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For South Carolina’s Team Rosso, The Rink is a Second Home
The guys on Rosso are part of a diehard group of hockey players in the Columbia, South Carolina, area
South Carolina isn’t known as a hotbed for hockey.
The small, 12,000-person town of Irmo boasts the only full-time ice arena, Plex Indoor Sports, in the Columbia area. It’s where the diehard hockey players get their skate on.
The guys on the team Rosso look forward to hitting the ice every Wednesday night for league action.
“It’s everybody from every walk of life,” Rosso team member Steve Brochu said. “The Wednesday Night League, every team is made up of a really, really great bunch of guys. I look forward to going out every Wednesday night, playing hockey, sitting around and having a couple beers afterwards and just tell stories as always.”
There are still a number of original Rosso team members playing hockey. But because of job transfers of guys coming in and out of the area and having two military bases nearby, there is a steady stream of new players each season.
“The first thing we do when we move to the area, we have a culture shock and we get out the phonebook. OK, where’s the nearest rink? What do you mean there’s not six and only one?” said longtime Rosso team member Brads Edwards. “Every week we set aside our jobs or whatever we do — and it’s a wide variety of lawyers, doctors, I run an Internet business. But we all have one thing in common, and that’s we grew up playing hockey and we love to play hockey, so we get together once or twice a week and share a common bond.
“Most of us have been around long enough to have children playing in a youth league, so that gets us traveling to USA Hockey tournaments with the kids and the adults, too.”
Rosso is made up of players from ages 20 to 56. Brochu is the oldest player on the team, and he tries to keep pace with the younger guys.
“I can feel my age for sure,” he said. “My legs can’t move quite as quick as they used to.”
Competing with and against players who are 30 to 35 years younger than him, Brochu uses his on-ice experience to get by.
“If you can know where you’re supposed to be on the ice and cover a certain area of ice to defend it, you can keep up with them a little bit,” Brochu said.
Brochu, who has played hockey for nearly a half century, loves to get out on the ice with his teammates.
“It keeps me young, I can say that,” Brochu joked. “I was just talking to one of my teammates on the bench and he’s 55; we said the same thing. My wife asks me, ‘How long are you going to keep doing this?’ And I say, ‘As long as I can.’
“If I can be playing hockey when I’m 65, I’ll be a happy guy.”
Along with playing in the regular adult league each session, Brochu and Edwards and some other teammates love to get out and compete in tournaments. Rosso has had some success over the years, winning tournaments in Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina.
“It breaks up the routine, if you want to call it that, and it gives us a chance to get out and bond and it’s just fun,” Edwards said. “We’ve basically got a core group of guys that get together for various tournaments — depending what the ages are, if it’s an over-40 tournament or opening tournament.
“We have to stick together, because there isn’t a lot of hockey down [in South Carolina] and we’re friends off the ice.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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Adult hockey not only promotes a healthy and active lifestyle, it requires it. As adults get older, they increasingly need to emphasize regular exercise and a nutritious diet. There’s no easy way to go about it—but there is a fun, challenging and rewarding option that sticks with you for life:
Hockey.
That’s right. Hockey is part of the perfect prescription for an adults’ health regiment. Just ask Olympian and former NHL player Steve Jensen.
“Physical fitness is something we should all be thinking about as we get older,” says Jensen, a longtime certified USA Hockey coach/official. “There’s no better activity than hockey to stay in shape.”
Dr. Michael Stuart, chief medical officer for USA Hockey, says the positives of playing hockey are contagious.
“Participation in ice hockey provides all the benefits of exercise while building friendships and ensuring a fun time,” says Stuart, who is also the vice-chair of Orthopedic Surgery and the co-director of the Sports Medicine Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Dr. Stuart and colleague Dr. Edward Laskowski of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center sketch out specific benefits for hockey players:
- Prevents excess weight gain and/or maintain weight loss.
- Boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol, and decreases unhealthy triglycerides, a cominbination that lowers your risk of cardiovascular diseases.
- Stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed.
- Improves muscle strength and boosts your endurance.
- Relieves stress by helping you have fun and unwind, connect with friends and family, and be part of a team.
- Involves physical activity that can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep.
“Playing adult hockey is a great way to feel better, gain health benefits and have fun,” says Stuart, who also emphasizes maintaining a balanced diet. As for safety concerns, he adds: “The risk of injury is small in no-check, adult hockey games, but players should wear high-quality, well-fitting equipment, including a helmet and facial protection.”
The Minnesota-based Adult Hockey Association is starting to see employers embrace hockey as a health and performance benefit for its workforce. Some businesses are beginning to subsidize hockey registration fees for employees because they feel the activity fits the policy of their wellness programs.
“It’s not a lot, but we’re starting to see more and more trickle in,” says Dave Swenson, the AHA’s secretary treasurer who also serves on USA Hockey’s Adult Council and Minnesota Hockey’s Board of Directors.
Swenson wants this trend to continue growing, not just to see the number of players rise, but to reward players for committing to a healthy lifestyle.
“I’m hoping employers think about that a little more,” Swenson adds. “It’s not just softball leagues anymore. There are recreational hockey opportunities out there for adults.”
Hilary McNeish, a longtime player, ambassador, and current executive director of the Women’s Association of Colorado Hockey, says she sees the positive results in women’s hockey every day.
“There are so many benefits,” says McNeish, “but the quote I hear most from ladies is: ‘It’s like working out a lot, but it’s so fun, it doesn’t feel like working out!’”
Aside from the physical health gains, there’s also a mental side to the story that’s special to hockey players.
“There are so many positive experiences that come with it,” adds McNeish. “Being able to play a sport that so many deem difficult is also great for the mind and wonderful for your personal attitude.
“It’s great to see the looks from people when you can say, ‘I play hockey’”
