Sorry to bother all of you who are waiting for updates from the BU -
Minnesota game but I thought I'd relay a story about a rather enlightening
experience I had with today's Maine-Michigan game. Some of you may not be
interested but I know that a few people I went to grammer and high school
with (Tom Fortier) will appreciate it.
I live/work/go to college in Lewiston, Maine . . . one of three places in
Maine which most of us consider a real hockey "hotbed". Anyway, hockey is
by far the most popular sport among local children in the area . . . an
most of them play hockey for youth league teams associated with the four
catholic schools around here.
My family is closely associated with one of the schools, Holy Cross --
every child in my immediate and not-so immediate family attended the
school, my grandmother taught there for 35+ years and my mother is the
director of the after-school day care center -- which is what leads into
my story. I went home today after a long day working in lab in the hopes
of catching at least the score of the UMaine/Michigan game. Instead of
the score, what I found was about 20 school children sprawled out over the
entire floor of our living room -- all of their eyes transfixed on the
television screen. When I looked up I saw that Maine and Michigan were
still playing!!
It turned out that these were all children who were part of the after
school day care center at Holy Cross. As it turns out, Holy Cross does not
have access to cable TV and the only thing that these children were
interested in was getting home as quickly as possible to watch the game.
After later speaking to my mother, I came to find out that these 20 kids
(all between the age of a kindergarten to 4th grade school kid) literally
BEGGED my mother to let them come to our house (we live about 10
houses away from the school) and watch the game. My mom, who has a really
hard time saying "NO" to any teary-eyed hockey fan, obliged them.
Anyway, I took up position on the floor between Max, a first grader who
plays Goalie for the HC Mites, and Helen, a second grader who learned to
play defense as a "Mighty Atom" but gave it up to be a cheerleader for her
older brother's team, and proceeded to watch the game. I can honestly
say that I learned a lot in the 20 or so minutes of hockey and talking to
these kids -- much more than I ever learned in my four years of majoring
in Biology in college.
First, I have a lot more in common (and communicate better with) people
between the grades of kindergarten and 4th grade than with people in the
20-25 year old range.
Second, Children are some of the more knowledgible (and sportsmanlike ....
never once did I hear a Sieve cheer (no flames intended)) hockey fans that
I've ever met. Not only did they know all of the rules of the game --
even moaning at one time when an off-sides wasn't called -- but by the end
of the game they knew the names of most of the Michigan players and all of
the Maine players. As an aside I came to find out that all of these kids
are ferocious UMaine hockey fans. According to some of them, they got to
meet Shawn Walsh at school three weeks ago. Of course, I was a bit
skeptical and asked "are you sure it was Shawn Walsh?" This was met with
2 of the older kids taking off their UMaine/HockeyEast caps and showing
them to me. Sure enough, across the lid of the hat was, written in blue
ink, the name Shawn Walsh. SORRY FOR RAMBLING ON BUT ANYWAY....
Third, ALL of these children were very rabid **COLLEGE** hockey fans.
Most of the kids were very adamant in saying that Maine was their
favorite hockey team . . . not the Boston Bruins, not the Portland
Pirates but the UMaine Black Bears. A lot of them said that they would
rather go to a UMaine hockey game than any other, but they wouldn't turn
down a free ticket to see the Bruins play ;-). I could only wonder what
the exec's ESPN would do if they could see these kids . . . if they knew
the interest level of these young, impressionable college hockey fans we
might just be seeing more college hockey on ESPN! Many of the kids said
that they want to play for the Black Bears when they go to college . . .
and many of them mentioned that Maine kids CAN play for UMaine --
mentioning the Weinriches, Barry Cluckey, and Jeff Libby by name.
Finally, many of the kids were able to put the game into perspective.
When my grandmother asked who they thought would win the game the response
was overwhelmingly "UMaine", with a few "but Michigan is doing good out
there". In addition to this all of the kids seemed to know that they were
watching two of the best teams in college hockey play and Max said that
this was the best hockey game he had *EVER* seen . . . even better than
the Stanley Cup games! When I asked Max what he would think if Michigan
won, he said that UMaine would still be his favorite team.
Well, after all was said and done and UMaine won the game, I can honestly
say that these kids are probably appreciate College hockey as much as
anyone on this list does. I always remember my parents saying that the
best thing you could do for a kid is to bring him/her to a hockey game --
whether it be a professional, college, or high school or even to see youth
hockey (Such as the Lions Tournament up here in Lewiston) because Hockey
is a Game for Kids.
Best of Luck to UMaine, BU or Minnesota in the quest for this years DI
title. Congratulations to Michigan and ALL other college hockey teams
(Division I, II or III -- go Middlebury --) on a great hockey season. I
hope that all of these college players appreciate the kids who believe in
them and follow their example. It's great to hear about teams like Brown
who wish good luck to kids in their games and adopt teams -- more college
hockey teams should get involved. I sincerely hope that players realize
how much they mean to kids -- because no matter what team you are or what
your record for the season is there is bound to be a group of children who
think they their favorite team's players are the best on the ice.
Sincerely
David Guay '95
Bates College
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