The Hot Corner
The quarantine is starting to get to me.
This past weekend, I began cleaning dishes. For fun. That has to be one of the first signs of craziness.
I am a homebody type person, but being stuck at home on the weekends with no sports to cover or even having the freedom to spend a day in Abilene or Lubbock is starting to take its toll. It’s weird being annoyed because you are stuck at home, but it has helped me broaden my horizons.
While stuck in our living room watching YouTube for the fifth hour straight on a recent Saturday evening, my fiance and I struck up a conversation about things we should do once this whole virus pandemic passes. We threw out ideas such as going to the mall and spending money we don’t have or driving to visit friends we haven’t seen in a while. Among the ideas was picking up a new sport.
We settled on hockey. I come from a football background and my favorite sport is baseball. What sport has both contact and large wooden sticks? Hockey.
My fiance, Jes, grew up in a football household and we have similar sports interests, but neither of us have followed the sport of hockey.
In college, I began to follow soccer and even did play-by-play radio commentary for several Texas State soccer matches. I began to learn the different positions and formations. The strategy in soccer is interesting to me and although I still get bored watching it, I at least can appreciate its intricacy and the skill it takes to play.
It was fun to dive into and learn about a new sport, so why not do it again now that I am out of college?
I know very little about hockey. I’ve watched the 2004 movie Miracle On Ice and it seems like a sport I could get behind.
Growing up in Central Texas, I had zero interaction with the sport, but as I began to do some research, I found it has everything a sports fan needs. Physicality, technique, fanfare and the players are even allowed, nay encouraged, to get into fist fights. It’s almost as if someone took every sport they could think of and jammed them all into one: boxing, football, soccer, baseball and golf.
I’ve never been to a hockey game. There was a semi-pro team in San Antonio, the San Antonio Rampage, but I never made it to a game. I was invited to go to a game the Texas State club team was set to play, but decided not to go, for reasons I cannot remember. I have more direct experience with lacrosse than hockey and lacrosse is just a less awesome version of hockey.
I understand there is little call for the sport of hockey in West Texas, but I will find a way to begin following it more closely. In college, I took on the soccer world. Maybe the hockey sphere is next.
Once all this COVID-19 stuff settles down and we can go about our lives as normal again, maybe Jes and I will make our way to Dallas and catch a Stars game.
Until then, I guess I’ll just settle for hockey fight compilations on Youtube or NHL 20 on my PlayStation.
Reed Graff is the sports editor for the Snyder Daily News. Comments about his column may be sent to sports@snyderdailynews.com