Andrew Schrauben

At work last week I got a call from my brother Ryan inviting Amanda and I to the farm of his soon-to-be in-laws to help them chop some wood. It's always fun to be a lumberjack so I agreed to go. Then Ryan added: "You might want to bring your skates - we're gonna play hockey first!"

Last time I saw my ice skates I was vacuuming mouse turds out of them... They've been sitting in the basement forever. I hadn't skated in seven years! I warned Ryan about the potential for rust - both on my blades and in my legs - but he didn't seem to mind. Would I remember how to skate?

Honestly I wasn't worried that I'd forget, but I was afraid I was going to be pretty sloppy. I used to skate a lot in high school and college, although I rarely had a hockey stick in my hands. Mostly I just skated for fun - I loved to zoom around on the ice. While other kids played hockey on the neighborhood pond I instead would shovel a winding race course on the snow-covered ice and then pace myself in time trials, trying to go faster every time around.

Sunday morning there I was trying to squeeze my size 14 feet into the size 13 hockey skates that I got in high school. After puttering one lap around the rink, my other brother Eric handed me one of his sticks along with the advice: "It's easier to balance if you lean on the stick." Gee, thanks!


All six of the hockey players; left to right:

Megan (sky blue coat)
Ryan (green sweatshirt)
Andrew (black jacket)
Kenny (orange hat)
Eric (gray shirt)
Dad (blue jeans butt)

Mom is walking in the background, camera in hand, between Eric and Dad

Eric, Ryan and I never played any organized hockey growing up. However, Eric has been playing in men's rec leagues the past few years and now he actually looks like a real hockey player! He brought his friend Kenny along, and Kenny IS a real hockey player - he played in high school and still plays in men's "A" leagues (I think Eric plays in "D" leagues). Ryan, Megan, Dad and I just do our best to stay upright when chasing the puck. It didn't always work.


Getting up after taking a spill into the "boards" at the edge of the ice.

I had more than my share of tumbles. Once I fell into the snow bank, turning my black fleece jacket into a white one. Another time I was chasing the puck and looked up just in time to see Megan doing the same thing - from the opposite direction! WHAM. Somehow I landed hard on my knees so they're all bruised now. Other than that, my falls were relatively harmless.


Despite being about twice Megan's size, I was the one worse for wear after we ran into each other! My knees hurt, so I figure they must've hit her head when she jumped. ;)

After an hour of horsing around we decided to make a game of it. Eric, Ryan and I banded together as the "Three Brothers" against Kenny, Megan and Dad, who Megan dubbed "The Champions". Needless to say, she's pretty competitive for a hockey player who wears figure skates!

I don't think anyone kept score. At one point I scored three goals in a row (my only goals of the day), which really annoyed Megan because when we were practicing beforehand I was lucky to get the puck within five feet of the net whenever I took a shot. She exclaimed "Since when did you learn to shoot?" I save the good stuff for when it counts!

Eventually we decided to play "next goal wins". The mighty Three Brothers got the puck in front of the net when Megan swatted it to clear it out; however, Ryan intercepted her clearing shot and put it right into the back of the net for the winning goal! The Champions got chumped.


Notice the smile on Ryan's face as he redirects a nice pass from Eric that Megan and Kenny were unable to block. I was backing up Ryan just in case he whiffed. :)

After getting our skates off we headed over to the farm where Megan grew up, but I'll tell that story in another entry...