The Scarlet a Black. February 24, lino—page s

 

DesQ te all obstacles
Grinnell’s icemen cometh to play

by Andrew Schultz

The alarm rings. It's 4 am, on a
Sunday morning. You roll out of
bed and groan. Your muscles are
tight, your spine stiff, your ankles
ache, Yesterday’s game has taken
its toll There’s a half-dollarsized
bruise on your thigh.

You stumble about in the semi-
dark gathering up your skates,
sticks, socks. pads. andilet‘s
se%\vhere are those damn pants?

THE LIGHT in the bathroom iS
disorienting. You notice a dull
throb beginning behind your left
eye. One beer too many last night.
Or was that early this morning",

You pull on whatever it was that
was lying on the floor of your room
and head out into the bitter Iowa

THE monster of a machine that
resurfaces the ice—the Zamboni~
finishes slobbering on the frozen
surface and trundles back to its
cave in the runway tunnel.

There’s a flash of color, and the
ice is suddenly teeming with two
dozen players skating, passing,
shooting There’s the sharp crack,
of Wood on ice, and a black chunk
of hard rubber careems off thel
boards with a tremendous thud.

A zebra-shirted referee appears
and a whistle sounds. Players glide
into their positions. _

You forget your wearlness as
soon as the puck drops ironi the
referee's hand, It’s time to play
hockey. ..

THE preceding is a rough

“There's a ﬂash of color.

A zebra-skirted referee appears.

It’s time to play hockey."

winter. You join up with a iew
fellow players on their way to the
coach’s house. Curt greetings are
exchanged. No one feels like
talking.

THINGS are a bit livelier at the
coach's house. Breakfast is
generous platters of pancakes
drenched in thick syrupi You
suddenly realize you’re quite
,hungry. The team takes to the
pancakes ravenously, and
Collectively guzzles gallons of cold
milk.

Then, everyone bundles up. You
clamber into the back of a '64
Rambler wagon and doze during
the 70 mile sprint across snowy
fields and through the sleeping
towns: Tama, Toledo, Traer.

Waterloo, Iowa is dingy at 7 am.
(some say this is Waterloo‘s
permanent condition),
Arena: the team piles into the
dressing room.

EVERYONE strips down and
begins the tedious ritual of pulling
on the hockey armor. First there’s
the essential jOck strap and the
equally essential ‘protective cup;
Then come the layers of shirts,
pads, and socks.

Finally, you don your skates,

You grab your sticks and march
into the darkened tunnel of runway
that leads to the rink. At the end of
the tunnel is the ice, It is dazzingly
white, slick, and Inviting,

McElroy ,

 

description of a pre-game ex-
perience for the average Grinnell
hockey player. Sound miserable?
Maybe.

If you do a cost-benefit analysis
of playing hockey at Grinnell you
find that costs seem to far out
weigh benefits.

Costs:

1) The team is a club and does
not have varsity standing. It must
come up with its own funds.

2) Since there is no direct college
support, players must supply their
own equipment,

3) There are no facilities at
Grinnell. All “home” games are
played at McElroy Rink in
Waterloo, ninety minutes away.

4) Playing hockey takes time, a
great deal of time. The team
practices weekdays from 4:30 to 6
pm. on Barber Plaza, Road trip
games to places like Carleton in
Minnesota, may consume an entire
weekend.

5) On top of all this, the team
doesn’t usually win games, In fact,
the team usually gets trounced.

SO, what. are the benefits? Or,
rather, what is the benefit? Why
have l7 Grinneilians enlisted in
play hockey despite the
aforementioned drawbacks? The
answer is that ambiguous catch-all
word: “fun.”

Coach Mike Roman, a technician
in the psychology department,

Right wing Dan Edwards, showing off his new team jersey, takes
time out to explain his masochistic tendencies to the iew fans who
spent a dreary Waterloo Saturday afternoon at a hockey game.

dacribed himself as a “hockey
addict, an avid fan,” in explaining
his willingness to suffer the i _
decencies of coaching an un-
supported hockey club.

SENIOR Dan Edwards, who;
plays right wing, confessed, “I‘m a
masochist,” in response to the
question “why do you play?” Davc‘
Wick. a junior leftrwinger, said he
played hockey because it is his
“second favorite sport," and:
because he doesn’t get much
chance to play at home.

Kino Ruth, the team’s starting
goalie, said, “I’ve grown up with
the'game, having lived in Canada
for more than sixteen years.” Kino
is from Edmonton, Alberta. He
added that “it's very satisfying to
play goalie, I love frustrating the
opponent,"

MIKE Roman is the team leader
at games and at practice, but he
readily admits he is less an actual
coach and more a scheduler and
coordinator of team activity.
Roman is responsible for setting up
games and arranging me tran~
sportation and accommodations
tor road trips.

Playing hockey takes dedication.
and is very time consuming, but
practice and even attendance at
the games is not mandatory.
Roman said, “At Grinnell there is
a delicate situation since
academics come first. When
there’s time left over, they play
hockey."

“IF you don't feel you can go.
then you don‘t," Dan Edwards
said Dave Wick said he felt he

 

 

 

schools. These clubs represent
eager collections of wide-ranging
hockey talent, Some players have
been playing hockey for years,
while others have only recenﬂy
learned how to skate.

