Rails from the Rails 14 – The Road Less Traveled!

Rails from the Rails 14 – The Road Less Traveled! (as seen here)

All Aboard: “Canadians are less likely to shoot someone. However, we are more likely to club someone over the head with a hockey stick.” – Tim Cerantola

Tickets Please: In my home town of London, Ontario we receive a weekly paper called The Londoner. It is a community newspaper and it comes along with some flyers. I came across an article that I found quite interesting.

The title of the article by Jeffrey Reed was in the form of a question that I often ask myself: Where has all the road hockey gone? The author uses the article to lament the lack of road hockey being played and to discuss the lack of activity of children. I have often wondered about why there doesn’t seem to be as much road hockey being played. And the fact in itself disappoints me. So allow me to make a few comments about a one-time national pastime.

I have very fond memories of playing road hockey when I was young. In particular, I recall with nostalgia when we lived in Chatham, Ontario. We used to play a lot of road hockey and we played it year round. We played more often in the winter, but even in summer it was not uncommon to find a game of street hockey at Finch Place. We even had our own team called the Finch Flyers. I remember once carrying our nets to Baldoon Road to play the Baldoon Bulldogs. I’m not sure who won that game. Even at school we relinquished the sticks but still played a version of the game that we called foot hockey. The space between portables made a perfect venue for an out-of-sight rough-and-tumble game.

Later on in my youth I recall a hockey trip we took to the United States. I think I was in grade 7 or 8. We played a game against a team that was physically superior to us. Even in warm-up we could see their skating prowess. They were big and fast and I thought we were in trouble. Fortunately for us, they couldn’t handle the puck. We beat them convincingly. After the game their parents paraded into our dressing room to thank us for showing them how real hockey was played. I have always attributed Canadian’s advanced puck handling ability to hours and hours of road hockey. I wonder if the Russians and Europeans play much road hockey.

My brother-in-law is probably the best road hockey player I know. He has always been a wizard with a tennis ball and hockey stick. Unfortunately, growing up he didn’t play ice hockey. And though he was dominant in a gym or on a street, hockey played on ice was far from his forte. Due to not playing ice hockey, his skating was inferior and this was evident whenever we played shinny with friends or our church youth group. Recently my brother-in-law decided to take adult power skating lessons. The results were incredible. He has become a proficient skater. That was not entirely expected. However, due mostly to the many years spent playing ball hockey, he has great hands. And with the new found ability to skate well coupled with good touch on the puck, he has become a good hockey player. At least good by old-guys-playing-shinny-late-on-Sunday-night standards. And he can thank road hockey for that.

I will give you a couple reasons why I think kids are not playing as much road hockey these days as compared to when I was young. First, many children have hockey schedules that are ridiculous. They are on the ice 3, 4, or 5 times a week for 5 months. No wonder they don’t want to play road hockey. They also have a myriad of technological entertainment at their hand: Xbox, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPods and the internet. I had none of those distractions when I was young. As a matter of fact, I recently had to convince my daughter that we didn’t have remote controls for the TV when I was young. “Well how do you turn it on?” she said. Lastly, parents don’t kick their kids out of the house the way our parents used to: “Go outside and don’t comeback until I call you for lunch!” I believe that safety is a big reason why this doesn’t occur as much. A kid has to find something to do and we often found a game of road hockey would suffice.

I hope that road hockey experiences a renaissance among the youth of Canada. If not, our dominance in the hockey world might not be the only thing in jeopardy; our health might be as well.

Last Stop: The current Boatmen have their own list of accomplished hockey players. The roster would include such skaters as:

Chad “I’m 6 Feet Tall With Skates On” Folk

Danny “Elbow For Bugsy” Webb

Bugsy “Glass Jaw” Bryce

Mike “North Bay Brawler” O’Shea

Jeff “Pump It, Pump It” Johnson