Between the Pipes

Being a goalie is a not just a dream. It is a focus I have. It is my focal point. I need to be on the ice. It is my passion, it is my goal. I am not alone out there with this passion to play. Hockey players are unique in a community sort of way. We have our own community and way of speaking and doingthings. We live like nomads during the season, but it is our way of life. That being said it is great to win, but is it not just the winning, not just the losing. There are ample examples of courage and hope every day on every ice surface in every rink. In every dressing room, in every coaches office.

Courage and hope are the wing men you need to walk on the ice again after you lose a game. It is easy to step back on the ice in front of the home crowd after a big win, it is harder to do so after a loss. But hockey is not just about winning and losing. There is a lot of behind the scenes where courage and hope come into play. Now imagine how hard it would be to lose your courage and hope and not be able to do what you love. Not be able to physically or mentally face doing what you live for because you have lost your courage. And you feel there is no hope but in a bottle, to chase away the nightmares?

Clint Mararchuk was a goalie in 1989, who almost died on the ice infront of fans, team mates and with the camera rolling his mom. He took a skate in the throat. He was 1/8th of an inch from dying. He got off the ice and 300 stitches later he lives to tell the story. It was not all roses for Clint. He did not come back strong and be "an after school special.' His career declined. He suffered terribly from obsessive compulsive disorder, and it all came back. He had fear, he had doubts. He lost his courage and he lost his hope. He turned to alchohol and suffered nightmares.

But he found his courage and he found his hope. he returned to hockey as a player and then as a coach and is now in Calgary acting as goalie coach.

It took courage and hope, strong will and support of family, team mates, loved ones to help him to come back. To make his strong.

But I look up to all he has over come to come back and then to teach. His nightmare was not over, he had to face it again when acting as a coach a player suffered a simalar incident on the ice. But Clint did not turn to alcohol this time, he used his faith, to look it straight on and relive his nightmare.

He is just one example of how hope faith and courage can help to centre and bring you peace. If you have a stong centre and a solid foundation, you can build on those and you can over come your adversaries.

-Donovan Flobert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Malarchuk