How I Got Addicted to Hockey

I often get asked how I got into hockey. It's not a common sport for women, there aren't many leagues in Utah and I'm not, well, young. I'm not old either, I'm just not young.

It's my husband's fault I play hockey. Now he might not see it that way and he'll probably remember things differently, but this is how I began my addiction to hockey.

Mike and I can agree that one of the things that attracted him to me was my love of sports. Early on in our marriage we played on a lot of athletic teams together, particularly in college. After college we played parks and rec coed softball. Eventually our softball team fell apart as more and more of the wives became pregnant. Soon there was no longer a coed team, but just a men's team. I was very depressed and frustrated by this turn of events. I wasn't very good at being one of those wives who sat in the bleachers and watched, I wanted to be participating. Also, I was tired of the two choices of either chasing kids around at a game or sitting home alone with them. So one night as I cried angrily about my lack of choices my husband desperately and stupidly said, "It's not my fault you don't have any hobbies. I would gladly babysit while you went to do something, if you had a hobby."

I think Mike forgot who he was talking to, because that sounded like a challenge to me. It sounded to me like "If you only had a hobby..." So I made it a goal to find a hobby. I started out with a book club, but the ladies in it were a little strange and depressing. Then I tried scrap booking, but everyone was doing that. They were doing these perfect pages exactly alike and so I would do mine as opposite as possible. Sometimes they were really ugly, but they weren't like anyone elses.

Finally I got a flier in the mail from the Olympic Oval. Inside was a class "Learn to Play Hockey " and it was just for women. Now that was original and active! So I signed up. It was me and a bunch of teenagers, but who cares. I loved it! Hockey is so perfect. There is so much you have to do at once, skate, defend, move the puck, shoot, look up; it was made for those of us with ADHD. There's nothing I'd rather do. I'm not very good at it, oh well. That's the best thing about learning a new sport after 30, you can just plain enjoy it. Nobody expects you to be any good. You can just play for the pure joy of it and I do.