Pass the Puck!

I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with IM hockey (for those of you who aren't good at deciphering acronyms, that stands for Intramural). It is one of the most fun, and funny, offerings during the winter, but I play TOO much. Seriously, I can see my E! True Hollywood Story voice-over going something like this:

"Jeff started freshman year playing for his dorm team, but soon he couldn't get enough of the ice. He started playing for the wrong crowd and teams he'd never met, and was quickly living a life of hockey excess before it ultimately came crashing down."

How did it come crashing down, you might ask? Well, there's this "rule" that you're not supposed to play for more than one IM team. Crazy, I know. Well, last winter I played on so many teams that after one of them ended up winning the Co-Ed B Championship, I received this blitz from the IM director after I asked about picking up our championship t-shirts:

Jeff,
I'm following up with a complaint. It was reported that you had players that played on multiple co-ed teams. One gentleman was bragging that he played on five different teams. Anyway, I just wanted to hear what you had to say about this?

The IM director was wrong. (I think it was actually eight teams.) After meeting with said director, we ultimately got the shirts, so the moral of this story is: It's okay to live a life of hockey excess.

When I'm not playing IM games in Thompson Arena (that's where the varsity teams play, although to slightly larger crowds), my home away from dorm is Occom Pond, just a few minutes' walk from the Green. In fact, I just got back from playing there for about two hours this afternoon. A few pick-ups games are guaranteed to be going on, and I can probably be seen out there three afternoons a week.

I always wear a Philadelphia Flyers jersey while I'm playing, although by the end of the afternoon you can't recognize it through the layer of snow that's accumulated on the logo from my many reckless dives to stop a breakaway with my stick or body.

Pond hockey and IM hockey are two big reasons why winter is my favorite term at Dartmouth - and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to relive the "Mighty Ducks" movies.

(My favorite was always Adam Banks. Or maybe Julie the Cat from Bangor, Maine.)