It's Hockey Night in Texas...y'all  The ice rink, it’s a massive block of ice kept at a chilly 16 degrees, 45 degrees around head level and not much warmer for the die hard fans who come and watch the game of hockey. This is not something that most Texans or anyone raised below the Mason Dixon line can claim any sort of connection with. But for the country’s northern and midwestern states and pretty much all of Canada, that just isn’t the case. There, hockey is as much of a sporting staple as soccer or football is here in the south. My own childhood memories of my dad having to get up at the ass crack of dawn to drive me to my 6 AM hockey practice before school still resonates. Playing the game was like a drug and I needed that weekly fix. When I transplanted to Austin from the northeast over 10 years ago, it seemed as though my involvement with my beloved game was over. The best news of all is that I was completely wrong. Check out the new film, Hockey Night in Texas at the upcoming Austin Film Festival and you will see why.
It is a balmy evening in central Texas as two teams lug their bags and sticks into the locker room to begin their weekly ritual of strapping on their gear for the night’s game. Plastic, polystyrene body armor-type stuff across the chest, shoulders and legs. Except for the hockey pants or "breezers”, which tend to resemble an armor plated pair of Bermuda shorts. Teammates trade virtual stories from their fantasy league games or debate how the fatness of an NFL coach impacts their win record. This is a scene from adult league ice hockey deep in the heart of Dixie. Live from Austin. It’s Hockey Night in Texas. Who plays hockey here? For those who are not familiar with the Roadrunner Adult Hockey League, there are multiple divisions of play ranging from former semi pros down to “first time on icers”. Proctologists share the ice with tattoo artists, lawyers and high tech execs. It only gets stranger when you mix them all up in a locker room over a few pitchers of beer. The league is pretty well organized with team captains, official drafts, over 32 games on the schedule and a pair of capable refs and a score keeper to officiate each game. They even keep all of the games’ statistics online, just in case you want to track your favorite team’s battle for the coveted adult league cup. It’s no surprise that the players mostly hail from someplace north of Texas. Men and women from Ohio, Michigan, New York and Boston meld with a whole pantload of Canadians, creating a diversity of styles and personalities. One of my teammates from Team Blackjack is Craig Knapp. He is the producer and director of the documentary, Hockey Night in Texas, which will premiere at this year’s prestigious Austin Film Festival. He is also from the north, way north, not far from Winnipeg Manitoba in fact. Craig is a filmmaker who has spent the last 5 years here in Austin. Having played in Canada for 25 years, one of the first things he did when he settled in town was to seek out the local ice rink. Here in central Texas, that could be a challenge. Until just last year, Chaparral Ice on IH 35 was the only game in town. Today, the Chaparral folks have also set up another sheet of ice over at the Northcross Mall where recreational and league players can get their skate on. The Dallas Stars even built a great new ice and multi purpose arena up in Cedar Park. Here you can see some great professional ice hockey action with their farm league team, the Texas Stars.  Get an inside look into the low stakes game of adult league hockeyKnapp’s documentary is a comical look at adult league hockey and it’s over the top personalities, competition and drama. Team captains gather before each season to haggle over the draft picks and debate the latest league rules as they throw back a few pitchers. They seek out sponsors to pay for their team’s jerseys or maybe a year end barbecue and basically just take themselves way too seriously. The players all assemble in the locker room for the first game with aspirations of grandeur as they lace up their skates and talk smack. The play is actually relatively competitive as skaters hammer up and down the ice as if they are performing for the non existent NHL scouts in the stands. Really, these men (and a few women) are a bunch of “has beens who never really were”, but who cares. For those of us who get the “pass” from our respective spouses to play each week, it is the chance to work out some frustrations and maybe repair some of the mental damage wrought from this bitch of an economy. Of course, after seeing the film, it may be immediately apparent that some of these guys are way beyond help. You can also catch the film’s director, along with yours truly, offering a tutorial of the finer points of taking penalties, which quickly breaks out into a good ‘ole fashioned Boston Bruin’s brawl on the ice. Nice.
Hockey Night in Texas will premier on Saturday, October 24th at the Alamo Draft House Lake Creek at 8 PM with a second screening at the Arbor theater on October 29th at 9 PM. |