Hello ValpoLife readers! My name is Charlie Crowley, and I am a junior at Valpo High School. I’m here to write about a little known program that Valpo offers, one that most people don’t know exists: The Valpo Hockey Club. Over the course of our season, I’ll be writing periodically to share stories of our weekends, successes, failures, and everything in between.
Yes, I kid you not. Valpo has a hockey club. We’re not affiliated with the high school, though we adopt its colors and mascot. Our home games are played at the Ice Box in South Bend, and we also practice there twice a week. A bit of a stretch for a home game, but we do what we have to do. We are made up of mostly Valpo students, with a few from Chesterton, South Bend St. Joe, Jimtown, Griffith, Lake Central, Elkhart, Hobart, and Trinity School in South Bend. Hockey in Indiana is not associated with the IHSAA, but with the Indiana State High School Hockey League. There are 33 teams throughout the state that play out of Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and St. John. Classes for the state tournament are made not by school size, but by a team’s cumulative record of league games and crossover games (games against teams outside of the league). Hopefully this background information helps you understand the situation we’re in.
The past two weekends, we have been out of town in Fort Wayne and in Indianapolis. We played eight games, and compiled a 3-4-1 record. We finished second in the Steve Scotton Memorial Tournament. We had a four-game unbeaten streak, including a come from behind victory over Lawrence. We also notched our first win against Northrop. We had our ups and downs during the two weekends, but we kept our heads high and did what we had to do to succeed.
Road trips in hockey are a great way for a team to bond. You get to know each other better, and can have a few adventures along the way. But something that a lot of people don’t realize that separates hockey weekends from other sports is the toll it takes on your body. Although some basketball, baseball, and volleyball tournaments can have teams play five or six games, a four game weekend in hockey can be difficult to handle mentally and physically. Typically, a four game weekend in hockey goes like this: Game Friday night, sleep, game Saturday morning, game Saturday night, sleep, game early Sunday morning. There can be anywhere from three to six hours between games on Saturday.
Brendan Shanahan, former Detroit Red Wing great, describes hockey like this:
“Is hockey hard? I don't know, you tell me. We need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us, oh yeah did I mention that this whole time we're standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don't know, you tell me. Next question."
Try doing that to the best of your ability on little rest, still trying to recover from a game four hours ago. It’s not easy. That’s why hockey players are also some of the toughest athletes mentally. They focus on what’s ahead, and don’t worry about the past. We keep our heads high and keep on fighting until the end. We recover as best we can, play as hard as we can no matter what the odds.
In closing, I’d like to thank you for reading this initial post. We appreciate the few fans we get, and maybe some of you will be able to make it out to a game sometime. It’s not about the stardom or the chance to play at a higher level, but more for the love of the game.
Until next time,
Charlie