A few months ago, I shared some awards from my high school hockey days. As fun as it was to look back on those times and link them to card collecting, I also briefly lamented at the fact that many of us didn't keep detailed records of our sporting experiences back then, and how I wished I had more mementos from that time.
It's because we're talking about an era before the internet, and before every local sports league was posting scores and stats on websites, down to its youngest age groups. It was also a time before every parent recorded every second of every game on their phones and then shared highlights all over their social media pages.
Recreational hockey leagues like ours provided a simple schedule printout at the beginning of every year, and kept paper scoresheets for each game, but that's about all. After the game was over, those scoresheets likely went into a file cabinet, and who knows where after that?
It's a shame.
But guess what?
Recently I decided to rummage through some more boxes in the attic, wondering if I could find any other keepsakes from my young hockey days. I knew I didn't have any jerseys from way back then. I wish I still had a couple of them, but it wasn't a big loss. (The jerseys were one-color lightweight mesh, with a screen-printed sponsor's logo on the front and a simple number on the back. It was the same for every team, aside from the color. Very basic. We received a new one every year.)
What I was really hoping to find, at the very least, was a photo or two.
Well, within about 10 minutes of rummaging, I found a couple of 3-subject notebooks from my high school days.
I was on the right track.
Not long after, I found a manila folder containing some doodles and notes from the same time period.
I had some goofball tendencies, for sure.
And then I found another folder.
Do you see the pink, yellow, and white sheets that are peeking out from the right-hand side? That's what got me excited.
They're examples of those printed-out hockey schedules I mentioned earlier!
I didn't find a schedule from my freshman year, but the pink one was from my sophomore year, and the yellow one was from my junior year. As for the white one, that's something different from my senior year. We had a pretty cool coach that season who actually kept track of our stats, and wrote out the totals at the end of the season! (I'm not going to show them here on the blog, because they include some personal information like phone numbers and names of friends.)
In any case, the initial hit of nostalgia was strong. The
schedules contained a separate row for each game we played, including the date,
time, location, and opponent. Just looking at the names of the different hockey rinks we traveled to brought me right back to those glory days.
And as I looked over each page, something else kicked the nostalgia into overdrive:
Next to each game, in the margin, there were
hand-written notes from young Gregory! I included any goals or assists I scored,
along with some notes on how I played. It was so much fun to read through them that I decided to transfer everything over to Word documents.
First, here are my high school hockey stats:
NCHL Record
|
Season |
Team |
GP |
G |
A |
PTS |
PIM |
|
1991-92 |
No data available |
|||||
|
1992-93 |
Devils |
13 |
6 |
9 |
15 |
0 |
|
1993-94 |
Lightning |
15 |
6 |
9 |
15 |
0 |
|
1994-95 |
Devils |
12 |
5 |
7 |
12 |
2 |
|
Totals |
|
40 |
17 |
25 |
42 |
2 |
Hey, a point-per-game player is not bad!
I didn't have a big shot, but I was a good setup guy and had some speed. My best skill may have been anticipation. I killed penalties a lot, and was the kind of player who stole passes, blocked shots, got the puck out of the zone, and tried to keep it there. I really enjoyed those aspects of the game.
As for that missing first year of stats, I think our team was called the Flyers. And it would be my guess that my personal stats weren't as solid. I'd
only been playing hockey of any kind (i.e., roller hockey) for a couple
of years at that point, and I had a lot to learn about positioning and skating. I had a lot to learn about everything. So
maybe it's not such a bad thing that my scoring stats don't exist for
that first year.
Regardless, I was determined to improve, and the season schedules provide evidence of how I maintained that determination over the years. Here are a few examples of the notes that I wrote to myself after each game:
1/3/93: 0G, 0A Could have done better.
12/28/93: 1G, 0A Game-tying goal. Good forechecking on penalty late in the game with 3–2 lead.
1/10/94: 0G, 0A Good game. Good, hard work. Almost a couple of assists.
1/24/94: 0G, 1A O.K. Need to get in a better mindset.
1/31/94: 1G, 1A Got in a better mindset! Nice goal.
I'm so glad I took those notes. They provide such a fun look at the ups and downs throughout the seasons.
To the Moms and Dads Out There
Now that I'm older, it completely stuns me to look through those hockey schedules. Many of the games didn't start until 8:00pm—or even sometimes 9:00! And quite a few of them were held at outdoor rinks throughout the county, with almost no indoor seating for spectators.
I'm trying to imagine being a parent like my mom. You come home from a long day of work, get dinner ready, and then instead of relaxing, you have to get your winter coat back on, drive your teenager to a game, cheer from a cold seat, and get home around 10:30 or 11:00pm, only to go right back to work the next morning.
There was one week during the 1993-94 season when we actually had three consecutive games during the week—Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Dang! I definitely don't remember such a rigorous schedule.
So to all the moms and dads out there who support their children with their sporting endeavors, an enormous thank you.
Fun News
I did find one photo.
There I am, likely during one of those weeknight games, on an outdoor rink. It sure seems like I'm wide open.
When I zoom in and look closely at some of the equipment I'm wearing—specifically the gloves and the skates—I'm going to conclude that this was my first season of rec league hockey. 1991-92. Freshman year of high school. I'd really love to find more photos, but for now I'm happy to have at least this one.
And like I mentioned in the hockey trophy post, I'm happy to have played most of those seasons with a few of my high school friends. That senior year—when our coach tabulated all our stats—was a good one. The four of us finished 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 7th in team scoring. (I was 3rd.) It felt good to represent our high school like that.
Other Fun Stuff
Here's a clip featuring the video game my hockey-loving friends and I would have played the most:
And here are a few more hockey cards we would have been excited to find in packs. (Brands
like Finest, Flair, Upper Deck SP, and Leaf Limited had joined the
party—each with some inserts that were rather scarce for the time.)
 |
| 1992-93 Score USA Greats #8 Brian Leetch, 1993-94 Upper Deck Silver Skates #R6 Steve Yzerman, 1993-94 Stadium Club Finest #1 Wayne Gretzky |
The Big Cliché
At this point of the post, it's almost too easy to say something like, "Where does the time go?" or, "It feels like just yesterday". But you know what? There's a reason why so many folks say things like that.
It's true.
Those were such fun times, and looking back on those stats and the hand-written notes has filled me more so with good energy than with sadness or a longing for a time gone by. I'd love to go back, sure, but in quite a few ways I still am that teenage kid inside.
And I'm proud of high school Gregory for his laser focus. There can be a lot of distractions in high school, not to mention all the chemical and biological stuff going on inside your body as you go through adolescence. But high school Gregory was determined to play hard and improve his skills on the ice, and to work equally hard in school. He wouldn't let anything stop him. Good stuff.
As for collecting? By the time I reached my senior year, I'd lost interest. And that means I missed out on many of the inserts, autographed cards, and relics that would flood the hobby in the mid- to late-1990s.
But it was fine. I had a new challenge coming up the next year:
College hockey tryouts.
I know I've got at least a few mementos from that time. Could be a mission for my next rummage through the attic.
Stay tuned, and thanks again for reading along.
