Hockey: The Forgotten Sport on Campus

By carolinianweb on November 8, 2017 • ( 0 )

Sports_IsaiahHilaire_Hockey_daveyninFlickr

Flickr / Daveynin

Isaiah Hilaire
Staff Writer

As we enter the winter season, basketball begins to take precedent over every other sport here on campus. The season begins in less than a week for the men’s and women’s basketball teams, and for other teams around the NCAA, there are early visions of March Madness. However, one sport we do not look at is hockey. The National Hockey League’s season has just begun, and not many people are talking about this sport as much as basketball, football or even baseball, and that season just ended.

Students at UNCG tend to think about our men’s basketball team during this time of year. T-shirts and other materials are being gathered by fans as they prepare for games at the Coliseum. What students do not think about is the hockey season that has just begun. Interviewing students on campus, it was clear that not many students are excited about the beginning of hockey season. Out of the students interviewed, none of them knew about the Carolina’s NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes. With the Hurricanes season playing opposite to the collegiate basketball season, it is very easy to understand why students would not follow the Hurricanes.

Christian Fowler, a senior and a former member of the club football team, had a lot to say, just not about his knowledge of hockey.

“Football is my sport, I’ve played since I was in middle school back in Chapel Hill. I always enjoyed running through defenders who tried to tackle me because it was a stress reliever and it made me feel great! Hockey, it can lead to unwanted injuries, and I’m not saying that football can’t, but I’m a firm believer in sports that you can control your balance within an easy way.”

Christian spoke on the disadvantage people can have on how dangerous it can be on ice with the possibility of falling. He enjoyed how he was able to relieve stress during his playing days with the club football team.

“I just don’t find Hockey to be interesting, it’s about a bunch of guys falling into the wall or getting pushed around. I appreciate teams that can play well defensively or offensively. It’s about the different types of schemes you can have to really catch your opponent off guard.”

Christian also mentioned his lack of will to sit through a hockey game; he explained how he could not sit through a game that does not seemingly involve some sort of scheme during the game.

Cody Martin, a senior and currently a supervisor at the Kaplan Center also gave his input on hockey.

“Hockey just isn’t for me, I’ll watch/play basketball and football but I cannot watch or play hockey. You have to skate around and hit a diminutive-sized puck that is difficult to hit with a stick. I just can’t get into it because it isn’t exciting to me. It isn’t something that I anticipate in the evening after a long day of work and class. It’s something that I’ll acknowledge when the Stanley Cup is in the works, but other than that, no thank you.”

Hunter was the second consecutive student to talk about the lack of interest he has in hockey. Hunter enjoys basketball and is preparing for the 2017-2018 men and women seasons. He is one of the marketing interns for UNCG and enjoys going out and preparing for events and free giveaways UNCG has for students who attend basketball games. Hunter also expressed his interest in basketball as a hobby. He explained how he enjoys the hand-eye-coordination needed to be successful at the game. Not only do you need to know how to shoot, but you need to know how dribble, pass, rebound and look for open teammates on the court.

Hockey is a sport that not many people appreciate. It is different than most sports because you have a stick and a puck. The goal being, to get the puck into the small goals with your stick, while the opponent’s goalie is about the same size as the width of the goal. It is a sport that is not very amusing to most. It does not have that same feel as the other major sports do. Instead, players have the propensity of sustaining mouth injuries due to the rough play that goes on throughout the game. Although rough play comes in almost any sport, because of emotions, football and basketball seems to always be on top. Here at UNCG, basketball seems to be the most salient sport at UNCG. Will hockey ever be able to capture a fraction of the campus’ heart?