I’m a Hockey Player

I love hockey and if you’re following me on Twitter, you may have noticed that lately since the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are on and it’s all that’s on my TV right now and it’s pretty much every second tweet I send out.

I’m a hockey player.  More specifically, I’m a goalie.  Long before I was into fitness, before I ever played volleyball, golf baseball or football, and before I ever weighed 270 lbs, I played hockey, and I was pretty good.

My dream as a kid was to go to university on a full hockey scholarship, study to be a veterinarian, get drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, play hockey until I was 40 when I would retire and I would then open my own vet hospital and spend the rest of my days taking care of sick animals.  Funny what we dream of as kids.

I played competitive hockey most of my childhood and into my late teens and I even taught at a well-established hockey school for a few summers. After high school I was going to play Junior hockey but hurt my knee pretty bad and realized that my childhood dream wasn’t going to come true and that my education was more important than playing Junior hockey, so I quit and retired for about 5 years and in that time is when I got fat.

Once I lost my weight, I dusted off the pads and got back out on the ice.  Shortly after my first few games I tore my meniscus in half and had to have the torn piece removed.  So now I’m missing half of my meniscus and that sidelined me again for another year.

Since my surgery I’ve played hockey every year until this year.  It’s not that I didn’t have the opportunity, it seems anyone I talked to about hockey needed a goalie, but I didn’t get to play more than 5 or 6 times due to a groin injury that is from back in the day.

I miss hockey. Especially this time of year when the playoffs are in full force and there’s at least two games a night on TV.  I’m hoping my groin heals up for next year and that I’ll be back on the ice because hockey is a great workout and a lot of fun.

Hockey is a sport that creates trust, camaraderie, work ethic, team building, pride, respect, sportsmanship and above all, friendship.  These are all things that have carried over into my adult life and really helped sculpt me in to the man I am today and if/when I ever have kids, I truly hope they will be hockey players.

So even though my best playing days are well behind me, the game continues to serve as a framework for personal development both on and off the ice.

Do you play any sports? Did you play sports growing up?

 

Source: http://www.yourinnerskinny.ca/im-a-hockey-player/