I know everyone knows about March Madness. I have even seen ads for the fast food chains that are playing on the idea of March Madness. In early March we have phase I of March Madness and it has nothing to do with basketball. It has to do with the Boy's High School Hockey Tournament.
Remember, Minnesota is the state of hockey. Our little boys start skating as they start walking. Parents flood their back yards and make their own rinks. Kids put a net on the driveway and use in-line skates to practice shooting. I once showed an unfinished basement and on the concrete blocks I saw all these black marks. I came to realize the kids were shooting pucks in the basement. My first job out of college was teaching English in Duluth, Minnesota. I had a 9th grade boy who slept through my first period English class. I called his parents in for a meeting to discuss the problem. His parents explained to me that his team had indoor ice time at 1:00 am so naturally he was tired at 8:05 am. I discussed this with my principal. He wanted to know what my problem was. After all it was for hockey!
We live for this week when schools from all over the state come to play in the state hockey tournament. As long as a city can lay a sheet of ice, they have a team that competes. Many don't make it to state, but we have some small schools up on the Canadian/Minnesota boarder that give the big city school a run for their money.
Hockey is a sport where the boys first learn to skate on a pond or lake. They play pick-up games at the park rink. In the beginning all they need is a pair of skates and a stick. Many don't have official pucks but perhaps a tennis ball. They will skate when it is below zero and a wind chill. In the end they don't feel their toes or their fingers, but they love hockey. It gets more organized as they get older and more experienced. Then they get into real equipment which is expensive, indoor ice, and demanding coaches. Parents haul them to practice, games, one on one coaching, and traveling tournaments. A real hockey player will skate year round and play in summer leagues. Not only do they want to go to state, but they want to go to one of the hockey colleges around here. Minnesota grooms many of the skaters that play college hockey. For a few the dream of skating for the NHA is real.
Hockey is not just for our high school boys. We have a girls' high school hockey tournament. The parents of these kids skate on their own teams. For several years I went and watched my son-in-law skate on an adult team. Some states may have football in their blood, but here in Minnesota it is hockey. By the back door of many a home you will see many sticks and several pairs of skates. Those equipment bags are large and you don't ever want to smell one. As a parent of a boy starting to skate you learn what breezers are, how to not die when your son asked for his "nut cup", and you don't lose your stomach when you hand him the mouth guard.
It is a most exciting week of madness in Minneapolis this week as we watch our boys soon to be men skate and pass a puck up and down a sheet of ice. You bleed for the goalie and his parents and you cheer for the kid who scores. Hopefully in the end we all say. "good game."
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