About 5 years ago, my wife’s best friend at the time, asked her one final time to try out the sport of ice hockey. She had hounded Casi for a long time and made one last plea, telling her that if she didn’t like it she’d never ask her again. Casi, reluctantly and sluggishly agreed. Immediately upon returning home from her first skate, she got online and purchased 2 entire sets of hockey gear; one for her and one for me, knowing that I’d be smitten just as she was. In the five years that has passed since that fateful night, we have become consumed by the game. We have an entire room in our garage FULL of hockey gear. We travel hundreds of miles during the summer to find ice to play on with our co-ed team, the Bad Apples. Hockey is in our blood, albeit, from an infusion late in life.  

 Our passions run deep for the sport. For my wife, it’s the organizing, promoting, friendships and pure sport of it. For me, it’s the speed, skill, agility and rush of the game (I get a rush, but have very little speed, skill or agility). Our kids simply LOVE to skate, and probably the treats that abound at the practices. For those reasons and countless others, we are a hockey family, and one that’s growing. During the season, which usually begins with fall and ends in March, we have a large number of H.R.A.s (hockey related activities). These range from pre-season parties, to practices, to reffing, fundraisers, board meetings to even the occasional game. We spend at least an hour or so every day of the week at the ice arena, sometimes MUCH longer. This season we’ve taken it up a notch. Playing, coaching, reffing, organizing and promoting was not enough, we now have actually added to our family by hosting or “billeting” two young men from the Wenatchee Wild, #4 Kyle Brodie and #10 Zack Smoot. So on top of our “usual” hockey schedule, we will now be cheering our hearts out for whom, Casi now refers to as, “HER boys”.    

 Sharing our home with these gentlemen has been an incredible experience for the whole family, an experience I’d recommend to anyone with the room and time to do it. Our children (the ones who’ve lived with us since birth) have bonded with the boys and anxiously await their return from their away games. Casi gets to eat cookie dough feed them full of homemade chocolate chip cookies almost nightly. For me, I get to join in on Halo 3 and get to be a kid again still. Many fear that we can’t afford to feed two 18 year olds, especially with Mr. Phelps’ 12000 calorie diet in the news lately, but we lucked out and got a couple of Mac & Cheese addicts. Offer them a steak and they’d rather have a burger (Brodie likes to drown his in BBQ sauce). We’ve had the pleasure of meeting most of the team through “our boys” and can’t wait to see them play in person. Can’t wait to see if their off ice personalities, guys like smooth talking Chicago native Evan Mosey or goofball T.J. “Gun Show” Wees, can make this season at the arena as much fun as it’s been around our house.  

 So, as we patiently await the opening of the Toybox Town Toyota Center, with no ice locally, our lives are revolving around the sport that I’d never have guessed at 35 years old I’d be so involved in. Hockey has forever changed our lives. The most part for the better, and definitely busier!

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I’m wearing my Mets hat today, and here’s why.A team needs the support of its fans during the worst of times. Anybody can be a fan when times are good. Not everyone can stay on the wagon when times are bad.And times are bad for the Amazins. After leading 5-1 after six innings last night against the Cubs, the Mets failed in numerous chances to get runs across and the bullpen had its obligatory meltdown. In a season of late-inning meltdowns, this was the worst. I’m not sure how much more my dad can take.He just keeps repeating, “You can’t make this stuff up,” over and over again.But I wear my hat today proudly. I’m a fan every day, not just the good days. 

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I think I’ve seen the future, and is name is Killion McGinnis. The 12-year-old son of Panther basketball coach Brett McGinnis was goofing around with his friends after WHS’ 14-7 OT loss on Friday (it wasn’t that close by the way), and shot a flawless 15-yard spiral to his buddy. Even had some zip on it. Wenatchee football 2014’s gonna be good. You heard it here first.In other news, physical game Friday night. It’ll be interesting to see how Wenatchee responds. The entire Apple Bowl gasped when Jacob Sealby went down late in the third quarter. Turned out to be just a cramp. I’m a little worried that he’s going to get worn out two weeks from now. 

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Soccer’s a funny game. There aren’t too many other sports where a team can get out-played for 85 percent of the game, wake up for the last 15 percent and still win. Wenatchee managed to do just that Tuesday night at Eastmont.”We got outplayed tonight and the girls know that,” said Wenatchee head coach Nigel Hunter after the Panthers’ shootout victory. “Eastmont just got unlucky.”Wyatt Piro scored two goals in the last 15 minutes of regulation to tie the match at 2 for Wenatchee, and the loss left the Wildcats shaking their heads.”That’s soccer,” said Eastmont coach Cristian Barboza.I guess. Cheesy I know, but I wish both teams could have won. 

