Sports Therapy

I’m going to start this off by saying that this post isn’t really about the Oilers. It’s not about sports in general, it’s about life.

The last little while has been one of the toughest times in my life; about 6 weeks ago we found out my mother had terminal cancer, she passed in the early morning May 26th. Now, my Mom and I weren’t close, my parents divorced when I was very young and I didn’t spend much time with her, nor did I speak with her very often. I think our personalities were too much the same, an hour or two together and we were fighting like cats and dogs. That being said, I spent time with her nearly every day in the weeks leading up to her death. It was a great time, all things considered, we reminisced, we talked, we laughed together and we watched hockey.

I’ve written before about how I didn’t have a chance to play hockey as a kid, but for one season when I was about 5 years old and living with my Mom here in Edmonton I did play one season of hockey. I remember playing outside in the cold at the Woodcroft community league rink. We’d come home and if there was an Oilers game on ITV we’d watch that, and Saturday nights well forget about it. Hockey night in Canada was on the tube. Mom also sent me with my Great Aunt and Uncle to my very first Oilers game. I remember two things from the game; 1- The Oilers lost 11-9 to the Toronto Maple Leafs, turns out it was the highest scoring game in Oilers history. 2- I got in trouble for cheering when the Leafs goalie was injured.

Back to watching hockey with Mom while she was in the hospital; I titled this article Sports Therapy, well when we were watching the games, we’d cheer, we’d boo, we’d yell at the refs, but we wouldn’t be sad about the situation in front of us. For that 2ish hours that there was a game on TV in front of us, we didn’t think about what real life was throwing at us, we focused on a game, didn’t matter who won or lost we just watched and we had fun doing it.

Thanks Mom, I miss you, and I love you. I know that you are a huge reason for my love of sport.

So the morning after Mom passed, I went home tossed and turned and eventually fell asleep. When I woke up I noticed my phone was full of messages from friends. I automatically assumed they were condolences for myself and my family. They weren’t. Turns out, that same night a good friend of mine, Travis Moritz, had passed away as well. Boom, I had no words. I had trouble accepting the news, I couldn’t believe it. I said that day that I lost my Mother and a Brother within hours of each other.

Travis was a great man, we played beer league hockey together, he trained and fought MMA. He was a good friend. In fact I had totally assumed that one of the first messages or phone calls I would have gotten that day would have been from him. He was like that, we wouldn’t talk for a while, but when things were down and out for one of his friends he was the first guy there to get your back. One of my first memories of Travis was when I was about 13 years old. I stole his hockey net, well not stole so much as moved it about 1/2 a mile down the street. Well anyone that knows Travis or his brothers know that was a really stupid decision, I took my lumps for that one, but we became friends after that.

Thanks Travis, I miss you, and love you brother.

Every year a few friends and I go up north camping, we fish, we eat like kings, basically we just get away from it all. This trip has been planned for months, and good thing too, because I really needed it this year. There is no service up there, no way for anyone to get in touch with me, nothing. Total isolation. It was great, my friends and I had an amazing time. Well when we left camp last Sunday and got to civilization, once again my phone was lit up with messages from friends. Turns out another childhood friend had passed.

Darren Leadbeater, was a great man. Father of 4, hard worker and involved in many sports. We grew up in the same neighborhood and spend hours upon hours playing street hockey in the summers and hockey on the outdoor rink across the street from his house. We got in a bit of trouble together to, because that’s what kids do. I remember one time the two of us were scrapping in the middle of a street hockey game, after a while (not long, he was bigger and tougher than me) and a few bruises we just started laughing histerically, neither of us could remember what had started the fight.

Thanks for the memories Darren, I miss you.

The common theme here is sports. I have many good memories with everyone mentioned above, but the ones that stand out the most are sports related. Sports brings people closer together with out even trying, it truly is a beautiful thing.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for the support I have received. From friends, family, the staff here at the Oilers Rig, absolutely amazing. Like I said it was a ridiculously tough time. My wife and kids were rocks. Obviously I was miserable, and I was probably pretty tough company to keep for a while. One of the ways I coped, or at least got my mind off of things was to watch hockey. Thank goodness for the playoffs, much like watching games with my mom in the hospital, I knew that at 5 pm our time there’d be a game on, and if the night was right there’d be another game right after that. Two to four hours of time where I focused on sport, the rest of the world didn’t matter so much in that span of time. Body checks, shots, saves, powerplays and penalty kills, that was what was important then. Thank goodness that was there or things would have been way tougher.

Thanks for reading.