That's Hockey For Ya

It's 4:30 Sunday morning when the alarm clock buzzes with enough arrogance to wake the dead.

It's dark. It's cold. And it's Sunday. The reasons to stay in bed seriously outnumber the motivation to get up. But it's tournament time for Saratoga Youth Hockey Pee Wees, and there's a lot to get done.

Children need to be roused from their sleep, meals need to be prepared and sleepy pre-teen players need to be bundled into button-down shirts and wrap-around ties. Then it's out the door, into the car, negotiating snowy roads along the way. The destination is the ice rink on on Weibel Avenue where, for the better part of the morning, time will be spent on a hard bench in a big metal barn with little or no heat, staring at a sheet of red-and-blue-streaked ice.

''Oh, it's definitely a lifestyle,'' laughs hockey mom Chris Harmon, who has managed to adapt to the routine through the years. And this is the easy part, Harmon informs. ''We're at home this weekend,'' Harmon says of the games that will be played all weekend long at the adjacent Weibel and Vernon rinks. ''Next weekend we go to Burlington, Vt., and later in the month we travel up to Ottawa.''

The routine for hockey moms and dads begins in October with the start of the youth season and continues until the spring.

On this particular weekend, the Pee Wees host an annual tournament against visiting teams from around the Capital and Adirondack regions.
No matter the talent level, the two constants are a love of the game and the commitment of parents and coaches.

Linda Huck has a son and daughter who play hockey.

''I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We love it,'' Huck says, while decorating the rink with cardboard ''jerseys'' in preparation of the tournament.

By 6 a.m., all the players for the 6:45 game have arrived, dragging their bags overstuffed with gear into the locker room. Inside, more than a dozen 11- and 12-year-olds sit, half-dressed, surrounded by plastic helmets, large leather gloves, garter belts, big pants and enough pads to shield an army. The pre-game chatter has begun, as well.

''Your mama is so old, she was a waitress at the Last Supper,'' one says. ''Oh yeah? Well you're mother is so poor that when I saw her kicking a box down the street and I asked her what she was doing, she said: 'Moving.'''

''Ah ha, ha, good one.''

The room breaks into a collective fit of laughter up until Coach Mark McKenna enters the room and everything suddenly turns somber. While the players are in pre-game discussions, parents mill around outside, waiting for the 6:45 a.m. start.

''It is fun, but it can be stressful as well, nerve wracking at times,'' says Noreen Lyons, rocking a carriage back and forth that cradles 3-month-old Madigan.

Lyons has four children and her eldest, 12-year-old Timmy, is among the Pee Wee squad preparing to hit the ice.

''Timmy started in the hockey program four years ago, and we've gone from the Mites to the Squirts and now to the Pee Wees,'' Lyons, a resident of Wilton, says. Next year, her 2-year-old son Nicholas begins his youth hockey career.

Injuries are always a concern, although Cathy Lavelle, mom of a Bantam-age player, says that while the concern is there, it need not be an overwhelming thought.

''All these years we had only one broken bone. My son broke his arm playing in Rutland the week before Thanksgiving,'' Lavelle says. ''Although he couldn't play the rest of that year, we've only had the one broken bone, so it hasn't been too bad. It's a fun activity, and it takes a lot of dedication. As a mom,'' Lavelle laughs, ''mostly you make sure the equipment is clean and placed somewhere near the hockey bag by the door.''

The involvement of parents in the day-to-day activities is necessary for the team and the league's success, and there are enough jobs to go around.

''I have been a scheduler here for years and years,'' says Lesley Leduc, who by day is public affairs coordinator at Yaddo. Leduc's two teenage boys a have long been involved with the Saratoga Youth Hockey program.

''They started when they were 4- and 6-year-olds,'' she says. ''The 16-year-old is still playing. He is in the Midgets now.''

''Coach Kelly'' Davies is the team manager for the group of Pee Wees preparing to take the ice. Responsibilities include making sure everybody has a copy of the schedule, that all the kids have rides who need them, and conducting those sometimes-harrowing last-minute telephone calls.

''All the functions and the dysfunctions of the hockey association,'' Davies says. ''But I like to network, so it works out well. Plus being new in the area, I get to know the kids, the coaches and the parents.''

Davies' son Jordan has been playing since he was 5 years old. The family moved to the area from Fulton.

Commitment also comes from the coaches. Along with weekend games, there are practices several times during the week, which means that anywhere from four to five days every week are spent at the rink. Coaches coordinate practices, teach skills and are, in every way, role models and teachers for the kids in the program.

At 6:45 a.m., the players are on the ice; the coaches are on the bench; and the referee prepares to drop the puck. The parents, meanwhile, take their designated positions. Some work the busy snack bar, while others tend to the business of the game itself - working the penalty box, the scorekeeper's table and the time clock.

After the puck is dropped, the sound inside the arena is the clack-clack-clack of the puck hitting sticks, the swooshing scrape of skate blades cutting into ice, and the rising crescendo of cheers, groans and shrieks from the grandstand filled with parents, families and friends. A serene gametime surrealism that hangs over the players is interrupted only by the occasional shrill of the referee's whistle.

''Use the boards! Use the boards!'' McKenna bellows across the ice, one foot perched on top of the side boards, the other on the bench. He's looking for the breakout pass, as his team zips up the ice, a storm of white jerseys flying five across in V-formation, intently focused on a black, 3-inch rubber disc sliding across the ice.

What motivational drive inspires these coaches and hockey parents to forge on, week after week?

''Why? Because I love the sport,'' McKenna, the coach, says. ''And because when I was young, somebody took the time to teach the game to me. Now it's my turn to pass that on to these kids.''

Hockey is part of the great human connection. ''That's why we do it,'' assistant coach Jim Guthrie adds. ''It's great that the kids go out and get the chance to play, and it's important for us to correctly teach them the game. For them, for those kids, we're giving it all we've got.''

After the game's final buzzer, the teams line up one behind the other in a pair of lines that stretch the entire surface of the ice.

One by one, as each player passes the other, they share a handshake and extend congratulations on a game well played. Then they skate off to their respective dressing rooms, turning the ice over to other teams, other games.

For these teams, it's 8:30 a.m., and there is ample time to reflect on all they've learned, and an entire day ahead to enjoy.

By Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian, 2004