Childhood Memories Spur Rise of Outdoor Tourneys, Backyard Rinks and Simply Getting Outside and Playing Ponds
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On Frozen Childhood memories spur rise of outdoor tourneys, backyard rinks and simply getting outside and playing Ponds Photo/Michael Moore/The Keene Sentinel 8 NEW ENGLAND HOCKEY JOURNAL January 2011 By Brion O’Connor t is the iconic image of the game. Low clouds hovering over a windswept, tree-lined lake, winter’s dim light turning colors into shades of gray. It is, I imagine, what the immortal Hobey Baker saw in the late afternoons on the Lower School Pond at St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., in the early 1900s. It is what I remember of my own youth, growing up in the 1960s in northern New Jersey, or skating on Dorr’s Pond near my grandpar- Ients home in Manchester, N.H. Continued * January 2011 www.hockeyjournal.com 9 COVER STORY Popularity of pond hockey Continued from previous page the long drive north to visit Grand- mucking around on the ice. learly, I’m not alone in my ma and Grandpa. The pond, beside Later, after our family moved to affection for pond hockey. Obviously, stepping back more Livingston Park, was just a short New Hampshire, my brothers and Talk to any enthusiast, than three decades years can tint walk from our grandparents’ house. I would still frequent Dorr’s Pond, and eventually they’ll hit memories, but fortunately for me, all My siblings and I would bundle up, or other frozen bodies. One day on the essential attraction the recollections are good. Growing grab our skates and sticks and a few in particular stands out, when my of the outdoor game. up outside New York City, neces- coins for a hot brother Chris C“In a rink, it’s usually a structured sity dictated that if we were going to chocolate, and Lower School Pond and I and two environment,” says 48-year-old Don play hockey, we’d be playing mostly shuffle down at St. Paul’s School friends found Garrison, a Connecticut native now on the streets. But in wintertime, I’d to the pond. some black ice living in Hampton, N.H. “You’re told salivate over the prospects of getting There, the up by Lake what to do when you’re out there, on the ice. I remember peering out city had a Massabesic and you do it. Or you’re public skat- our kitchen window at night, eyeing warming hut that I swear ing. Out there on the pond, you can the thermometer, praying the mer- dividing the was smoother skate morning to night, and you can cury would dip below the magical 32 pond and an than glass. If do whatever you want.” degrees Fahrenheit. actual rink we missed a Garrison has tapped into that ideal, There were a couple of ponds (with boards pass, the puck as co-owner of Home Rinks (see side- scattered around town, and I recall and lights). would slide bar). But the real impetus for Home playing shinny games without any The rink was forever. And, Rinks, Garrison says, was his own fancy gear or jerseys. Crystal Lake, the domain of naturally, childhood, skating on ponds in Con- down off Grand Avenue, even had a the older kids we’d debate necticut, and wanting his children to big bonfire. Nothing felt, or smelled, and young Photos courtesy of St. Paul’s School (above and Baker) about who have the same experience. better than inching up to the flames, men, but we were able to sneak on was responsible for skating after it, It’s understandable. The outdoor letting that natural furnace drive the every now and then, typically play- the passer or the passee. We’d argue, game is spontaneous, unpredictable. It’s cold from my bones. ing a smaller, cross-ice game. I don’t and laugh. raw, and it’s fun. There’s no pressure. It’s But the pinnacle of pond hockey think anything made Grandpa, a I’m sure we had little appreciation a game, not a “competition,” or a rigid perfection was going to Dorr’s Pond. native of Quebec, happier than see- for just how magical, and how fleet- practice full of expectations. It is just This was one of the great rewards for ing his small army of grandchildren ing, those days were. “play,” pure and simple. It’s shinny. Make Your Own Ice Rink with • NiceRink® Bracket sideboard support system • Ultra strong NiceRink® liners • NiceRink® plastic boards A pristine sheet of ice • Outdoor rink resurfacers that’s all yours… Everything you need to make your own! NiceRink® plastic boards & brackets 888-NiceRink (642-3746) Any size – details online at www.NiceRink.com/neh 10 NEW ENGLAND HOCKEY JOURNAL January 2011 Think about it. Have you ever heard anyone call the indoor game “shinny” hockey? That’s because time playing hockey indoors is almost always organized, with practice plans or games with blue lines and red lines and refs and whistles and rules. “More and more people are com- ing back to enjoying being outside,” says Bill Matthews, the rector at St. Paul’s school and the school’s hockey historian. “There’s just the pure plea- sure of being out there on a beautiful day, skating in a game, where you can just lace them up and skate forever. It’s not about skating your one-min- ute shift and coming off and sitting for five minutes. “The outdoor game is sort of free-flowing, creative,” he says. “You don’t worry about systems.” Matthews has the ideal perspec- tive about the outdoor game, given that his office at St. Paul’s looks out over the Lower School Pond. It was here, many historians agree, that hockey was first played in the United The New England Pond Hockey Classic on Lake Winnipesaukee States, in 1883. in Meredith, N.H., drew a stunning 77 teams in its first year. Photo/ Stephen A Roe from Intrepid Ariel Photography and Video St. Paul’s built its first artificial rink in the 1930s, but Matthews (Class ‘More and more people are coming back to enjoying being outside. of ‘61) and other students contin- There’s just the pure pleasure of being out there on a beautiful day, ued playing on skating in a game, where you can just lace them up and skate forever.’ Hobey Baker, the Lower School star at St. Paul’s Pond whenever — Bill Matthews, St. Paul’s School rector and hockey historian the “black ice” set in. Matthews even recalls the school celebrating “black ice holidays,” Upcoming when classes would be canceled in favor of a good sheet of ice. pond hockey Despite the realities of “global warming” and the fact that ponds tournaments freeze later and thaw earlier, there are Can/Am Pond Hockey Championships still similar pockets found throughout New England. Jan. 27-30, Mirror Lake, Lake Placid, N.Y. “I like being able to walk down the www.canamhockey.com street with my skates and stick over Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship my shoulder for a game of hockey, Jan. 28-30, Concord, N.H. like some overgrown kid,” says www.blackicepondhockey.com 60-year-old Michael Dee of New Jer- sey, who often finds a pick-up skate Vermont Pond Hockey Championships with friends near his family home in Jan. 29-30, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, Vt. Stockbridge, Mass. www.vermontpondhockey.com “I even like walking into the New England Pond Hockey Classic woods to retrieve an errant puck,” he says. “I like investing in the skate by Feb. 4-6, Meredith, N.H. walking down to the pond the morn- www.pondhockeyclassic.com ing before a game to help clean the ice New England Pond Hockey Festival and fill in the gouges and cracks that Feb. 4-6, Rangeley, Maine mark yesterday’s heroics. www.newenglandpondhockey.com “Of course, there is nothing better than playing outside on a crisp New England Monarchs Pond Hockey Classic afternoon and skating until the sun is too Feb. 12, Manchester, N.H. The Vermont Pond low in the sky to follow the puck.” www.pondhockeyclassic.com Hockey Championships Along the coast of Maine, the Lake Champlain Pond Hockey Classic phones start ringing with local skat- will be held at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vt. Photo/Kelly Smith/ImaginitPhotos Feb. 18-20, Burlington, Vt. Continued on Page 13 www.pondhockeyclassic.com January 2011 www.hockeyjournal.com 11 COVER STORY Pond hockey Continued from Page 11 Bruins hosting the Philadelphia Flyers in the Winter Classic at Fenway Park, ers checking on ice conditions once and Crowder launching the inaugural the temps dip below freezing. New England Pond Hockey Classic in “We have a core of male partici- Meredith, N.H., on the frozen waters pants, ranging from 40 to 70,” says of Lake Winnipesaukee. Easy access Ken Fellows of Kittery Point, one of to the Boston and New York markets the group’s elder statesmen. “How- was a major draw, but even Crowder ever, there is an unwritten rule, and was stunned by the response. long-standing tradition, that whoever “I never thought we’d have 77 shows up is invited to play.” teams and 40 on the wait list in the Early season games are usually first year,” he says, adding that this at Fort McClary Park alongside the year’s tournament is already sold Atlantic, on a “very shallow pond, out, with 150 teams. “But my phone with a lot of trees around it, so it buzzes every day with people trying freezes quick and the sun never gets to put a team into the tournament.