The Lament of a Broken Twig

I had the twig for two years ( a length of epic proportions in hockey time). He had a Vapor shaft with a 52 flex and a Sakic blade. His majesty and grandeur from his bright yellow and fierce black complexion was unparallel to any other on the ice. Religiously, I would protect his shiny glaze with a covering of tape. Never would I be satisfied with any tape-job until it reached perfection. He deserved no less. He was not just a fiber glass extension of my arm like all the others: we were one in the same. He was the reason for so many of my goals, the culprit who was guilty for so much of my success on the ice. I loved that stick more than scoring itself.

Until on day, my love, and his life, was shattered in an instant. That damn slap shot. Why did i have to take that slap shot? I was holding him in my own hands, MY OWN HANDS, when he spilt right in half. It was only a practice, not even a noble death during overtime in a championship game when i was on a breakaway to make the game winning goal. We weren't even doing a drill! As we were waiting for the team to finish their water break, we decided to fire some shots at the net. We made beautiful music together, me and my stick. The first show pierced the back of the net in the high right corner, sailing past the goalie before she was able to react. A shot like that only feeds our desire to keep shooting, our insatiable appetite to score, more and more. The second shot was not our best, however. We hit the crossbar, just above the goalie's shoulder, and the puck escaped its entrapment in the net. We needed to reconcile for our mistake. Three times a charm, right? We lined up before the puck, wound up for the shot and released the potential energy into an insurmountable force that came crashing down onto the ice and the puck.

And then it happened. October 13,2009 I lost a part of myself, something I would never get back. I looked down into my hands and saw only half of my twig, while the other half lay helplessly on the ice, motionless, lifeless. My heart was shattered, it seemed, more so than the vapor shaft itself. How could this have happened? What went wrong? We had been through so much together. Through every tournament, whether it was in Ohio, Canada, Minnesota, or anywhere else, he was by my side. Even when we lost states, he stayed Strong for me. So why did he have to leave me right then and there? I was so lost, so confused. The bewilderment was blinding. I did not know what to do. I felt like sea biscuit with no legs. I felt as helpless as a beetle on its back or a boxer without arms. I was so distraught; I had no way to release these emotions except to yell at the top of my lungs.

My coach laughed and said," You finally broke that old thing?"

How could he be so heartless? What a hostile and evil man! He lent me his wooden stick, as if it were comparable to my Vapor, and expected practice and life to go on normally. The stick that he gave me was nothing like mine. It was stiff and didn't move like my old twig. On top of that if was ugly and had a cold feeling.

My heart was broken and so was my stick. Both were unfixable. All I can think about is that horrible day. He's gone now, but he will always be in my heart.

R.I.P

Refs: get off your knees and stop blowing the game!!

I played boys hockey for about nine years. In boys hockey you could pretty much say anything you want to the ref. You could swear and not get a penalty. If what you were saying was really bad the most you would get is a four minute penalty. In girls hockey it is way different. If you say one bad word you will get a ten minute minor penalty. If you are in ear shot of the ref and you swear they still will give you a penalty. Refs think that girls should be proper and act like ladies.

Then you get some refs that even if you touch another player you will get a penalty. In girls hockey you cannot check but you can ride the body. For example you could ride her body on the boards. When i say ride the body it means to skate up next to her and pretty much just cut her off and nudge her a little. Where as in guys hockey, you can fulll out hit. You're also allowed to mid-ice hit. You pretty much lay people out in boys hockey. Some refs don't understand that girls can ride the body and so they end up calling everything. One time, when an opposing player was skating down the boards into my defensive zone, I was riding her body, gave her a slight nudge, and low and behold, the ref called me for roughing! Unfortunately, I questioned his call, and recieved a ten minute minor as a consequence.

Because girls hockey is not as highly esteemed as mens', we receive the amature referees, while the boys have the expeirenced officiating. The worst is when we have referees that are our own age, trying to call our games. It is a known fact that younger referees are much less experienced and therefore have a tendency to make inconsistant calls.

There needs to be a higher standard for officiating in women's hockey! Title IX in the Constitution demands equal standards in men and women's high school sports, so why should womens travel sports be shafted?

How I Started Playing Hockey!!!

I was five years old and my mom and dad took me open skating. I won't even lie i was so scared and all i could think about it what if i fall i have nothing to protect me. The first open skate was horrible i hated it. I felt hopeless all i could do was hold on to the wall and it was a little overwhelming for. My dad pushed all three of us kids to keep going back every Friday and by the third skate i was fine. A guy figure skaters taught me how to go backwards so i was set all i needed to do was get a stick. So my parents put all three of us kids in a league and at the time there was only one girls team and you had to be a certain age and i was to young. So i had to play boys hockey and i loved it. Playing boys hockey made me into the aggressive and outgoing player that i am today. So i played boys hockey until midgets which is where the kids in the group are 15,16, and 17. I am 4'9 so my dad did not want me to get hurt so i had to switch to girls. The first year i hated it i was always getting penalties. I was the leading scorer on my team. Since then i have been playing on a all girls team. I now play for the Traverse City North Stars AAA team.