Years ago when our 10 year old first asked us if he could play hockey (he was 4 at the time) we lived in San Antonio, TX (15 minutes to an ice rink). We told him he had to learn how to skate first- oh my goodness, never saw such determination before. He did it and learned quickly and started taking to learning to play hockey programs there in TX. We made one promise to him: being a military family and moving every two years and my husband constantly doing deployments or deployment training, that we would keep one thing consistent for him- let him play ice hockey wherever we went as long as he wanted. Now as new naïve parents we didn’t realize we wouldn’t be as close to ice rinks as we were when we made that promise and shortly after he turned 5 (when he was finally old enough and ready to be on youth hockey teams) we moved.
Unlike most moms who find out they are moving and immediately look up schools and neighborhoods I looked up the nearest ice rink to where my husband just got his orders to at that time (Rolla Mo) and found out our fun hockey adventure was just about to turn crazy as the nearest rink was 1 hour 45 minutes away (St. Louis). But a promise was a promise and we did it for 2 years. I had to stop homeschooling kids and get job to make it a bit less painful and more possible.
The time came again just over a year ago when my husband got orders again to move and oh boy, I couldn’t be more excited thinking we would get to go somewhere closer to a rink. Whoops what was I thinking- silly me- we got Tucson AZ, yikes 2 hours away and now two boys who love hockey more than anything in the world.
So we got to Tucson and it was when I lost my job here and the hockey dream was about to end when I found out about Defending The Blue Line and boy, my boys are SO thankful. They wouldn’t be able to do it – since being two different ages (one being mite- getting ready to go to squirt, while our squirt kid just got bumped up to peewee- they are never in same league to be on same team hence double practices, which are never on same day or at same rink as each other.)
So getting to be a part of this program has REALLY made it possible to hold up our crazy promise:) At the end of each season the kids ask – are we going to get to do it next season- and we tell them each time – we will try our best and see. – Arizona Hockey Mom
