Chasing the puck

Mike McCarthy grew up playing hockey on the frozen ponds of Boston. When he moved to The Narrows in 2007, he knew it might be a challenge to continue his favorite sport.

“When I first moved down here, first thing I did was look in the phone book to see if there was a hockey rink here,” he said.

What McCarthy wasn’t expecting was the number of neighbors confused by the sight of his hockey gear.

“I’ve been here since ’07, and I still hear it from people: ‘What is that, a hockey stick?’” he said. “This is a football territory.”

A member of the BASH (Birmingham Adult Select Hockey) team, McCarthy is at the ice rink in Pelham three or four nights a week. For him, it’s not a challenge to fit hockey into his life; after playing for several decades, it’s more about fitting his life around hockey. McCarthy said most of his teammates aren’t from Birmingham originally. They’re from Canada and the Northern states, looking to bring a slice of their old life to the South.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said McCarthy, who will travel to Tampa in April to compete in the USA Hockey Nationals over-50 tournament. “Hockey’s like a fraternity around the United States. You run into people you used to play against at college or prep school or somewhere.”

Erik Hudson, himself a transplant from Spokane, Washington, is the director of hockey at the Pelham Civic Complex. He said many people don’t realize there’s a rink so close to Birmingham, but it’s a growing sport. In the 15 years since Pelham started an adult league, this year has the largest participation numbers. There are about 150 adults playing hockey among 10 teams at the ice rink, in addition to 140 on children’s teams and 40 to 50 more in the beginning Learn to Skate program.

“Hockey’s a great sport to get in shape in. It works muscles that people usually don’t know they have,” Hudson said. “But it’s a team sport — builds camaraderie, friendships.”

Since ice rinks in Alabama are few and far between, Hudson said many people travel from around the area to strap on their skates. However, he estimated that about 75 percent of their hockey players come from Chelsea, Greystone, The Narrows and other places along U.S. 280. This is due in part to the regular visits that Hudson and other coaches make to area elementary schools. They show off hockey gear, talk about the sport and encourage kids to be athletic and make healthy choices.

Chelsea resident Jason Ellsberry is one of the kids’ team coaches, despite never playing hockey before. He and his wife are longtime hockey fans, and their sons — 13-year-old Hayden and 9-year-old Riley — started playing four years ago. Ellsberry said he’s now fairly good at the sport, but most of his six days a week at the rink are spent encouraging and improving the kids on his team.

“I try to make sure they have a smile on their face every time they leave the ice,” Ellsberry said.

His sons, who go to school at Forest Oaks Elementary and Chelsea Middle, have improved and now play in travel leagues. Ellsberry said they “always want to be on the ice.” But Ellsberry said he’s as proud to see children who could barely stand on their skates at the beginning of a season grow into competitive players.

McCarthy, in addition to his adult league, also coaches children’s teams at the ice rink. Before moving to Birmingham, he had coached a high school team to a state championship and led a team of children ages 13-14 to a national competition. After nearly nine years in Birmingham, McCarthy said he enjoys watching kids grow up on the ice.

“It’s a nice feeling when you come back and the kids come back and say ‘I remember when I was 7 years old, you taught me,’” he said. 

“I get a lot of enjoyment of trying to develop young kids, to teach them the game … To me, once you get the passion of the sport, you’ll never lose it.”

Coaching is a chance for him to share life lessons, and McCarthy said he tries to teach kids to “be adults on and off the ice.”

However, he’s also trying to share his passion for hockey with the kids, so they love it and stick with it as he did. It’s an intense sport — players are racing across the ice, occasionally getting a little bit rough with the opposite team, while chasing the little puck darting between hockey sticks. For lifelong players, it’s addictive.

“If you’re playing top-notch hockey… you’re on the ice for no more than a minute, maybe 90 seconds. If you’re on the ice more than 90 seconds, you’re not really skating, you’re coasting,” McCarthy said. “Hockey gets so many different variables and changes so quickly that you’ve got to be able to react quickly.”

McCarthy and Hudson both want more kids and adults to feel that excitement of picking up a hockey stick, and to realize that there’s a place to play nearby. Hudson particularly wants to add a junior hockey team for players looking to improve enough to play in college, and a girls’ league.

Hockey may have a small following in the South, but the players want to see it grow.

“It’s exciting, it’s a challenge, it’s a one-on-one battle to put the puck in the net,” McCarthy said.