An Anomalous Belfry

Now This is Hockey Night...

In approximately five hours and forty minutes, a new chapter in the history of FGBC will be opened. Whether that chapter lasts for a semester, a year or in perpetuity (like the Stubble Bowl, which has just hit 30 years), nobody knows. It has been what has kept me at the school for meals, made me watch hockey games more attentively and has added another three notches to my already crazy demeanor.

This is what hockey night really should look like.

To think that a mere 10 days ago, four guys in suits sat down (with a fifth, unexpected guy to join about 20 minutes later) with nothing more than a crazy dream, influence and a lot of people staring at us, thinking we were crazy.

It was a night that a floor hockey league was formed.

Armed with the acronym, FHL (floor hockey league), we started the intense process of recruiting general managers and setting up a tentative schedule for the fledgling league. In a step reminicent of the philosophy in the movie Field of Dreams, we put out a sign-up sheet, all the while thinking "If you build it, they will come."

And build it we did. Three days later, we had 30 people, six general managers from the faculty and staff and six team captains confirmed, proving that our vision was not in vain. At that lunch meeting, a new league name was born - the Eston Collegiate Floor Hockey Association. Undaunted by the fact that the abbreviation ECFHA did not really roll off the tounge, the five of us (now calling ourselves the "board of governors") spread the word of draft night, November 1.

Draft night was simply amazing. Captains and general managers came to select their players from the die-hard souls that signed up to engage in an adapted version of Canada's greatest sport. When the dust had settled, the cell phones had silenced and the trade rumors stopped flying, six teams crawled out of the pool, each with a distinct identity:

Fuerza - the Spanish word for "strength", their roster shows it
The Mighty Gophers of Eston - a team drafted over the cell phone, but not lacking in heart
Aslan's Arsonists - a team ready to set the world on fire for Christ
The ABHE - a team that endorses both higher education and hockey in Eston
The Endtimes Hockey Battalion - a team that is out to prove that amillenialism really is an option
The Power Shots - a team with both the name and the skills indicated therein

Amidst all the cheers being formed, the fans being riled up and even sticks and jerseys being purchased all on the team's own initiative, we come to realize just how much of a unique community this is.

And in a little under six hours now, we will see just what happens on the ECFHA opening night - a night where everyone plays and the bullets start to fly for real.

Let it all be for the glory of God.

posted by theDING @ 12:45