Just A Guy, Lookin' For A Team...

   I was walking through our garage the other day when I looked off to the right, at a variety of different things we have hanging on hooks just inside the garage door. My hockey bag, the one with all my goalie equipment in it, has been hanging there, in the exact same spot, in the exact same position as I left it in, after the last time I played about two years ago. This what it looked like:

Yes, those are cobwebs....

   We have several things in our garage which likely have not been touched or moved in the last couple of years either but my hockey equipment is the only thing which seems to have gathered cobwebs.
   At this point, I can't tell you how hard I'm trying to ignore the implicit symbolism going on here!
   For the last little while, I have been battling a couple of different minor physical ailments, both of which have limited my involvement in sports. For this reason, my ball hockey career has been on the shelf.
   Now, though, I feel almost a hundred per cent. The legs, thanks to all the extra running I've been doing, are actually more muscular than they have ever been and I have this itch to play again.
   Alas, but no team to play on!
   For the past week or so, I have been contacting guys I know who run teams in the London Ball Hockey Association. This is a league I played in back in its original incarnation in the early seventies. I, up until a couple of years ago, had played in its present form for the last 12 to 13 years.
   The problem here is that I am old. I am sixty-one, I look like I am too old to play and I am actually older than I look. But I can still play. I know I can still play.
   As I've contacted guys I know in the league, I have actually almost begged them for a chance to play, told them I'd pay full price for just a three or four game tryout. So far, no dice.
   It actually seems incomprehensible to me that I am not playing somewhere. I just feel so full of ball hockey....ENERGY! As old as I am, I have never been the slowest guy on any team I've played on.
   Now, the fact of the matter is that my goalie days are probably over, the last few times I played, I embarrassed myself greatly and I have no great need to do that again. But I can still play forward or defence as well as a lot of guys I've played against in the past.
   At this point, I am on the waiting list for a spot on a team. Dick Price, the LBHA commissioner has promised to play the "wily veteran" card the next time some team is looking for a player. And, in the meantime, I'm gonna pester a few more guys....