A couple of years ago someone introduced me to a brand new game that I had never heard before. So before I knew it, we were going to watch the Brisbane Blue Tongues play a few games. I had never even heard of ice hockey in Australia, let alone there was a whole league devoted to it. Then after watching one or two games I really liked it, became fascinated by it. The next season the team re-located to the Gold Coast and got some imports from overseas. One even played in the NHL, only for 3 games but still 3 games is 3 games. We attended some home games and got too watch 2 notably goon hockey players. While I was only new to the game, the hits, fights and the chirping that went on was what we came to see. Some fans were disgusted by their behavior and I couldn’t understand why. But after a couple of years watching and understanding the game, I now know there is more to hockey then the big hits, chirping and the fighting. Even though that is still apart of the game, its not THE game.
I have tried to get into sports but I’ve never really stuck with one for a long period of time so at the time I was looking for a sport to play. So after watching a few games I went to a “Come and Try” session at the closest rink. It was taken by some former Blue Tongues members which I had really looked up to. At this session I had never skated before but the coaches were so encouraging I wanted to keep trying.
Something that I learnt pretty quickly was that the hockey community is quite small and it relies on one or two people to do most things as people think that they are better then everyone else, or they want their child in the best leagues even if they aren’t good enough. There was much debate about me playing in a Division 3 adult league because I was 16 and new to the sport, however this league was the lowest league the governing body had and there was no junior league whatsoever. Someone suggested that because I have chosen not to play junior and play senior hockey, I was never allowed to represent my state ever in my hockey career. This was my first year of ice hockey! I wasn’t going to try -out for my state just because I play hockey. I wanted to try-out when I felt I was ready, and ready enough not to make a fool of myself to the other states. I wanted to help my state win. I also noticed that many people that play this sport never watch the NHL, they don’t even know half the teams. They mainly just know the Mighty Ducks because of the movies. So when I would ask someone about the Flyer’s game the other day, I would get “who are the Flyers?”. Even though I knew hardly anyone that knew anything about NHL or any sort of hockey I went score-keeping one night when the Blue Tongues weren’t playing, and I met someone there that is heavily involved with the Blue Tongues, Ice Hockey Queensland, Ice Hockey Australia, AIHL and NHL teams. I had seen her at Blue Tongues games running around trying to organise a lot of things but that was mainly it. I quickly learnt that this woman knew what she was talking about and even though she is very intimating for her like 5 foot height, I had finally found someone to talk hockey with.
One year on I still talk to this woman and she is part of the reason why I still play hockey. There is an incredible amount of politics involved in this sport in Queensland, and having parents that are heavily involved doesn’t make it any easier as they get the shits over things and I continually go back to hockey and she is the one person that actually listens to me about hockey. I have a lot to learn, but I am slowly getting there. And one day I plan on playing for the Blue Tongues and one day represent my country. But after coming back from a national tournament recently I now know the level I have to be to get to where I want to go.
