fandomhighdorms | Gym - Hockey Squad

[OOC: Set some time late Thursday afternoon/early Thursday evening.]

"Hey guys, welcome to the first meeting of the Fandom High Hockey Squad. Our faculty sponsor is Coach Duncan MacLeod. For those who don't know me, I'm Charlie Kawalsky.

Now, we're a squad instead of a team because the school administration has decided not to fund any road trips for us and Fandom Town is too small right now to host any visiting teams on a regular basis. So once we get some of the skills worked out, we'll be splitting up into intra-squad teams and playing against each other.

So. Hockey. Some of you guys have played, some of you haven't. That's cool. Aim of this first session is to work out who needs to learn what so we can all get to a standard and go from there.

Those who know how to play can teach those who don't. We've got this area booked for the rest of the night, so you can stay as long as you want, or go when you've had enough. Just let me know if you wanna drop out so I can keep a record of who's going and who's staying.

I've managed to rustle us up some equipment, so we'll try a little bit of everything today so everyone can get a feel for the game."

Kawalsky explained the basic rules to everyone [OOC: See second LJ cut below]. He then passed out a rulebook. "Don't worry about getting it right straight away. We're gonna play some easy games once we get rink time somewhere and sorta just learn as we go. This is just meant to be fun and give extra-curricular credit. Oh, and later in the semester we're gonna be playing an exhibition game against a visiting team. I don't know when, though, so I gotta wait to hear from Dean Bristow about that. I'll let you know when I do."

[edit: For the purposes of this practice, we've arranged for one of the magic types to ice up a section of the gym for us to practice on until we get a rink. There is also a non-iced section for those who just want to practice on rollerblades.]

OOC - Team Line-Ups
The rulebook is NHL rules, but we're not going to be anywhere near that picky. This is just casual fun and the rulebook is for player purposes. We're gonna go for two teams comprised of six players each if we keep the numbers (ie: one line-up, no shift changes). If we can only manage five a team, I'll mess with the positions. We'll need the following:
* Two centers (the guys who do the face-off)
* Two left wings (the guys to the left of the center who receive the puck up first)
* Two right wings (the guys to the right of the center who receive the puck up first)
* Four defenders (two per team, they hang back a bit and are good at keeping other players from doing their jobs)
* Two goalies (they're gonna have to learn to catch and block and they don't have to skate so much, just stay balanced and stop the puck)

So if you have a position preference, say so! We can always change around depending on the game if too many people want one position.

The Way The Game Works
To save those of you who have never seen a game before from having to do a lot of research, the game will basically work like this. You have a rink. There is a goal net at each end of the rink. Goalies try to protect that goal net. They have extra padding and a wider stick and a glove to catch any flying pucks and a better face-cage helmet so they don't get hurt.

Everyone else skates around, paired up with their opponent on the other team (ie: centers stick together, one defense teams up with the opposition's left or right wing) and tries to use their sticks to slide the puck to each other to get it past the opposition's goalie into the net. Shoving, slamming into the wall (when the person has the puck) and blocking your opponent is allowed. Using your stick to hurt or pretend to hurt or trip another player isn't allowed.

[OOC: Separate threads set up for sign-in, position requests, puck handling practice and skating practice. Most of the time we'll just be playing and messing around. Today is just to give the pretense that we're 'learning'.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lana points him out over in the rollerblading section. He still seems to be struggling a bit with keeping his balance, but he's still the best looking one there to her mind.

"Oh, the one that looks like that emo guy," Jaye says. "Yeah, he hasn't fallen down yet. Good for him."

"Yeah, that's him," Lana said happily, "Oh and thank God he's not all emo. It would make me crazy." She watches him quietly for a while then turns back to Jaye, "You know, he's a sailor back where he comes from - acting lieutenant. I wonder if all that time on a ship will come in handy here."

She flushes, "God, I'm such an idiot. Hello, I'm Lana. Nice to meet you."

"Jaye. Hi. Don't worry, I'm talking to people and not getting their names, so I've been assigning them nicknames," she says.

"A ship? Well, if the deck gets slippery, it's gotta be kind of like ice, right? Only not ice yet?"

"Hi, Jaye. So what was my nickname going to be?" Lana asks impishly. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to." She looks out at Archie again, "Wet decks would be pretty slippery, I guess. Not sure he'd have been wearing roller blades on them though. Oh!" She gasps at another near fall.

"I didn't have time to give you a nickname yet," Jaye says, still laughing at the near-fall. "Sorry," she says. "Shouldn't laugh at other people's pain. Except it's funny."

"I know," Lana said, "Even when it's not really funny, you can't keep yourself from laughing. Maybe it's one of your body's ways to deal with stress. So, who are you hear to watch, mock," she corrected herself.

Jaye shrugs. "Anyone and everyone. I've met a couple of the guys, but I don't really know them. I'm an equal-opportunity mocker."

"That's cool. Nice way to meet people, too, I guess." Lana can't stop her eyes from shifting back to Archie, even though she's always been told she should look someone in the eyes when she's speaking to them.

"Yeah, it's a good way to give more people nicknames," Jaye says, wincing/laughing as another guy goes down.

"Ooh! That's going to leave some nasty bruises," Lana exclaimed. "Somehow I'm not at all sad that I'm not down there with them!"

"I mean, if I could just sit there and hit other people, that would be cool. But they're asking for coordination, too. Those that can't do, mock."

Lana laughs, "You know I'm really beginning to like your attitude!"

[OOC: Mun is going to bed. Promised myself I would be in bed *before* midnight tonight. And if I hurry...]

"It works for me," Jaye says.

(OOC: Night! *g*)

Gym - Hockey Squad

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers

Re: In the Bleachers