed my retail business and had way too much time on my hands, which is how the watching began. This past year however, I have had the distinct pleasure of playing ball/floor hockey in my church’s gym. Starting out at 37 years old is tough, let me tell you. Most of the guys are either 10 years younger than me and/or have some years of experience of playing that I don’t have.
I started out playing defense, which I am fairly good at. I attack the puck well (I feel I over-commit though) and I run out of gas quickly. That’s mostly due to the fact that I am 5′ 8″ and weigh 200 lbs! I don’t have the ability to keep up the pace for a forward either. On one particular monday night of hockey, what I affectionately call hockey night in Cherryville (a shameless rip-off of Hockey Night in Canada), we were without a Goalie. My youth pastor (Dan) asked me if I wanted to, well he basically told me to, “get between the pipes”. Here’s a quick side note. My wife knows that I have been diagnosed with a slight case of a combined ADHD/OCD and I tend to latch onto things with a single-minded drive that is frightening. So my love/hate relationship with goalkeeping has begun!
I love music and anyone who knows me, knows that I am a drummer. When I listen to music, I tend to favor drum-heavy stuff. I focus my attention on the drumming. Well I now also focus on watching goalies during the games on TV. I don’t care who it is, they all have strengths and weaknesses and idiosyncrasies about their skills. I have even gone out and bought a great utility/book and DVD combo, called Hockey Goaltending.
It has content from and info about many of the best goalies in the NHL’s past and present. It even has a forward written by John “Beezer” Vanbiesbrouck. You can read some of the content at Google Books. Reading the forward got me interested in reading up some more on the “Beezer”.
I have always know the Beezer to be one of the greatest goalies of all time. I did not know that he’s a Christian. I also didn’t know that his oldest son has ADHD (odd coincidence huh?). I also didn’t realize how powerful his story/testimony is, which I got to read today. Here’s a link to his audio testimony and his “Life” story website:
Audio story – Listen here
Website – www.johnvanbiesbrouckstory.org
Now if I could just play like him….
I have also seen on many blogs and some news sites, that John has been guilty of dropping the “N” bomb when he referred to one of his players. The tough thing to figure out, is how so many people can be so against a good person after one accidental incident! Can that one case be cause to label someone as a “closet” racist? He has more than made amends, in my opinion, for the incident. I mean he quit his job over the minor hockey team and even sold off his portion of the team. He was the coach and general manager for cryin’ out loud! There are still people out there, however, that continue to throw stones at the man. Perhaps this test is in order…..
Let he who is blameless cast the first stone. – Jesus Christ
Could I do what John did to recant the transgression? I wonder who else could, or would….
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