By CLINT LOWRY
I’ve been a die-hard sports fan all my life. In high school, if I wasn’t playing a sport, I was watching one on television. I collected sports cards, I read sports magazines and I even stayed up to watch SportsCenter every night.
And I prided myself on my sports knowledge.
For this reason I am embarrassed to say that until just recently, I didn’t know BYU had an ice hockey team.
Okay, so it’s not an official school team, but it is comprised almost entirely of BYU students. The team plays under the name of the Provo IceCats and competes with other major universities such as Utah State, Weber State, and Colorado.
The fact that I didn’t know about the IceCats leads me to believe many other BYU students may be in a similar state of ignorance.
In defense of my own ignorance, I spent most of my formative years in St. George, where the only ice I ever saw was in my freezer. My freshman year at BYU was the first chance I had to go ice skating. It was also the first time I watched a live hockey game.
My first reaction to hockey was, “Can they do that?” Time after time I saw players smashing their opponents into walls, hooking them from behind with their sticks and knocking them to the ice at every opportunity. I kept waiting for the whistle to blow, but it rarely did.
“Man, this is a rough sport,” I told myself.
Although I’ve come a long way since my first hockey game, I still have a lot to learn about the sport. And I’ll venture to say I’m not the only one.
I know a lot of avid sports fans who could rattle off the starting lineup for nearly every team in the National Basketball Association, but would be hard pressed to name five current players for any team in the National Hockey League. Why is that?
Perhaps I’m letting geocentric biases come through, but it seems like most kids grow up knowing all about football, baseball, basketball and soccer; but not hockey. Granted, there are places — and not just in Canada — where hockey is quite popular. But, possibly due to lack of facilities, it just hasn’t caught on that much here in the West.
As a kid, hockey on television never appealed to me, but I never thought about why. It makes since, though. Since I never had the opportunity to play the sport and consequently knew nothing about it, I didn’t find it interesting to watch on TV.
Now that I’ve been to a few hockey games and have become somewhat familiar with the rules, I’m hooked. Since I began attending the IceCats’ games, I’ve taken friends along, both male and female, who likewise knew little to nothing about hockey. Every one thoroughly enjoyed watching the games.
Football and basketball are, and probably always will be, the top spectator sports at BYU. Even in a season where wins are as scarce as student parking spaces, the basketball team still draws a larger crowd than every sport but football. I have no problem with that. I do not want to draw fans away from other sports, but to encourage them to expand their athletic horizons.
The Provo IceCats play their home games at Utah Lake State Park. The ‘Cats will be on the road for their next three games, but return home Mar. 1 for their season finale.
Whether you’re already a hockey fan or just want some cheap (inexpensive, not low-quality) entertainment, come and support the IceCats. You may be surprised at what you’ve been missing.
