Lt. Col. Alan McKewan, left, the 1st Armored Division Assistant Chief of Staff, G9 faces off against a ?Crapper? hockey player at the El Paso Sports Coliseum Feb 28. The Iron Hockey team was able to edge past the Crappers? brutal offensive during a ?sudden death? tie breaker. Photos by Master Sgt. Kelly McCargo, 1st AD Public Affairs.
Master Sgt. Kelly McCargo,
1st AD Public Affairs:
With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Sgt. Javier Trantow methodically skated toward the goalie, faked a slap shot, then quickly back-handed the puck through the goal line thus tying the game and sending it into ?sudden death.?
?There definitely is a lot of stress when playing goalie, especially with the game format they use here ? every penalty, results in a penalty shot [for the] other team,? said 2nd Lt. Zyon Zate, a medical-surgical nurse with A Company, William Beaumont Army Medical Clinic.
And with the sudden death penalty shots, the Fort Bliss ?Iron Hockey? league secured the team?s first ?victory? against the El Paso Crappers at the El Paso Sports Coliseum Feb 28.
?I did a search on ?hockey rinks? in El Paso when I received my orders for 1AD. I found the El Paso Hockey Adult Recreation League and contacted the league organizer, Rod Beich,? said Lt. Col. Alan McKewan, the 1st Armored Division Assistant Chief of Staff, G9. ?I was really surprised that there was hockey in El Paso.?
McKewan, a Minnesota native, said he has been playing hockey since he was five years old, but since he joined the Army, combat deployments, changes to his duty station and limited access to skating facilities deterred his hockey passion.
?I joined the first session of the league (winter) and there were four teams that played each other. The problem was that each team only had 10 guys on the roster and [on] game nights we would be lucky if five to seven players showed up,? he said. ?It wasn?t a lot of fun because you had to pace yourself for the whole game knowing that you only had one or two guys that could take a break at a time.?
An issue that McKewan?s fellow teammate was also working through.
?I was involved with this league in the last season, but more as a ?mercenary? ? when teams needed a goalie, I was one of the guys they would call,? Zate said. ?Between the occasional league game and the two to three pickup games a week, I was making a name for myself as a regular amongst the hockey community in El Paso.?
Frustrated, McKewan decided to form his own ?military team? to compete.
In December, he posted on the 1st Armored Division and Team Bliss Facebook pages that he was recruiting an ice hockey team for Soldiers.
?I wasn?t really sure about the interest level and was surprised how many Soldiers wanted to play. I had to go back and increase the jersey orders three times, a good problem to have,? McKewan said.
Instead of just adding the Iron Hockey team, Beich consolidated the league?s four original smaller teams into three fully manned teams.
?Hockey is usually played with three or four full lines of five skaters; a total of 15 to 20 skaters plus goalie(s),? McKewan said. ?That way, each line is going out there giving it all they got for 45 seconds to a minute and then sending a fresh line on the ice. It makes the game much faster paced and more competitive when you have a larger team.?
Nothing gentle about it! A ?Crapper? hockey player takes a shot at the goal and then collides with an Iron Hockey player at the El Paso Sports Coliseum, Feb 28. Photos by Master Sgt. Kelly McCargo, 1st AD Public Affairs.
Though Zate was in demand, when McKewan called him to fill a permanent goalie position on a military team, Zate quickly jumped on board.
?Aside from being able to spend more time on the ice, playing for Iron Hockey gives me a sense of connection with the rest of Fort Bliss and its Soldiers,? Zate said. ?It instills a great amount of pride to have been hand-picked to represent Fort Bliss and the Army on the ice, and I certainly have not found a better source of motivation to play hockey before.?
This was a sentiment shared by McKewan.
?First of all the camaraderie with your fellow teammates ? hockey is a passion for players ? it?s fast and physical! Being able to skate with fellow Iron Soldiers makes it even more special,? McKewan said. ?Even though we are not ?formally? associated with the unit, you definitely skate harder out there because you have a 1st Armored Division patch on your jersey!?
Passion and physical play was in abundance but some players were also getting multiple doses of stress during the numerous penalty shots.
?If I let in all six or seven penalty shots that game, we wouldn?t have even made it to a shootout, and the resulting loss would?ve been my burden to bear,? Zate said.
After a dazzling display of offensive and defensive skills from both teams, Iron Hockey finally came out on top. McKewan, bloodied in the third period after a high stick to the face, was thrilled.
?As the player-coach, I couldn?t have been more proud of the team? what an incredible win!?
?Stopping the final two shootout opportunities was icing on the cake,? Zate said. ?Being a goalie is high risk, high reward ? needless to say, I love the pressure cooker.?
For ice hockey players interested in playing hockey, McKewan said everyone who wants to play can ? no tryouts.
For more information about the Iron Hockey Team, contact McKewan at Iron.Hockey@yahoo.com or the for the El Paso Hockey Adult Recreation League contact Rod Beich at hotrod008@hotmail.com.
Short URL: http://fbmonitor.com/?p=11106
ponder ponder extract extract bobby jindal bobby jindal talladega
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.