Introductions

A bunch of guys from the southward side of the Mason-Dixon going to northern Wisconsin in February to play pond hockey?

Yes, it may sound ludicrous to you, but think of it as a calling. Or maybe a midlife crisis. And maybe for some, a chance to reclaim some fond childhood memories. For me, it's a chance to do something I've never done before (besides experience frostbite on a grand scale).

But I'm getting ahead of myself. How about some introductions. My name is Bryan Taylor, and I live in western North Carolina. I have the dubious honor of being captain of our local adult rec league hockey team, the Ice Holes. I am an adult convert to the game of hockey, having only really learned to skate about eight years ago. Being from Dallas, TX, my love for the game started when my wife and I watched the Stars win the cup in 1999. Upon learning that there were a couple local rinks and hockey leagues, we decided to learn to play.

I was hooked after my first game - pick up hockey on a Friday night. I played for 4-5 years in a local adult league for a couple of different teams, then ended up as captain of the brand-new Ice Holes - more for my organizational efforts rather than my inspired play on ice. The original (and most of the current) members were assembled out of skaters that played in the pick up group.

Last year, while watching the Penguins play the Sabres on New Year's day, I saw a commercial for Labatt Blue, advertising the US Pond Hockey Championship in Eagle River, WI. That commercial really piqued my interest. Growing up in TX, frozen ponds are a bit scarce, so, unlike many of by teammates, I never had the chance of playing pond hockey. I dug a little deeper into the particulars of the tournament, and made the decision that this would be something I HAD to do. Ideally, I wanted to get a team to go, but I was willing to fill in on a team - any team - from anywhere - that might need a player, just to get a chance to go.

Luckily, my campaign to recruit a team went so well, that we, very shortly, had two teams going. Considering how our ages broke down, we originally planned on having both a "40 and over" team and a "30 and over" team, but due to the fact that one of our guys (who will remain nameless...Doug) wasn't quite 30, we had to enter the "21 and over" division. I am fully expecting that to come back to bite us. Although, my dad always loved to say, "Old age and trickery will beat youth and enthusiasm any day." We'll hope that's true.

Our 21+ team is:

• Doug.................aka "Doogie"
• Kent G..............aka "Special K"
• Erik...................aka "Leg Man"
  
• Bryan...............aka "mmmm...beer"
• Chris V.............aka "Fargin"
  

Our 40+ team is:

• Chris D.............aka "Buddha"
• Joe....................aka "Denied"
• Dan...................aka "Mac"
• John..................aka "awww....*&$#!"
• Kent L

Joe is our regular netminder out here in NC, but will put his pads on the shelf to give skating out a try. We've got bets going as to how long it takes him to regress and go down in a butterfly to block a shot. Kent L is a friend of Erik's and a Wisconsin resident. Quite frankly, he's probably the only one prepared to play in the cold.

So here were are, the Monday before our big weekend. Everyone's pretty excited about the trip - three days of freezing our butts off on Dollar Lake, drinking some beer, and playing some hockey. Real hockey. Hockey as it was meant to be...or so I've heard. It's gonna be great...I think.

Hopefully we won't suck too bad...