First of all, let me apologize for the eight day absence from the blog. After stuffing my face with all of those Thanksgiving treats and the leftovers that remained of them, and staying up all night waiting for Black Friday Claus to arrive down the chimneys of gargantuan box stores all over my quaint little town, I could barely manage to raise my plumped limbs to even try and mash the keypad on my laptop or even hope to keep my swollen and tryptophan laced eyelids open long enough to hammer out a blog that would not so obviously give away my state of inebriation brought on by turkey and cranberry sauce swilled with the scent of freshly made credit card plastic and traces of mint from the toothpaste of wide smiling industrialists beaming green with holiday glee.
What's that you say? Hire a secretary to take dictation? Nope. I gave that a try, however it seems that the only shorthand any human being knows these days is more of a short finger than anything else. I glared in awe as over a dozen applicants punched rapid jabs at their cell phones using both of their thumbs with striking proficiency as I spoke in an entranced state of narration, eager to see my words in printed form.
But it just didn't get the job done. For example, that long and profound rant that was my opening paragraph in this blog would have, to each of my applicants, translated as simply "sry- Thxgiv - shpg + ><:> = %*)". No. That will certainly never do. How would I recreate the joy I take in looking up all of these rarely used and engorged words of the former English language in my dusty thesaurus and then, like a game show dream involving Vanna White and a game of Tetris, figure out how to assemble them all in cohesive sentences of semi-comprehensible, yet impressive looking information.
So, now that you know the reason behind this tardy posting and now that I have gotten a few personal feelings and pent up words off my chest, we can get on to the subject of this installment.
No, there won't be any flashy or depressing statistics that look like the endless chalk strewn equations on an Ivy League physics professor's blackboard. We won't go into explicit detail regarding the on or off ice life of any particular player. Nor will we share any illusive morsels of post-Thanksgiving goings on surrounding the locker room or other clandestine spaces of Town Toyota Center.
Instead, aside from my written tirade to open the blog, we'll be analyzing one very simple statement; "winning isn't everything".
True enough to be sure. Winning isn't in fact, everything! Within the context of a Junior A hockey club, a few other somethings (but not everythings either) would be equally poignant to take stock in like opportunity, experience, outreach and dream chasing.
The Wenatchee Wild have offered everyone in the community and beyond, both within and outside of the hockey world, something very special to take tremendous pride in.
For the players, it's a grand opportunity to showcase their natural talents and years of hard work in front of thousands of loyal and loving fanfare, while at the same time enriching their lives forever through the many unique experiences this chance offers them. And because the efforts of the team within the community are so vast, the players also learn just how far their actions both on and off the ice can go towards reaching others and having a positive impact. They also get to chase the dream of playing college or even professional hockey one day in the future.
The devoted fan's perspective is one similar to that of the players in many ways. For they are there with every stride to cheer the team on while getting the chance to witness their exploits, have some fun and garner some new experiences in the process. The fan base also benefits from the outreach of the team and it's players and are as a big a part of the pursuit of the players dreams as anyone else. Heck, they live the dream themselves in many ways when taking part in the festivities of a home hockey game.
As someone who works for the organization, I can easily attest to how much the opportunities I have been offered by the Wild have meant to me, and I am certain that goes for every member of the team's staff and the thousands of volunteers that have stepped up to offer their assistance over the past two-and-a-half years as well.
We all get the chance to experience so many things that would otherwise no doubt go undone and to be a part of the effort to reach out and make a difference. And yes, there are a select few of us who are still in the course of chasing down a dream or two while getting the thrill out of living one all at the same time.
Well, now we all should know that winning isn't everything, and that I acknowledge that each of you already embodies that belief. How do I know this? After the team lost five in a row over 3,500 of you showed up and Town Toyota Center to cheer on the boys just the same. And after that 3,500-plus saw the club lose for a club record sixth straight game, just as many of you turned out once again the next night to make Junior hockey in the Wenatchee Valley what it always is...remarkable!
The Wild did win that second game of last weekend's referenced series by the final of 7-to-4. Ben Carey scored the team's second hat trick of the season and newcomers John Mejia and Nick Kulmanovsky made a difference, with Nick winning his first start in net and Mejia steamrolling his 235 pound body into several members of the opposition Chicago Hitmen, all to the resounding delight of the once again near capacity crowd.
So, winning as we've now learned isn't everything...but it sure was sweet to win!!
Please share your thoughts with me on this installment of "The 5-Hole"!
Chris Hansen's email is senatorlynx@yahoo.com
Chris Hansen's email is senatorlynx@yahoo.com
Chris Hansen is the play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Wild and can be heard on gamedays with Pat Norlin and Rich Haney at AM 560 KPQ on radio in North Central Washington and online at FastHockey.com…his web site blog, “The 5-Hole”, will be updated regularly every few days here at WenatcheeWild.com
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