December, 2004 - Nr. 12
From The Locker Room
Christmas is not just for kids, us hockey players also enjoy having a nice relaxing time outside of the hockey world. Whether it is with family or for some their girlfriends and their family, either way we all have a life outside of hockey. It’s just not as fun or exciting!
Many guys on the team could use this opportunity to get some new jocks and under shirts, there comes a time when the holes and rips are just not fashionable anymore! Not to mention some equipment that is hopeless to try and get the smell out of.
For us as a hockey team we have gotten our Christmas presents early this year. Last year the team didn’t really have a place to call home, and would play out of several different arenas around the area. This year however there was a big bow around Oakville’s newest facility built over the summer to give our team a beautiful new home with a great big dressing room that exudes the same class as the players and coaching staff do.
Our second present and most importantly is how great a family we have become, and together have done well enough to be ranked as the number one team in all of Canada at our level. A great accomplishment thus far but we will only improve and become stronger. One of the things I love is how despite the weather outside around Christmas, I always have a home to go to with a great family where there is always ice and snow.
We spend a lot of time together in our spacious and tidy dressing room, stretching or just chatting about girls and hockey. There is also something enjoyable about making fun of one another, we do that constantly and even our coach does it and is probably the best at it. So we all share a lot of laughs and we all get along really well and only argue about what music to listen to as we suit up for a practice or game. Maybe some of the guys will get some good CDs for Xmas...I hope.
I know that most people have "Bring back the NHL" on the top of their Xmas lists, and most of us on the team would like that too. However we do benefit from there being no NHL as every game we play all the people who love the game and need to get their hockey fix come out to watch us play. It’s always more fun when you have a bigger and louder crowd behind you, you just get a real good feeling when you win, because that’s what everyone watching wants as well.
One of the classy things we do as a team is we always salute the crowd with our sticks in the air after every home game to thank our fans for coming out to support us. Kids love to come into our dressing room after the games and get autographs on their programs, hats or sticks. I’m sure they probably don’t really like the music we play when they come in, but they’ve never said anything yet.
I personally have no more Christmas wishes to hand in to whoever is in charge of that department. I just hope everyone has as much fun and enjoyment with their families this Christmas as I do with mine. Well maybe one or two CDs to play in our dressing room would be nice...but that would just be a bonus :)
Darren McKague