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I know it’s only two games, but Jacob Sealby has been incredible for Wenatchee this season. It wasn’t just running the ball this week. He blocked a punt and had the presence of mind to fall on it for a TD. He intercepts a pass from his middle linebacker spot. He’s all over the field. And it’s the way he runs the ball that stands out. He punishes defenders. He hurts them. He cannot be tackled above the waist. Even is coach is speechless.”I don’t know what to say,” Scott Devereaux said after Sealby’s 127-yard performance Friday night. “He’s just so strong and runs so hard. He gets hit by five different guys and just doesn’t go down.” 

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A post on Tom Wyrwich’s Seattle Times prep sports blog from Wednesday night got me thinking. What is preventing us from having a rib-eating contest at Country Boys’ Barbeque for high school football players. Wenatchee, Eastmont and Cashmere each send their biggest eater to Country Boys, and whoever can pile up the most bones wins bragging rights in the Valley. Foolproof, right? Maybe I just want to see how many ribs Brandon Lynch and Mike Marboe can eat. Sue me.The more I think about it, the Apple Bowl is probably the best high school athletic facility I’ve ever been to, and I’ve covered prep sports in three time zones. The grass is like a putting green, whether it’s for soccer or football. Panther girls soccer players Kathleen King, Hanna Gustafsson and I were discussing WHS’ home opener Thursday night against LC, and how excited the team is to be playing on its home turf.”Other fields we play on aren’t nearly as nice,” said Gustafsson.”Who wouldn’t want to play on this every day?” King chimed in.Agreed. 

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While covering the scintillating Wenatchee-Eastmont swim meet on Tuesday night, I struggled with identifying which swimmer was which, as everyone looks alike with a swim cap on. I asked Eastmont head coach April Cheadle if she’d ever considered putting numbers or names on the caps to identify people. I know it would help me, and more than one parent I spoke to said they had a hard time picking out their own kids. As always, it comes down to money. April said that especially for the girls, who tend to have more hair, the swim caps get worn out in a hurry.”We go through a lot of caps, and it would cost too much to specially make each one with a name or number on it. If a local business wanted to sponsor it, we’d love to do it, but I don’t think it’ll happen,” she said.Alas. 

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It’s official. NFL teams don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. As long as you can help us win, we’ll give you a second chance. Or a third. Or even a fourth.Over the strenuous objections of head coach Marvin Lewis, the Cincinnati Bengals have re-signed wide receiver Chris Henry, something they’d said they’d  never do again. Since being drafted by the Bengals in 2005, Henry has been arrested five times and suspended three times by the NFL. Now, he’s back.Bengals’ star receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh have been beset by injuries during training camp, and their backups have struggled. After a mistrial was declared in Henry’s latest court saga, dismissing charges that he assaulted a college student, team owner Mike Brown signed Henry against his coach’s wishes.Not only does this grossly undermine the authority of the head coach, the Bengals have furthered the trend of having need for talent beat out a desire to employ up-standing citizens. What happens the next time he gets in trouble?This is a disgusting development. 

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Manny Ramirez is proof positive that one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. The Boston Red Sox couldn’t get The Dreadlocked One out of Beantown fast enough, and I can’t say I blame them. He blatantly stopped playing hard, and his walking down to first base on a double-play ball was the last straw for GM Theo Epstein.So, the Sawx shipped him out to La-La Land, into the welcoming arms of Joe Torre and the Dodgers. Ramirez is hitting .413 with six homers and 21 RBI in just 17 games with Los Angeles, and is single-handedly helping them to a playoff spot in the watered down NL West. Manny is exactly what the Dodgers needed: a little thump in the lineup to support all the young talent they’ve got. Torre’s seen this before. He watched Manny torture his Yankee teams for years, and he and Phil Jackson wrote the book on dealing with outlandish personalities. Manny seems happy with L.A., but who knows what he’s thinking. He seemed happy with his big buddy Big Papi and times in Boston, but clearly he needed out. One thing remains true no matter where Manny is — he hits.He hits all day and all night. He hits in the heat, he hits in the cold. He’s a walking, dreadlocked 2-for-3. It’s somewhat more palatable to see him run circles around himself in the field and on the bases when you stack it against his hitting. Boston’s probably better off without someone who doesn’t want to be there, but the Dodgers are happy he’s with them now.  

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When I walked into Game 1 of the AppleSox playoff series with Corvallis Saturday night, it was business as usual. Just copying down the lineups and getting ready for the game. Sox minority owner Ken Osborne sidles up and asks if I would mind throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the game.Mind? Hell, I’d love to. While waiting my turn to hopefully not embarrass myself, I had the foresight to hold the ball in my left hand so the sweat wouldn’t wet up the ball too badly. All I wanted to do was not throw a five-hopper. That’s embarrassing for anyone, much less somebody with baseball experience.I walked out to the mound as the mispronounced my last name and said I was from Nevada instead of New Jersey, but who’s counting. I toed the rubber, not one thought of throwing from the foot of the mound. Too much pride for that. I let it go, and it was a high strike, but still a strike. What an experience.  

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