Hockey in Savannah

Do you have any idea how hard it is to learn hockey while living in Savannah? I took up hockey a few months ago--just as something to do. Something I knew I could get Rich outdoors for. (It's hard to find motivation to leave the air conditioning during a 110% humidity Savannah Summer.) It started innocently enough--we just passed a hockey ball back and forth and tried to avoid Roz. I used Rich's regular stick, while he used the sacred stick he used to score his goal while playing on real ice. When we realized that, unlike Rich, I am not a right handed hockey player who can use a left-handed stick, we decided it was time to upgrade.

Finding a hockey stick in Savannah is a trick. About the only place with any is Play it Again Sports. There located in the back corner. There isn't much selection, so you've got to be lucky to find what you need. Rich must be lucky, because he found a basic street hockey stick (no frills plastic blade and all) for a right-handed player about my height. Truth be told--he didn't know my exact height and just bought the shortest stick they had. It fits perfectly.

We'd practice shots after work and I started getting respectable. However, just because I could clear the tennis court net did not mean I could aim. Rich decided we needed a net. Do you know how hard it is to find a hockey net in Savannah? Sure you can get a regulation size (4 x 6 foot) net meant for soccer, but they are flimsy and the holes in the net are too large for a hockey ball.
Rich decided to construct the frame from PVC pipe bought at the Home Depot.

Finding the net itself was another challenge. Apparently netting is harder to come by than you'd think, especially in Savannah. We searched high and low for an adequate material and finally settled on mesh laundry bags--you know, the sort that are on sale everywhere in August for the college bound.

The top tier of the net is one bag cut open on both the left and right side. The bottom tier consists of three bags, each split open on one side and the bottom. They are sewed side by side, with the aid of some extra-wide bias tape that was on clearance. The two layers were then stitched together, again using extra wide bias tape. My basic Singer sewing machine was not pleased with this project; it took an hour before I started my next project to return settings to normal cotton sewing mode.As you've guessed it, the net is attached to the frame with my own version of duct tape--cable ties.

The down side of our masterpiece? We can no longer play hockey on the tennis court. The management of our apartment has decried the court strictly for tennis. All other forms of recreation are strictly prohibited. Not that many people in the appartment complex actually play tennis. Guess they have to keep one thing about the place look nice and not outdated.