3pointtally wrote:

I love how many targets we have on here! I was also a goalie growing up and have added playing out in the past 5 years (which I absolutely love now.)



As a kid it was all mix and match. I believe these pads were Coopers as was the blocker. The catcher was a CCM and probably the best glove I ever had. Loved that thing. Was crushed when I had to move on. My helmet was an old CCM player bucket because my dad said that's all I needed lol.

Long story short, the politics of Toronto AAA hockey ruined the sport for me and I quit at 14 and turned to basketball and soccer. Then, about 6 years ago, my dad got sick and couldn't play hockey anymore so his team was looking for a goalie. I went out to help them out for a game and was just hooked all over again. Got the spark back and got back into hockey big time. Went to a used equipment store by my house and they had a full set of goalie equipment that somebody had just traded in.

Reebok pads, Reebok chest protector, Reebok pants, Reebok skates. I bought new gloves because the ones in the set were worn to hell and pretty gross and then I added the Skywalker mask separately. The equipment came from a goalie who played on the U-Lowell Mass team because it was all the logos sewn into everything and the NCAA logo sewed into some of the stuff too which is pretty cool. The whole set was sold to me for $300 and he gave me the brand new gloves for $100 total to get rid of them. So full set of equipment for $400 minus sticks.

For playing out now, I have these black and neon blue Reebok skates with orange laces haha. Reebok Crosby pants that I got brand new on clearance for $40 and Warrior gloves and a classic CCM bucket with the half visor/half cage cover. I've rotated through a ton of sticks but I always ends up going back to a Bauer.

I'm so glad my dad convinced me to fill in that one time because it totally got the itch back and I am missing hockey so much with this pandemic going on. We were on our way to the finals in our winter league and it shut down 2 days before. I've had way more fun as an adult playing beer league hockey and tournaments than I ever did as a kid playing AAA despite playing in some really cool tournaments like the Quebec Peewee tournament and getting to play against Patrick Roy's kid in an NHL sized arena in Quebec City with like 5,000 people watching.


I'll still take this any day of the week. I'm the one in the flip flops holding the trophy lol.
 

 
That’s great! The politics for High School Hockey in Wichita was a bit flawed, and I ended up telling myself to gut it out in the house leagues for 2 years then playing beer league as soon as possible. Ended up with my first tournament right after junior year of high school, then played on 2 teams for my senior year. Took home 2 championships, as well. But the best of it was playing alongside my dad. Currently he’s on 3 teams as a defenseman and is one of the better puck movers I’ve ever seen, in his late 40s. I got the chance to play against him last year and I will again this year.

3pointtally wrote:

ProsecutorMilesEdgeworth wrote:

That’s great! The politics for High School Hockey in Wichita was a bit flawed, and I ended up telling myself to gut it out in the house leagues for 2 years then playing beer league as soon as possible. Ended up with my first tournament right after junior year of high school, then played on 2 teams for my senior year. Took home 2 championships, as well. But the best of it was playing alongside my dad. Currently he’s on 3 teams as a defenseman and is one of the better puck movers I’ve ever seen, in his late 40s. I got the chance to play against him last year and I will again this year.

That's awesome. My dad is the head coach in the white jacket in that pic of me as a kid. Best coach I ever had and made so many of those kids great players. We won everything with him as my coach and after I moved on to other teams and he stopped coaching we never won a thing again.

He got me into this pick up game weekly  as I took his spot and it's just an awesome bunch of guys. They've had the same ice time since 1971! Thursday at 4:15pm. Next year is their 50th anniversary so they are planning on having a big game to celebrate at First Ontario Centre (Copps Coliseum) where Gretzky set up Lemieux to win the 87 Canada Cup. Some of the guys playing are the originals and they still get out weekly. The guy who takes care of all the finances is in his 80's and is out there every week and still moves really well. He also has his 2 sons and his grandson playing weekly too so it's a really awesome group of guys.

Sadly, I started a new job with the fire department in 2019 and can't make it weekly anymore so I only get to play 2-3 times a year with them when I'm on vacation but it's the most fun I've ever had playing hockey. The one guy even made name plates for everybody and hangs them in the dressing room every week to make it seem like we're pros haha. We have a skills competition every year and big Christmas and end of the year dinners. I'm so glad I got back into it just for the beer league locker room banter.

 
Beer League always has the best banter. Fun fact, it may be shocking (for Wichita at least) to find that both our police and local fire departments both have teams in beer league that play with decently full benches, and they both are absolute rivals. The community aspect of these leagues and drop ins always is a sight, I know a guy who has Saturdays at 7 AM every week.