The End of an Era

My brother asked me to write a post about his championship hockey game, so here goes. First of all, here's Mochassid's take on it.

My brother has been playing hockey for a while now, first starting a team in his elementary school when in eight grade, and then moving on to join the hockey team in his high school in ninth. He won two championships while on the team, getting MVP in tenth grade, and has served as team captain both in tenth grade and this year (twelfth), as well as this year being assistant coach to the J.V. team. Sadly, I have not been able to attend most of his games due to either being in school or having way, way too much schoolwork to do, and the one other game I did attend, being at Haftr where there is absolutely nowhere to watch the game, I couldn't see a thing and my sister and I ended up going out for ice cream in the middle. I always did regret being somewhat out of the hockey loop, though, especially since the rest of my family (besides perhaps my sister) was so into it. I happen to love hockey, as well, and always wished there was some way I could play. In high school I helped start hockey intramural teams but it didn't really go anywhere.

In any case, back to my brother. Even though I hardly went to any games, I could tell that being part of the hockey team was good for him. He got a chance to be part of a great group of boys who became household names in our house and, though he is somewhat reserved and mild-tempered, he makes a great leader and was able to develop those skills by being team captain both in J.V. and Varsity. I hear the J.V. kids this year liked him a lot as their assistant coach, too. All in all, it was a good experience for him, which was obvious even to me, who didn't see him much in action.

I also always appreciated how he was so well-behaved during a game. I hardly ever heard stories of him getting penalties or getting into fights with any other boys on the other teams. At the championship game last week, he got two penalties which he said were more penalties than he had gotten all season. That says something about his character.

Although his team lost in this year's championship, they lost with dignity. They played a great game, especially my brother who got the only goal (with a beautiful assist from MG. It was really an amazing play - clean, neat, both boys knew what they were doing, it wasn't one of those dinky goals that can sometimes happen). Besides for my brother's two penalties (which I think happened because he really, really, really wanted to win this, his last championship game in high school ever), the team (both teams, actually) played a very clean game, which was indicative of the decency of all the boys, and great coaching for them by L. And even though they lost, it was a very exciting game. I had to stand on a chair the entire time so I could actually see what was going on (since I'm kind of short and next to me there was a huge mob of boys wearing green paint on their faces and spraying green silly-string everywhere which smelled awful and kept getting in my hair).

I think that sometimes it is good to lose. It's always nice to win, but losing can sometimes put things into perspective. Hockey is fun and being part of a team is a great thing, but it is not the be all and end all. There is life after hockey. My brother had a great career on his high school hockey team, but now he is getting ready to move on to bigger things. I wish him much luck with that and with anything else he comes across in the future.