At the rink with the Stingers
I’m going to be honest with you, Concordians — I’ve never been much of a sports fan. When I was very young, I played baseball for a short period of time. I remember I had two pairs of shoes for the games. One pair, when worn, resulted in the team winning. Every time. The other was my lucky pair that I really believed would prevent me from striking out. For the last game of the season, I wore my lucky shoes. Our team lost and so did my interest in sports.
Recently, however, my perspective changed. I was hanging out with three classmates, all typical die-hard hockey fans, when they began talking about the latest goings-on in the sport. Accepting that I would have no clue what they were talking about for the rest of the conversation, I was about to switch to autopilot when one of the guys said something that piqued my curiosity: “Did you see the last Stingers women’s hockey game?” he asked.
Before any of the others had a chance to answer, I broke my years of silence on all things sports-related with a question of my own: “Concordia has a women’s hockey team?” I really had no clue what sports were offered at Concordia. For the next little while, my friends brought me up to date, recounting how our two Stingers hockey teams had fared over the last three years since I began university. I decided it was time to break out of my comfort zone and attend my first ever Concordia sporting events. I decided I would attend both a men’s and women’s hockey game.
Men's hockey
As a Concordia student, it was exciting for me to see the Concordia-McGill rivalry played out on the rink, and to see Concordia students, families and friends come together to support the team and feel the “Sting”. I got caught up in the excitement after every missed goal by a Stinger or save by our goalie. Even though I have virtually no clue about the rules of the game, I knew to cheer when the referee called a penalty and one of the Redmen was sent to the “box.”
The game was tied 2-2 and going into overtime. With the pressure on Concordia to bring home the victory, I felt as anxious as Stingers coach Kevin Figsby looked. Our shared anxiety quickly turned to overwhelming delight when the Stingers scored. It was a shining moment, looking around at the happy faces of both the Stingers fans and players after the win.
Women's hockey
Two weeks later, walking into McGill’s McConnell Arena to watch the Martlets play the Stingers, was a little unsettling. At first, I couldn’t see any Stingers fans in among the red-coloured crowd waving McGill flags, but a defiant chant of “Go, Stingers, Go” helped me locate a friendly pocket of die-hard Concordia fans.
Women’s hockey is less about violence and more about tactics. At one point there was a stare down between two opposing players that seemed somehow more intense than an actual fist fight. It was a close game — unfortunately, McGill scored in the last minutes of the third period. The Stingers pushed back as hard they could, but they couldn’t even the score. It was nice to see the moment of university sportsmanship when both teams shook hands at the end of the game.
I talked about my experience with my classmates. My analysis: The Stingers sports teams are serious business. This is no weekend warm-up; this is a training ground for the pros. The Concordia spirit is there in every slapshot, every save, every goal, and every boisterous chant from the fans.
The excitement of playing at the university level is obvious among the athletes, whose potential is constantly tested to new limits. Sure, mistakes can be made, but records can also be set, championships won. History is in the making every weekend at Concordia.