Grinnell played Graceland to
open the season this semester. In
the first game, Grinnell lost a close
battle, 6-5. That night, Grinnell
magnanimously invited the
Graceland team to the Loose Hall
Ball.

TIIE Graceland players were a
bit overinduigent in the wake of
their victory, and their ranks were
decimated for the Sunday morning
game. The Grinnell players were
not in much bet,‘“r shape, but
managed to defeat the party-weary
Gracelanders 572.

It was a stunning win. Grinnell
College hockey clubs had reputedly
not tasted the fruits of victory in at
least seven years.

THE third level of Competition is
men's leagues. Men's league
teams are comprised of rowdy
bands of older ex-college and semi-
pro players. They are notoriously
ugly and thug-like. Often in games
with men's league teams, the
question is not one of winning or
losing. but of surviving,

Which brings us to the problem
of violence. Players say mat most
games are pretty docile, but it
depends upon the opponent. School
teams are more interested in
snappy passing, quick shots, and
clean body checks—hockey the
way it was meant to be played

ONLY in some men's league
games does the quality of play

kevin Martin, a Grinnell deienseman, takes a slap shot as a
Waterloo Blackhawk attempts to stop it.

would make more sacrifices to
play if hockey was a varsity sport,
Kino Ruth admitted that because
of his participation in hockey he
had fallen “quite far behind in my
studies,"

Who do they play? There are
three levels of competition. The
most talented opponents are the
school-sponsored varsity teams
such as Iowa State. They are
polished, Well-coached, and have
the best in hockey facilities and
equipment.

GRINNELL played the Iowa
State JV team in Ames the week
before finals last Semester, The
score of the game: ISU-le, Grin-
nell-2.

Grinnell’s ranks were depleted,
however, due to finals, and this
accounts somewhat for the
magnitude ofthe loss. Nonetheless,
the Iowa State coach was heard to
utter Words to the effect that
Grinnell would need 10 free goals if
it were to compete with the ISU
varsity,

A SECOND level of competition
includes Grinnell, and teams such
as Graceland and Carleton. These
colleges have organized clubs that

are also not sponsored by dieir

 

deteriorate. One player said that
“they're frustrated pros out to kill
us. They really play dirty.” Ruth
noted that Violence “takes the fun
out of the game.” He added,
”We‘re a Scrappy club, but We’re
not the Broad Street Bullies,"

Two weeks ago, Grinnell played
a tworgame series with the
Waterloo Blackhawks, a men's
league team, The Saturday game
was a \videopen contest, fairly
free of violence Grinnell and the
Waterloo team appeared destined
for a do tie, but in the closing
minutes, the Blackhawks pulled
out a goal to win 776.

SUNDAY, the Blackhawks had
more players and were better
rested than Grinnell. A brawling.
bloody game ended in a 10-2
Grinnell loss.

Mike Roman has ambitious
hopes for improving the status of
the club. One possibility is that the
College will build a new, fullrsized
outdoor ice rink on campus.
Barber Plaza is only one-third the
size ofa regulation rink, and with a
new rink Grinnell could play
games at home.

THERE'S an interesting story
behind Barber Plazault was paid

 

Hockey mentor Mike Roman.
caught in a pensive pose during a
recent game. Photos by A. Schultz.

for by an alumna who stipulated
that its dimensions should be
exactly those of the ice rink in
Rockefeller Plaza in New York
City. Apparently that ice rink is
pretty small. And, unfortunately,
Barber isjusttoo small for hockey.
Another problem is that the
builders placed the cooling pipes
too deep in the concrete. This
hindered their cooling abil‘ y and
makes their use prohibitively
expensive.

Jim Tederman. Dean of Student
Affairs, confirmed that the college
is presently engaged in a study to
determine the feasibility of
building a new rink.

IF A new rink is built, Roman
has plans to submit a request for
obtaining varsity status and thus
full financial support for the team.

Athletic Director John Pfitsch
said he liked the idea of a varsity
hockey team, but he went on to say
that there was little chance of it
becoming a reality. Hockey is
expensive and Pfitsch doesn’t
believe there is much wide-spread
support for a varsity hockey team
on campus,

THIS Season the club has been
financed by funds from Dean
Walker and the SGA. The team
also receives $250 for maintaining
Barber Plaza. Another $150 is
expected to come from the
Initiative Fund,

Until further progress can be
made toward achieving varsity
status, the team Will remain in its
marginal state,

GRINNELL hockey fans will
have to make quite a trip if they
want to watch the team play this
coming Weekend. The Club will be
in Rochester, Minnesota on
Saturday for a game against the.
local junior college On Sunday, the
team will travel to Northfield to
play Carleton.

In the coming Weeks, Grinnell
will have games in St, Joseph,
Missouri against Graceland. '

PLAY/TN}; hockey at Grinr
hell does not seem to lend itself to
icostrbenefit ﬂnalySls, ”We’re
getting killed every game,” Dave
Wick explained, “but we have
fun.” And Mike Roman Confirmed
the addictive nature of the game,
“Once it gets into you , ,. you can’t
Eet it out.”

 

