Personal Narrative: A Career In Hockey

While many Northern Ontario boys and girls start their hockey careers before entering pre-school, I expressed no interest in learning the fundamentals of ice-skating, let alone hockey, until the age of seven years, which is considered late by Canadian standards.

Many of my school friends played the game

Playing house league hockey for two seasons was the obvious choice for my rudimentary skills.

I enjoyed the comaraderie (expand on this).

My skating had improved immensely since the early days, so at the age of 12, I tried out for a major peewee travel team.

I was enthusiastic at the prospect of excelling as a defenseman, although I felt apprehensive about how I would fit in with a travelling hockey team whose players, all friends, had been together since the age of eight.

I was the kid from house league that took one of their friend’s spot.

There was isolation in the dressing room.

I wasn’t the kid getting invited to sleep overs and birthday parties.

I was uncomfortable and dreaded
Ice-time is earned on travelling teams. I was determined to play my best.

I felt that the parent coaches did not recognize my efforts; being looked over shift after shift, I became even further discouraged and felt alienated and uncomfortable.

I felt that there was pressure to quit the team as other players had quit.

After careful consideration I decided to continue to play for the rest of the season and follow through with my original plan to play at the competitive level.

I had something to prove.

I earned more ice time, played a key role to getting the provincial championships. Even though I don’t keep in touch with the players, I learned a lot from that experience

I learned to finish what I started.

Some things are worth the effort.

Even though I was an outsider, I was determined to continue what I started.

Our team did not advance to the