USA Hockey Adult Hockey

With time winding down to sign up to play in a fall/winter adult hockey league, Travis Dusing and his roommate barely made registration.

The two guys weren’t the only free agents wanting to join the Sioux Empire Adult Amateur Hockey League in Sioux Falls, S.D. It just so happens that all the free agents were put onto one team. And the Freebirds were born.

Since September, the players have gotten to know one another — most had never played in the league before or knew anyone who played — and started to bond.

“Starting off, it was a little bit different because there was no like baseline,” Dusing said. “But it was really cool for everyone to kind of meet each other.”

Dusing, 21, is in his first season of playing adult hockey and is picking up the nuances each Sunday when his team hits the ice.

“It’s been an experience,” Dusing said. “I’m kind of glad I went on the Freebirds the first year that I played in the league; that way I wasn’t forced onto another team’s rhythm. We’ve just got a bunch of people that just kind of started joining the league together and have fun.”

Josh Crouch, a Freebirds defenseman and manager, played club hockey at Iowa State University and is also getting his first taste in an adult league. Being thrown in with the Freebirds has been an adjustment.

“We’re all from all over the place, so it’s kind of cool playing a different style of hockey,” said Crouch, 23. “Me growing up in Texas, I’m playing Texas style. Playing with kids from Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois, it’s a bunch of different styles and we don’t have chemistry yet, stuff like that.”

The chemistry is coming along slowly. It took a couple of months to figure out which players work well together on the same line and who excels at what.

“It took at least three games before everyone felt confident in knowing each other,” Dusing said.

The toughest part in throwing together 16 players on a team was that the Freebirds didn’t really have a group of defensive players.

“We had to have a few forwards go back to D, plus no one had really skated with each other, so it was learning what everyone knew and all that,” Dusing said.

The Freebirds are a compilation of mostly players in their 20s and early 30s. The majority of the guys are new to the adult hockey scene and are learning on the fly. The players seem to have a good time on and off the ice.

“The fact that even if we’re losing, everyone’s just kind of having fun and just here to play hockey,” Dusing said.

Playing in the B League, the Freebirds have had to take on some well-established teams on a weekly basis.

“It’s pretty competitive,” Crouch said. “It’s a lot better league than I thought it would be.”

“We just took on a team called the Dudes, and they’ve been the team to beat in the league for many years,” Dusing said. “They’re definitely a team of older gentlemen, but they’re all good and have been playing together for so many years.”

The Freebirds want to become a team like the Dudes — staying together every season and starting a tradition.

“I think there’s a couple of us that really want to stay together,” Crouch said.

“If we can establish a team and see if we can find more players, I would definitely want to do that,” Dusing said.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.